AEW x NJPW - FORBIDDEN DOOR - 6/26/2022

[Jiji]

8 minutes ago, Octopus said:

Holy smokes, THEY GOT ROADDOG?!?!?!

Been watching TNA weekly PPVs while working out again the past week. Good Lord, Road Dogg looked dreadful in 2002. Truth was great, as was Jarrett. Lawler, despite being super fucked up, was so solid too. 

[Octopus]

3 minutes ago, Jiji said:

Been watching TNA weekly PPVs while working out again the past week. Good Lord, Road Dogg looked dreadful in 2002. Truth was great, as was Jarrett. Lawler, despite being super fucked up, was so solid too. 

He’s due for an upswing. 

Bring in ROADDOG to lead a Rock faction and Sean Waltman to lead a Paper Stable and you’ll have all the tools for the greatest feud of all time going against Billy Gunn’s Scissors Group.

[Casey]

There is a banner for All Out 2022 hanging in the United Center, so I guess they're going to keep Chicago as the host of All Out. Heads up, @Craig H for the future.

I was kind of hoping for their Canadian debut to be All Out, but whatever I guess.

[Coletti]

In case anybody's on the fence about getting this, and at the risk of commenting on a live event, this crowd seems fuckin STOKED and are marking out for Yoshi Hashi... So methinks this is gonna be a memorable night!

[John E. Dynamite]

4 minutes ago, christopher.annino said:

In case anybody's on the fence about getting this, and at the risk of commenting on a live event, this crowd seems fuckin STOKED and are marking out for Yoshi Hashi... So methinks this is gonna be a memorable night!

Yeah I don't wanna contibute to discussing an active show but the crowd is here for this + theories about the talent being extra motivated may prove true.

[Krone]

1 hour ago, Gordlow said:

I would have given you a 'thanks' trophy if you had also covered the pre-show.

Pretty much agree with all of your predictions, but I am holding on to my longshot call that Substitute Dragon will be someone lesser known but awesome enough to win the crowd over by the end of the ZSJ match. Or Sibata. It won't be Shibata. But imagine Shibata in Blackpool Combat Club.

Next time, I got you.

[hammerva]

Wait I saw that this PPV is on New Japan World.   Is this like the other US shows where it is only live for Japanese viewers and then available for members days later?

By the way if you are calling your team like Jordan and Pippen, isn't that insulting to half of your team 

Edited June 26, 2022 by hammerva

[DEAN]

Allright!  Hirooki Goto on my TV set!  Aaron Solo is in over his head!   QT Marshall is a HEAT MACHINE!  CLUBBERING!  MORE CLUBBERING!  Aaron Solo gets in some offense!  The Factory is so awesome.  Goto hits a SWEET lariat!  Solo with a great Tope Con Hilo!  This match is fun!  Yoshi-Hashi makes the hot tag!  Goto gets the pin!  Chicago seems ready for some wrestling.  And there will be LOT more.   Nick Comoroto vs Lance Archer!  This is the best episode if Elevation EVER!  HOSS BATTLE!  Lance crushes his skull getting in the ring.  Nick on offense!  The Factory are so over as heels.  This is GREAT hoss battle!  Lance Archer with a DIE HARD KANSAI!  Almost.  Chicago is molten for wrestling.  Awesome!  El Desperado!  Shane Strickland!  Keith Lee!  KANEMARU!  Has he ever wrestled in America?  Strickland and Despy are a match up I'm looking forward to.  And they are fucking GREAT together.  Keith Lee is fucking awesome being a total HOSS while also selling the knee.  GREAT fucking BRAINBUSTER by Strickland.  NICE SPINEBUSTER by Despy!  Yeah, Strickland and Desperado need to have a best of 7.  Oh man, this match is fucking great. So FUCKING GREAT. What a fucking match!  Desperado is a MAN. ASS BOYS!  TOKYO DOME! GREEN BAY!  THE ASS BOYS THEME!  Alex Coughlin is a beast.  The Ass Boys disappear and don't return?  That was an odd match to follow the fucking AWESOME Kanemaru/El Desperado vs Lee/Strickland.  The best episode of Elevation EVER!

 

[JLowe]

9 hours ago, Matt D said:

What is your profession? 

I am an archaeologist (official title is Lead Archaeologist/Principal Investigator) for a national Enviromental Consulting firm. We do pre-construction assessment and clearance work for projects that have regulatory compliance requirements with local, state, and federal laws. Things like roads, utility infrastructure, most large energy projects (solar and wind farms, for example) because they are either funded by state and federal money, occur on public lands, or require permits for impacts to things like Waters of the United States, protected wetlands, or endangered species habitat. I’ve been at this for over 18 years, split between private sector and public sector (state of Texas agency).

[S.K.o.S.]

Watched the first half of the show, and I'm gonna practice what I've preached on here before and watch the second half of it tomorrow on my own schedule, so that I won't be a zombie at work.

So if we're allowed to talk about the Buy-In, I loved Despy & Kanemaru breaking down Keith Lee and trying to keep him out of the match. Like it was more than just the typical  formula of "isolate Swerve and don't let him make a tag", they wrecked Lee's knee and cut him off whenever he tried to get in the ring for any reason. And then eventually it all fell apart for them in spectacular fashion.

Goto really overdelivered in some of his earlier US appearances on ROH shows. I'm thinking of these strangely great matches he had with Beer City Bruiser and with Punishment Martinez. His match tonight wasn't quite up to the standards of those ones, but still pretty decent.

[twiztor]

4 hours ago, Octopus said:

He’s due for an upswing. 

Bring in ROADDOG to lead a Rock faction and Sean Waltman to lead a Paper Stable and you’ll have all the tools for the greatest feud of all time going against Billy Gunn’s Scissors Group.

i was sure this was headed for a SID reference.

[(BP)]

What a go home show for Blood and Guts.

What I love about Mox is that he’ll grapple with his opponent, he’ll brawl with them of course, but when it’s gut check time he’s going to turn it into the fight on the lawn from Lethal Weapon. Go Ace. 

[eikerir]

Some takeaways from the night:

Acclaimed/Ass Boys getting some of the biggest entrance pops around, you love to see it.

 

JAS/Suzuki vs Eddie/Shooter/Yuta

Speaking of being over,  Everyone is this match is crazy over in different ways, it’s so great seeing the crowd react to everyone. 

Wild match all around and and extremely hot opener, can’t ask for anything more. This might have been the match of the night just from the sheer energy all around.

 

All Atlantic Title Match

Lmao at Black setting that table on top of some kid. Connors was getting his ass kicked but getting bigger and bigger reactions as the match went on which must have felt awesome.

Holy shit I marked out at that ending, PAC WINS! Fuck yeah, talk about a guy that has deserved something for ages.

 

IWGP Title Match

Great match but what the hell was up with that finish? Seems like at least one move was missed in that sequence.  Looked like Okada was knocked loopy but then suddenly Cole got really fucked up right before the ending. Bad note to end an otherwise good match. Hangman looked pretty awesome tonight.

 

Main Event

This wasn’t doing much for me until Mox started bleeding and then it became pretty brutal for he last few minutes.

Love that Kingston and Claudio are already spitting at each other’s faces.
 

[The Natural]

Welcome to AEW, Claudio Castagnoli.

[The Natural]

[SirFozzie]

Now we know why the door was forbidden. Sucks that the semi-main had to go home early due to Cole being knocked loopy.

 

You know what? Three riots in a week (plus a fourth on Wednesday in Blood and Guts), is a bit much, but, as long as they let it rest for a while afterwards...

 

You know what? Never mind. Just have Justin Roberts say something like "This is Blood and..." and Kingston and Jericho burst through the tunnels and start fighting which brings all of the other members of the teams down to ring, and have security herd them into the caged area just so they don't go fighting into the crowd. Never mind the traditional rules of war games-style matches.

 

AEW's Slogan:

Fight Then.

Fight Now.

Fight Forever.

 

[The Natural]

Big Time Becky Lynch is the best.

[Raziel]

BCC bringing in Claudio to sub for Bryan is the perfect "Fuck you" to Kingston for not caring about lighting Danielson on fire as collateral is good storytelling.

 

The end to the IWGP match has to be an audible, Cole looked fucked up big time.

[Kang]

The final 4 matches were good.

[The Natural]

So strong.

[Niners Fan in CT]

Went into the PPV with lower expectations given all the injuries but it ended up being well worth the money! Really great show. 

Even the Buy In was great stuff. Crowd was hyped all night.. 

Could have done without the Dynamite ending with all the run ins I get they are trying to sell Blood and Guts but let's let some shit breathe Tony lol. 

Loved the pacing of the show. Loved Claudio vs. ZSJ as that as the technical mat based match really broke up all the action nicely. 

The nearly 4 hours did not drag at all. AEW x NJPW found a sweet spot where everything got enough time but nothing really overstayed its welcome. 

SHIBATA!!!

[The Natural]

What a run Sting's on in AEW.

[Craig H]

Aside from the 4 way for the IWGP title, this was my PPV of the year. Holy shit I had a blast watching it.

[DEAN]

SHOTA the SHOOTER!  WHEELER YUTA!  EDDIE KINGSTON!  Against CHRIS JERICHO!  SAMMY GUEVARA! and fucking MINORU SUZUKI!  Man, Chicago is MOLTEN.  Oh no!  They Blood and Guts stipulation gives away the finish.  Unless AEW is COMPLETELY insane and the faces are having the man advantage.  JESUS CHRIST!  WHEELER YUTA IS OVER AS FUCK IN CHICAGO!  Guevara is so awesome as a heel. KINGSTON VERSUS SUZUKI!  My wife notes that Suzuki looks crazy,  KINGSTON VERSUS JERICHO!  Suzuki saves Jericho's bacon!  And then tags in to extend Eddie as the face in peril.  Eddie hits an EXPLOIDER and Reverse STO!  Hot tag to Shota!  Shota with  Fisherman Buster for two!  Guevara hits a fucking PSYCHOTIC Shooting Star Press from the Top to the floor!  Then all kinds of shit happens!  What a great fucking match!  Shota was fucking awesome.  Minoru Suzuki is the glue kept it together.  Sammy Guevara is your superstar of the match.  There is no way this crowd can last!  JEFF COBB!  He IS Vader! Mother fucking FTR!  I assume that Trent Barretta will be the secret all star.  O'Khan uses his butt in an alluring way.  Man, United Empire is like the Miracle Violence Connection.  FTR actually makes the psychology of the match make sense as Dax is escorted to the back - as it appears that Roppongi Vice versus United Empire. I love that they are doing the Four Horsemen vs the Rock n Roll Express when Ricky Morton had a dislocated shoulder.  DAX IS BACK!  Then a lot of stuff happens.  Ropponggi Vice gets the nearfall!  And Rocky Romero eats the pin and FTR ARE YOUR IWGP TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS!  Kind of a crappy clusterfucky way to win it but FTR ARE YOUR CHAMPIONS!   I assume United Empire get the rematch at the ROH PPV.  OR they have Aussie Open at the PPV and I'll have to order it.  Miro beats the hell out of Clark Conners.  MALAKAI BLACK versus MIRO!  Miro is a beast in this clusterfuck of a match.  PAC hits many high spots.  Clark Conners gets in a modicum of offense!  Clark Conners GETS OVER BY PUTTING MIRO THROUGH A TABLE and hitting a batch of offense!  I don't think I've ever seen somebody get over that quickly.  Great fucking finish!  PAC IS YOUR ALL ATLANTIC CHAMPION!  Clark Conner was your secret superstar!  It's SHINGO TAKAGI!  AWESOME!  STING DIVES ON THE BULLET CLUB FROM THE BALCONY AREA!  DUDES WITH ATTITUDES!  I can't imagine what Darby Allin and the Young Bucks are going to get up to.  I LOVE that the all channel Ivan Koloff and do elaborate back rakes!  Allin is a GREAT Ricky Morton.  GREAT FUCKING LARIAT BY SHINGO!  Sting is so fucking awesome.  Oh man, this match is fun.  ELP is working really well with the Young Bucks.  Shingo's finisher is really fucking beautiful!  I love that Shingo is a dude with attitude!  That match was fucking great and got everything grounded again after two consecutive clusterfucks.  THE WIZARD THROWS FIRE AT SHOTA UMENO!  He's a WIZARD!  Toni Storm and Thunder Rosa!  I fear for TR headdress near the pyro!  So Chicago is the greatest crowd in wrestling?  GREAT STRIKING SECTION as Storm fucking lays it in and TR matches her stiffness level.  TR is getting in a lot of offense early.  I love her counter to her DDT to the floor and then going back and hitting it.  Fucking GNARLEY Flying hip attack by Storm!  WHOA! STORM KICKS OUT OF A NASTY K-DRILLER!  Storm can't hit the Storm Zero!  TR hits a finisher I've never seen her hit and THUNDER ROSA RETAINS!  That was good.  NO JANE!  What the FUCK!?!  Awesome!  A child throwing up the Unites Empire sign!  Orange Cassidy taunts Ospreay a lot!  I think they are going for FUN over Five Stars and Gordlow will be SATISFIED!  Ospreay heeling it up is fun.  Ospreay taunts OC and also taunts the crowd by PULLING A BIRD OUT OF CASSIDY'S POCKET! Ospreay is beating a mountain of heat on OC and the crowd gets behind his comeback.  OC's Kawada Kicks are fucking great. THEN REAL KAWADA KICKS! This match is fucking great-  the oldest school match of the card.  Oh man, this match is fun.  So this and the STING match are battling it out for the most fun match of the night.   Okay, THIS match is the most fun match of the night.  THAT MATCH WAS MOTHERFUCKING GREAT!  Fun AND Five Star!  WHAT THE HOLY FUCK! SHIBATA!!!  AWWWWESOME!   And it's.... CLAUDIO! Okay, Zack Sabre Jr is selling an assbeating early.  Then he starts doing Sabre-like things. Man, Zack Sabre Jr is so fucking awesome.  I love that the story is Zack Sabre Jr uses his technical prowess while Claudio uses his lesser prowess but also uses his COMPLETLEY FREAKISH STRENGTH!  Chicago has the smartest fans on earth as pop like FREAKS for Giant Swing.  Taz marking out for ZSJ is the best part of this match.  CLAUDIO WINS!  I guess we aren't ever getting ZSJ vs Bryan Danielson.  That was good!  The crowd completely LOSES IT'S SHIT when Okada appears!  And it's JAY WHITE!  And (your future IWGP CHAMPION!) ADAM COLE! And HANGMAN ADAM PAGE!  ADAM COLE! ADAM COLE!  MAaaan, the cROWD IS MOLTEN!  I await Adam Cole and Okada.  And we get it!  They are working this like a tag match.  Y'see, the only multiman match that actually works was the All Atlantic match since it was for a vacant title.This and the tag title match are just shitty ways to switch the belts.  Anyway, OKADA IS AS OVER AS MICHAEL JORDAN IN CHICAGO!  Maaan, I wanna see Hangman vs Jay White in a singles match.  I also want to see Adam Cole versus Jay White and Adam Cole versus Okada.  I saw Jay White vs Okada last Thursday.  Oh yeah,  Hangman Page versus Okada would be cool too.  For a total clusterfuck, this match is pretty great.  Hangman vs Okada is fucking awesome.  Finish was strange.   JAY WHITE RETAINS!  The crowd REALLY wanted OKADA to win.  What a great fucking Pay Per View.  OH WAIT!  I totally forgot about the MAIN EVENT!  Hiroshi Tanahashi! Jon Moxley!  HOW HAS THIS CROWD BEEN THIS HOT FOR THIS LONG!?!  This is the greatest wrestling crowd in the history of wrestling.  Mox is BLEEDING!  Tanahashi with a GIANT CROSS BODY off the tope!  Mox is so fucking great!  This is the best Tanahashi has looked in a long time.  Mox is so fucking great at making Tanahashi look like a million bucks.  THAT WAS A FUCKING GREAT PAY PER VIEW!  

[Niners Fan in CT]

The injuries and what not could be a blessing because think now of what Forbidden Door II could be? 

We didn't see: Bryan, Omega, Punk, Naito, Takahashi, Ibushi, etc..