FORBIDDEN DOOR IV - 8/24/2025

[just drew]

i watched it, my guy. And i liked it a lot. AEW is a vibes company at the moment. I remember 18 months ago... how desperate they seemed. They were the hot but insecure girl at everyone's high school, hoping to be noticed. Now, they've rebounded nicely, to the point where they've cultivated maybe the greatest collection of in-ring talent ever assembled. Bandido. Takeshita. Kyle Fletcher. Kevin Knight. Hechicero. RUSH. The Beast Mortos. Brody King. Mox. Don't kid yourselves. He belongs on this list. FTR. Bob Lash. Shelty B. Takahashi. Okada. Ospreay. Swerve. Ricky O'Shea. And of course, the Hangman. This roster is absolutely STACKED. And that's just the dudes. They all had great matches. Forbidden Door has never felt like canon to me. More of a celebration of the things that FUCKING RULE. And this was that. TK, sign Persephone and Bozilla, if you haven't already. Women's wrestling is dope as hell, and not just because of Stephanie McMahon inventing it a few years ago. My son was excited to see 'the Harley lady' on his tv. He wasn't even at my house. His mom was PISSED. But he was insistent that Harley is his friend, so she turned the pre-show on for him to watch. I couldn't say anything, because lawyers are expensive, but I was proud of him for getting his way. 

AEW is on a hot one. They're gonna need some babyfaces. They should go ahead and proceed with the Takeshita face turn. They should move Bandido up the card. He fucking rules. They should consider signing an outsider. Also, they should consider leaning on the ladies for a while. The roster is deep enough now that it can handle it. Pull the trigger, Coach Tony K. Do it. 

[Craig H]

I’m not going to comment on everything, but I thought this was very good with some eh stuff here and there.

Thrilled Brodido won the titles, but the ending was…awkward. I feel like this is a frequent problem with FTR with missing kickouts and I wonder what the deal is with that.

Hiromu looked great and he and Kyle put on a really good match.

Really loved the men’s world championship match. Hangman still rules the world, DUMBASS.

If anything, watching Tanahashi move like an 85 year old man sucked. I have never been a Tanahashi fan, but I really wish he had retired in January of this year instead of next so his old, broken ass wouldn’t have shitted up some of it. There were some other contrivances too, like Moxley leaving the cage if for no reason than to setup the table spot. They’re also doing the ultra violent matches too frequently. After the Texas Death Match I thought they should have taken a break from these matches so it felt like too much too soon.

Ultimately I’m fine with the result and how it ended and I’m fine with them writing out Ospreay in this way. Could they have just ended it with the goodbye, yeah, but AEW so rarely does the shock moment when it looks like the show is going off the air that I was ok with them doing this. Plus, the booking leading up to Forbidden Door is almost always awkward, but the show always delivers. I think that ending, along with the ending of Swerve vs Okada, the tag titles match, Takeshita’s return, what happens with MJF’s contract, and more sets up some interesting stories and grounds AEW again going forward.

[Craig H]

BY THE WAY…If you want to see a close to all time feel good moment, just watch the post show media scrum for the Brodido segment. Bandido is gifted a signed and personalized Raul jersey and Bandido is nearly beside himself and breaks down into tears.

Brody, cool motherfucker that he is, drops a Ted Lasso quote once Bandido is done talking about what it meant to him - “Football is life?” I about died. Brody also went into what it means to him to get to wear the Abolish ICE shirts and sell them and I don’t think this guy is leaving AEW anytime soon. Brody is a real one. He just rules so much.

And Tony hints at something happening with MJF’s contract. I have a feeling we’re going to get Mark vs MJF for the contract.

[Ace]

1 hour ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

But it's still going to be one of the top ten PPV/PLEs of the year. 

It's not even the best wrestling show I saw this weekend.

[Niners Fan in CT]

I forgot to mention this but Takeshita received a hell of a pop when he came out to join "The Family" in the entrance way.  I have a couple things to say about that. First, I think the stable looks pretty fucking cool when they are all out there together so maybe we need more that.  But also, I will need Takeshita to turn face at some point during all of this.  I need Takeshita to run through this faction one by one and it ends with him.....vs. Okada.  That will not just elevate him to main event status in AEW but it could also be somewhat of a passing of the torch for him in Japan. 

[Niners Fan in CT]

2 minutes ago, Ace said:

It's not even the best wrestling show I saw this weekend.

Well considering I watched both nights of the RevPro anniversary (some good stuff on there for sure) and also NXT: Heatwave (also some good things) but none of them came close to the consistent quality of 'Forbidden Door' I guess I will ask....what?   I haven't watched the STARDOM show yet.  

Also,  I clearly said "PPV/PLE" so if it's a different independent event then I don't know why I'd be quoted about it. 

[Niners Fan in CT]

5 minutes ago, Craig H said:

And Tony hints at something happening with MJF’s contract. I have a feeling we’re going to get Mark vs MJF for the contract.

Tony Khan said he's listened to the feedback of the fans and he's decided that effective immediately,  all contracts require a week's notice to be enforced.  He said he wants these title matches to be within the realm of the spirit of competition and he also does not want people to confuse what they are doing with other promotions.  He said he doesn't like the way MJF is handling his own contract so MJF will be the first under the new stipulation who will need to give at least a week's notice and it will be better for the fans who want to see an actual title match. 

[The Natural]

6 hours ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

I didn't expect to be the only one on here who watched the show.  

I wanted to get my thoughts together first. I thought it was a good show but normally AEW shows are more than merely good. Standards are higher. I'm not sure what my MOTN was. Little stood out to me. I also think Forbidden Door is not as special as it once was and the state of NJPW in 2025.

Edited August 25 by The Natural

[The Natural]

Brody King was asked about the Abolish ICE t-shirt he released. He responded:

“I come from a very punk rock, hardcore background and that’s stuff is normal in our world. So speaking on injustices and whatever else is important to me. I appreciate that i work for a company that allows us to have our own voice, whether I ask for it or not.”

“Using your platform for good or just to help in any capacity is the right thing to do.”

Brody King is the best.

[The Natural]

20 hours ago, The Natural said:

PPV Predictions:

FOR THE MEN'S AEW CHAMPIONSHIP - Hangman Adam Page (c) vs. MJF.

FOR THE WOMEN'S AEW CHAMPIONSHIP - Timeless Toni Storm (c) vs. Athena.

FOR THE IWGP CHAMPIONSHIP - Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. Nigel McGuinness.

FOR THE UNIFIED CHAMPIONSHIP - Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Swerve Strickland.

FOUR WAY MATCH FOR THE TBS CHAMPIONSHIP - Mercedes Mone (c) vs. Alex Windsor vs. Persephone vs. Bozilla.

FOR THE TNT CHAMPIONSHIP - Kyle Fletcher (c) vs. Hiromu Takahashi.

THREE WAY ELIMINATION MATCH FOR THE AEW TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP - The Hurt Syndicate (c) vs. FTR vs. Brodido.

LIGHTS OUT STEEL CAGE MATCH - Kenny Omega/Kota Ibushi/Hiroshi Tanahashi/Darby Allin/Will Ospreay vs. Jon Moxley/Claudio Castagnoli/Matt Jackson/Nick Jackson/Gabe Kidd.

Adam Copeland/Christian Cage vs. The Matriarchy.

8-1. I never expected Brodido to win the AEW World Tag Team Championship. Did anyone? Convenient how in an elimination match, The Hurt Syndicate still avoided jobbing getting taken out. Shame about the botched finish.

[Death From Above]

Main event wasn't very good honestly but it was never going to be anything other than everyone doing their signature stuff, Moxley bleeding, and Darby doing whatever jump off the cage spot they felt like. Honestly I wish it hadn't ended the show but I get you kinda have to.  I actually think if you'd main evented with McGuinnes vs Sabre Jr (which undoubtably would have pleased New Japan) and had this open the show people would seem less blah about it.

Rest of the card seemed pretty decent actually. MJF vs Page was fine until the last couple minutes it got a bit silly, but again, this was always a bit of a lame duck title match. Ironically given that they've gone for the CMLL partnership, it felt a lot like a big AAA title match where the screwiness was predictable and didn't really add anything. But MJF really is one of the best in the world at these big stadium kind of matches.

All the other stuff delivered in its own way I think. The women's 4 way was fun and could have drawn an even bigger reaction if they'd had more time to actually build who was in it. Not knowing the STARDOM rep until nearly the 11th hour is a shame because she kinda stole the show even with most of the crowd probably having no clue who she was.

Good show, not a great one. Too many PPV matches with an obvious result, but the work was generally fine. AEW sets a really damn high bar. I think it's one of the weaker AEW PPV's but it still wasn't close to being a bomb or something.

[The Natural]

Definitely preferred Hangman Adam Page vs. MJF at AEW Revolution 2025 to the one at Forbidden Door 2025.

[SturmCRF]

Not going to go into too much depth here, as it sounds like 'who was the most over?' and 'which matches were good?' was pretty evident to people watching on TV. We left halfway through the main, as my parents were babysitting and I didn't want to subject them to staying up til 2AM if we got caught in an endless queue for the train.

Really hard to pick a favourite match, they were all good, but none of them were great. Not a star rater generally, but felt like nearly everything was a solid 3 and 3/4. Would have loved the tag match if not for the double ridiculousness of Hurt Syndicate being brawl-down-the-aisled out of what was an elimination deal until seemingly the last minute, and the botched pinfall, but very happy with the result.

Athena vs Toni was disappointing, I felt beforehand that Athena had a real chance, but they never conveyed that within the match itself, and the finish was flat. They've both had better matches with Mercedes, but I guess you could say that for a lot of people.

Fletcher vs Hiromu did a great job shrugging off foregone conclusionitis and still being a quality match.

Cope and Cage vs Matriarchy maybe exceeded my expectations the most, was really impressed how they got a compelling match out of it without pushing the bounds of credibility as far as Kip being on their level, he hung in there through cunning and retained enough of his punchable jobberliness without it seeming absurd that they didn't just blitz him.

Sorry to the several thousand people I queue jumped in front of to get in for the pre show, my girlfriend just really, really wanted to see Despy. As did I.

[ExcellenceofAirPollution]

SWERVE'S HOUSE.  IN THE MIDDLE OF OUR STREET.  SWERVE'S HOUSE.

Good show made better by the environment.  I enjoyed the main event, probably my MOTN......Toni/Athena #2.  There wasn't anything must see or blow away IMO.

Figures the one time Brodido mess up their finisher is when they win the titles.  I don't care what the deal with Hurt Syndicate is, booking around them like this sucks.  Period.  If you have to book ex-WWE guys like it's still WWE (where both these guys were jobbers on the way out btw) don't bother signing them.  And if this is Tony trying to work everyone triple meh and it's fucking stupid.  Now they work a heatless program with Ricochet and Gates of Agony?  MVP is going to wrestle?  Literally everything about this sucks.  And I actually like how Hurt Syndicate has been presented generally.......but they held the belts for like 6 months WTF.  Broken record but this was supposed to be the promotion that could main event PPVs with tag title matches.......

Then you've got the world title match......what the fuck was that false finish?  His leg is on the rope for like 2 minutes while shenanigans take place with MJF and Briscoe.......then the ref goes from dead to diving to stop MJF from moving the leg and then is immediately ready to restart the match???  This was SO FUCKING STUPID.  Just awful, awful stuff.  Who the fuck is booking this shit???  It's not that they had shenanigans and a false finish.....it's that they did it they way they did it and at no point nobody stood up and said, "Hey....ummmm THIS SUCKS"

Tony built up so much good will with me this year.  He's seemed determined to burn it all this week.  From the CC last year---->All In was a great run of booking, shows etc. for AEW.  Guess it's officially football season again

EDIT*  NIGEL V. ZSJ IS #1, slide the main and Toni/Athena down.  There was so much on the show that I plum forgot about that match

Edited August 25 by ExcellenceofAirPollution

[JLSigman]

Watched most of this on the Discord with no sound, so I had no idea who these folks were and no commentary. I liked most of it, but ye gods whoever was directing the camera cuts in the booths needs to be fired (out of a cannon), there were some egregiously awful wide shots, missed spots, and they managed to catch every single time a wrestler slapped their thigh for a kick. 

[Niners Fan in CT]

I think there's a difference between Tony Khan wanting to protect The Hurt Business and Tony Khan being talked into protecting The Hurt Business.  

To me... Tony Khan absolutely SHOULD be protecting The Hurt Business.  They were the most over team in that match by far and like it or not,  they are indeed monsters on a roster that is thin on monsters.  I have no problem with it. 

What I would have a problem with is if someone (possibly MVP) is in Tony's ear and he's listening to it and cowering from it.  Which do I think is accurate? I don't know. But obviously the internet will run with "worst case scenario" 

[Death From Above]

1 hour ago, JLSigman said:

Watched most of this on the Discord with no sound, so I had no idea who these folks were and no commentary. I liked most of it, but ye gods whoever was directing the camera cuts in the booths needs to be fired (out of a cannon), there were some egregiously awful wide shots, missed spots, and they managed to catch every single time a wrestler slapped their thigh for a kick. 

I like AEW a lot but man they LOVE getting business exposing camera angles, it's wild. Been a constant feature since day 1.

[Go2Sleep]

Show was solid. It was very predictable start to finish, but there were no obvious booking mis-steps and the matches were mostly good. Danielson on commentary was a nice change of pace too.

Felt like Swerve/Okada was really underrated and only dragged down by the black cloud of Swerve missing time afterwards which nobody wants. You wouldn't have known Swerve was hurt by watching, he was hitting everything explosively and clean except when he was selling on purpose. Okada stepped up in a big match again. I don't know if I like Wardlow in the Callis Family, but I do like having Wardlow back, and there's a tease of a Takeshita face turn.

Hangman/MJF could and probably should have been the main. The overbooked sports entertainment stuff works in small doses and contrasted the rest of the card nicely. It's not my favorite personally, but I can admit it was working here and creating credible nearfalls without finisher overkill, which everyone should be happy with. Also, at the end of it all, Hangman came out looking smarter in addition to looking tougher so it all formed a coherent story, not just a lazy copout to drag out the program.

The lights out cage was nowhere near as good as AITA and far less deserving of closing out the show. It was definitely hindered by the babyface team being 80% injured/old. Bucks and Darby felt like they were doing 70% of the work as 30% of the participants. The Gummy Bear spot was good though, I'll give them that. Post-match seemed like the same old tired DR trope that was dragging shows down early in the year. 

 

[Craig H]

9 hours ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

Tony Khan said he's listened to the feedback of the fans and he's decided that effective immediately,  all contracts require a week's notice to be enforced.  He said he wants these title matches to be within the realm of the spirit of competition and he also does not want people to confuse what they are doing with other promotions.  He said he doesn't like the way MJF is handling his own contract so MJF will be the first under the new stipulation who will need to give at least a week's notice and it will be better for the fans who want to see an actual title match. 

Ah ok. I was dozing in and out at that point so I missed that about the week thing. That's a great change.

 

[The Natural]

Chuckled when Hiroshi Tanahashi was climbing up the ladder and his fellow teammates said no and he obliged. Sucks seeing Tana so broken down.

[NoFistsJustFlips]

This one didnt land for me. Solid enough but the expectations are just so high and there was no blow away match.

So how is AEW's tag division any different than the worst WWE tropes? Instead of investing in acts that are an actual team with matching gear / team name / dedicated to the craft of tag team wrestling, we'll just mash two singles dudes together and let them beat actual cohesive teams. Oh hey we'll just mash their two names together and their musics together too. This is just a work rate friendly version of Jeri-Show and its lazy.

Wardlow returns to immediately get thrown in a big group of utility players. They already have Archer & the injured Brian Cage, why is Wardlow with them and not off on his own wrecking people building up to a Hurt Syndicate invite?

The Osprea angle. Dude. You literally did the chair deal at the last ppv and had him no sell it so he can work this show... just to do the same chair neck deal again??? Lazy. Super lazy. The Deathriders didnt need the heat either.

The quality of matches was pretty good. But mostly forgone conclussion matches. I thought for sure MJF was gonna snap, get DQ'd then try and immediately cash in only to fail. Don't see the sense of keeping the deal on him, and especially taking away the heel ambush aspect of it. Match was great tho. My favorite of the night.

[Craig H]

I'm shocked Tanahashi could even climb a ladder.

[Craig H]

6 minutes ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:

This one didnt land for me. Solid enough but the expectations are just so high and there was no blow away match.

So how is AEW's tag division any different than the worst WWE tropes? Instead of investing in acts that are an actual team with matching gear / team name / dedicated to the craft of tag team wrestling, we'll just mash two singles dudes together and let them beat actual cohesive teams. Oh hey we'll just mash their two names together and their musics together too. This is just a work rate friendly version of Jeri-Show and its lazy.

Wardlow returns to immediately get thrown in a big group of utility players. They already have Archer & the injured Brian Cage, why is Wardlow with them and not off on his own wrecking people building up to a Hurt Syndicate invite?

The Osprea angle. Dude. You literally did the chair deal at the last ppv and had him no sell it so he can work this show... just to do the same chair neck deal again??? Lazy. Super lazy. The Deathriders didnt need the heat either.

The quality of matches was pretty good. But mostly forgone conclussion matches. I thought for sure MJF was gonna snap, get DQ'd then try and immediately cash in only to fail. Don't see the sense of keeping the deal on him, and especially taking away the heel ambush aspect of it. Match was great tho. My favorite of the night.

Brodido have been teaming for at least a couple months now, have known each other well before then, and even before teaming with Bandido he was teaming with other luchas since Buddy went down with an injury. It's not lazy. They're not an unknown quantity.

So instead of Wardlow being another guy in the DCF have him be another guy in the Hurt Syndicate? Ok...

Chair put Ospreay to the breaking point previously. Now he has the excuse to be on the shelf for months. This isn't hard to understand. Again, not lazy.

So bitch in one sentence about WWE tropes, then bitch later that you can no longer use the contract to cash in which is a WWE trope, and just bitching about not being able to cash in period which no one has liked in either company for about forever now. You're not making sense.

 

[Niners Fan in CT]

I was listening to Dave earlier and he's right that casual WWE fans (and maybe others) love the cash ins but that it's also a very WWE thing and it's good that Tony wants to differentiate the companies.  

Also, for as cool as a cash-in like Naomi was for her, have we forgotten that most MITB briefcase runs take forever and are very lazy?   The absolute worst trope in wrestling is the fake cash in. It's so fucking dumb.  The ref takes forever. The ref asks a million times. The wrestler is screaming at the ref.  Then after they waste about 2-3 minutes on that the person wakes up or someone else runs down to interrupt and then the cash in doesn't take place. 

If people like that type of shit,  good for you but to me it's the fucking worst. 

[NoFistsJustFlips]

36 minutes ago, Craig H said:

Brodido have been teaming for at least a couple months now, have known each other well before then, and even before teaming with Bandido he was teaming with other luchas since Buddy went down with an injury. It's not lazy. They're not an unknown quantity.

So instead of Wardlow being another guy in the DCF have him be another guy in the Hurt Syndicate? Ok...

Chair put Ospreay to the breaking point previously. Now he has the excuse to be on the shelf for months. This isn't hard to understand. Again, not lazy.

So bitch in one sentence about WWE tropes, then bitch later that you can no longer use the contract to cash in which is a WWE trope, and just bitching about not being able to cash in period which no one has liked in either company for about forever now. You're not making sense.

There's no reason to jump to talking down to someone because they disagree with your views on wrestling. I've noticed you do that to a few people here and its not nesicary.

-Teaming together for a month doesnt make you a team. They have so many legitimate teams, why are they forcing the top singles wrestler of ROH (usually what being the world champion means) into a team? Its legitimately no different then Jeri-show or Show-miz. Its two singles guys they want to feature being shoved in the tag division because there's no other spot for them to be featured right now.

-Being one of 3 monster tropes in a group of 8 is much different than being one of 3 in Tge Hurt Syndicate. My point being you stuff him in an already iver stuffed group he's instantly gonna be lost in the shuffle. Maybe in 12 months we'll get Wardlow vs Takeshita which would be dope, but there's an equal chance we dont. They tease a lot of shit they dont deliver.

-What in saying about the cash in is, you could have used an obvious bullshit cash in attempt as your catalyst for changing the rule. Doing it in the middle of someone's reign seems like an unfair thing to do (in kayfabe). There was a better way.

-The Ospreay shit is lame. You *break* his neck at All In but then retcon it so you can get one more match. Im fine with that. What Im saying is lame is just repeating the same exact attack and going no but this time its for realsies.

Im making total sense. You have your blinders on because youre vibing with the product right now. I am too, but that doesnt prevent me from being allowed to voice opinions on where I think they're fucking up.

Edited August 25 by NoFistsJustFlips