AEW Forbidden Door 2022

AEW Forbidden Door 2022

Chicago, IL - June 2002

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: The reigning AEW World Champion was technically CM Punk, but an interim AEW World Champion would be crowned on this show due to injury. The TNT Champion was Scorpio Sky (though he does not appear on the show), the Young Bucks were the AEW World Tag Team Champions, Jade Cargill was the TBS Champion, and Thunder Rosa was the AEW Women's World Champion.

The major storyline coming into this show, aside from this whole event being a bit unique with wrestlers from NJPW competing against AEW stars, was that CM Punk had suffered an injury and that Tony Khan decided to crown an AEW Interim Champion in the main event.

The show opened with Chris Jericho, Minoru Suzuki, and Sammy Guevara (with Tay Conti) taking on Eddie Kingston, Wheeler Yuta, and Shota Umino. This went a touch too long for me, but there were some cool moments and I liked the fact that they built the match around Suzuki being a total badass and Jericho being the cowardly, crafty veteran. Guevara got some times to shine with his high-flying and Kingston was the most over guy on his side. As I noted earlier, I'm not sure this match needed a full 20 minutes, but AEW rarely has matches go under 10 on PPV and this was "star-studded" in a way that other matches on the card were not. (3/5)

FTR vs. Great O-Khan and Jeff Cobb vs. Rocky Romero and Trent Baretta for both FTR's Ring of Honor Tag Team Championships and O-Khan and Cobb's IWGP World Tag Team Championships was next. Dax got taken out early with a shoulder injury, which led to a lengthy face-in-peril stretch from Wheeler. This was okay for what it was, but felt heatless at times becomes I don't think the audience was super familiar with anyone but FTR. The match picked up and improved considerably once Dax came back into it, waking the crowd up. I'm not usually a fan of phony mid-match injury angles, but I can understand why they went with it to try to tell a story that stood out from the other matches on the card, especially the multi-mans. Not bad, but nothing I'd necessarily seek out. (2.5/5)

The match to decide who would be the first AEW All-Atlantic Champion was next as PAC took on Malakai Black, Miro (Rusev), and Clark Connors (replacing an injured Tomohiro Ishii). A fun match because, at their best, PAC, Black, and Miro are all incredible workers. Connors won over a large segment of the audience by the end. Watching the match, it did make me curious what the layout would've been had Ishii been available as Connors is such a different type of wrestler (way more agile, quick, and explosive). The exchanges involving Black and Miro were great and both guys were well-protected, but one has to wonder if maybe both or either man was a touch disappointed in not getting to walk out with the belt considering both were much bigger stars in WWE than PAC. (3/5)

Fun wrestling is good wrestling and the next match was the funnest of the night up till this point - Sting, Darby Allin, and Shingo Takagi taking on The Young Bucks and El Phantasmo. From beginning to end, this match felt like it was all about making Sting look awesome while still allowing the other 5 men to "get their shit in." As someone unfamiliar with Takagi, I wasn't blown away by his performance or charisma - at least not compared to El Phantasmo, whose act was really attention-grabbing - but I can fully understand why he is beloved just based on his facial expressions, timing, and execution. The highlights of this match were Sting's, though, from the dive to start things to no-selling a double superkick by the Bucks to the Stinger Splashes on all three opponents, it all got huge reactions even if some of it was arguably too silly. Purists will hate matches like this and I would've loved to seen what CM Punk might've thought of this, but this was great for what it was. (3.5/5)

Thunder Rosa challenged Toni Storm for the AEW Women's World Championship in the next match. It is interesting to watch Toni pre-Timeless as she has become such a more complete Superstar over the past few years. Her in-ring work was always good and, even just in this match, its clear that she was way more polished and capable that anyone else AEW had on their women's roster at the time...but the crowd isn't in love with her the way they are now. There are good moments in this match, but the ending falls a bit flat as it comes a bit out of nowhere after a "you're turn/my turn" stretch and is based on a Thunder Rosa/Dustin Rhodes mentoring storyline that I barely remember them even exploring much further. (2/5)

Will Ospreay vs. Orange Cassidy followed. Ospreay was a heel at the time and was the reigning IWGP United States Champion (though the Bullet Club's Juice Robinson was holding the belt hostage). Ospreay was already a very good-to-great performer at this stage in his career, but its remarkable how much better he's gotten over the past few years and how much more the live crowds react to him. Here is where his AEW "legend" begins though and Orange Cassidy was the perfect opponent for him, more than capable of matching his speed (if not his superhuman agility) and enough of a beloved figure to the AEW audience that the crowd was much more alive for this match than they were the bout that came before it or the tag team triple threat. As one would expect, there were some dazzling sequences, Cassidy's shtick got great responses, Ospreay was very good as a jerk, and there are some nearfalls towards the end that blew me away. The post-match segment, with Katsuyori Shibata arriving in AEW for the first time, is an extra treat. There are places like Cagematch where this match is praised as one of the best in AEW history, which seems a little too strong to me, but this was very close to "must see." (3.5/5)

Bryan Danielson was unable to compete in the next match so he had to find a replacement to take on Zach Sabre Jr....and that replacement was noneother than Claudio Castignoli! The former Cesaro came out to a massive reaction from the Chicago crowd and proceeded to have an excellent bout against Sabre. Like the previous match, this one went over 15 minutes, but had the crowd's full attention for its entirety. Like the previous match, the finish was not really in question as it would've been very poor booking to bring Claudio in and have him lose his debut match. Then again, Sabre Jr. was promoted as the best technical wrestler on the planet going into this so I dig figure, especially as this entered its final stages, that it was possible we would see a time limit draw. Booking decisions aside, I loved Claudio's urgency and control early and his multiple feats of strength. Sabre was less impressive here than in some of the other matches I've seen him in, but only because it seemed like he was overshadowed by Claudio's energy and the fans' reaction to him. In most matches I've seen him in, Sabre is the "star attraction" because of his unique moveset and great character work, but here it almost seemed like he was just trying to survive. I wouldn't call this "must see," but its not that far from it and the atmosphere and the commentators' excitement for the action added to it as well. (3.5/5)

"Switchblade" Jay White defended his IWGP World Championship against Kazuchika Okada, Adam Cole, and "Hangman" Adam Page in the next match. Lots to love here, but nothing necessarily shocking or entirely new. White is a master of the 2.999 count. Okada's dropkicks are things of beauty. Page brought the intensity. Cole hit a nasty superkick on Page as he attempted a moonsault at one point. I can see why Meltzer would give this 4-and-a-half-stars in The Observer as it is absolutely the type of match one could love for its sequences and spots and, if you're familiar with the history between the four men, the fun nods to matches and stories from the past. It was smartly worked too, starting off a bit like a tag match with the heels - and tangentially Bullet Club-related stablemates - Cole and White forming an alliance against the babyfaces. Of course, things devolved and, pretty soon, every man was out for themselves and delivering signature moves left-and-right. I blinked and missed the spot where Cole suffered a concussion, but honestly, a dropkick from Okada would be enough to get a victory in any match that lasts 20+. A very good match, but another that I found fell a hair short of "must see" or Match of the Year level. (3.5/5)

Main event time - Jon Moxley vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the Interim AEW World Championship. After winning the AEW World Championship at the previous PPV, CM Punk got injured doing a crowd-dive of all things and the rumored match against Tanahashi was changed to a match to crown an interim champion. Going in, most assumed Moxley would be leaving with the title (which took away a good bit of the suspense of the match). I'm not knowledgeable enough about Tanahashi to know when he was at his peak, lost a step, or what, but he looked pretty spent during the Lights Out Cage Match at Forbidden Door 2025. There was no hiding here and no reason Tanahashi really needed to as he was more than serviceable, especially as the match moved on. It was not a "fireworks show" like some of the matches earlier on the show, more deliberately paced so that when things picked up by the end, it felt more frantic and action-packed despite them probably working at a third of the speed that Ospreay and Orange did. People have criticized Moxley getting blood off what is essentially a clothesline (Tana's Slingblade), but I didn't find it too gratuitous or unnecessary (it was clear that the two wanted to throw everything they could into this match to make it feel like a true title fight despite the actual Champion not being in the match). Not must-see, but . (3/5)

The first Forbidden Door pay-per-view was an overall strong show with most of the matches being good-to-great (even if I wouldn't necessarily consider any "must see"). The Women's Championship match was a disappointment, but is an interesting watch if only to see pre-Timeless Toni Storm and how, as smooth she was as a worker and how good her offense already looked, the missing piece that connected with the audience and made her standout as something different than countless other women who came out in similar fashion with similar attitude was the Timeless gimmick. The Fourway Tag Match isn't bad and, to their credit, FTR tried to give it an interesting story, but I'm not sure the show needed it. The Orange Cassidy/Will Ospreay, six-man with Sting, and Castignoli/Sabre matches were my favorites, but the opener and the IWGP World Championship fourway were both action-packed and engaging from beginning to end. With a Kwang Score of 3.06-out-of-5, this was a solid show, especially considering it was a bit of an "experimental" one with so much of the talent not being super well-known in the US.

FINAL RATING - Watch It With Remote in Hand