wrestling / TV Reports
Pantoja’s AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door Review
Image Credit: AEW
Loading...AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door
June 26th, 2022 | United Center in Chicago, Illinois
I’m going to attempt to review this show but I need to preface it with something. I watched this last night with a friend over as we ate nachos and had some drinks so this won’t be in-depth and is more just a series of ramblings by someone who checked out the show and is trying to remember it all. Also, just a reminder that you can check out more of my reviews (covering older shows especially) at my Patreon!
Buy-In
Aaron Solo and QT Marshall vs. Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI – ** (Inoffensive match from four of the most uninteresting wrestlers on the planet)
Lance Archer vs. Nick Comoroto – *½ (Archer’s opening botch was the high point)
El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Swerve In Our Glory – ***¼ (Really smart way to make Lee part of this. Give me Swerve vs. Desperado at some point)
Alex Coughlin, The DKC, Kevin Knight and Yuya Uemura vs. The Gunn Club and Max Caster – ** (the Ass Boys leaving was a strange call)
Chris Jericho, Minoru Suzuki and Sammy Guevara vs. Eddie Kingston, Shota Umino and Wheeler Yuta
Shota Umino is a beefy boy now. I also chuckled at the heels having the sing-a-long themes. This was a case where we had a weird clash of styles, yet it all came together beautifully. The match moved at a great pace and kept things interesting throughout. I could watch Suzuki and Kingston beat the shit out of each other for hours. I loved Suzuki no-selling the machine gun chops because he’s such a badass. Yuta taking it right to Jericho was great given how he called him out after the BOSJ. I can’t believe anyone EVER booked Sammy as a face. He’s got such a natural heel feel to him. You just want to dislike him. The closing stretch was strong but did the usual AEW PPV thing of peaking a couple of minutes before the actual finish. Kingston and Yuta got taken out, leaving Umino to get beaten with the Judas Effect after 18:45. The Judas Effect is a shit finisher but that was a blast of an opener. [****]
ROH & IWGP Tag Team Championships: FTR [c] vs. The Great-O-Khan and Jeff Cobb [c] vs. Roppongi Vice
FTR the best tag team in the world, Cobb rules, O-Khan loves ass as much as I do, and Roppongi Vice are fun. I don’t think this quite needed to be a triple threat but this whole card has more people than it needs. The main story here was that Cash Wheeler, who was damaged from Rampage, had to mostly go it alone as Dax Harwood was taken to the back for an injury. I liked that he played the face in peril and was forced to tag in an opponent because he had no other way to get rest. Roppongi Vice came way closer to winning than I ever expected. I wish Cobb and O-Khan got more shine though. They didn’t do all that much to stand out. Harwood returned and had the great hot tag run. The crowd shit on a near fall because they didn’t understand that Paul Turner didn’t actually start counting as soon as he hit the mat because shoulders weren’t down. Fans can be dumb. FTR won with the Big Rig in a very good 16:16. [***½]
AEW All Atlantic Championship: Clark Connors vs. Malakai Black vs. Miro vs. PAC
Tomohiro Ishii had to miss this cursed show due to injury and Clark Connors had little to no reaction. He also didn’t do much to start but managed to win over the fans over time. He got to hit bigger offense as things went on, including a sweet series of suplexes. He has continued to impress me. This took a bit to get going but once it did, the action was non-stop. That made for a wild back half. Connors ran wild, PAC did his thing, Black was throwing kicks, and Miro looked like a beast. One advantage this match had over most others on the card was that the outcome wasn’t obvious. I felt like Black and PAC had equal shot to win. So, when Black slapped on an armbar, I thought he had it. PAC hit him and Connors with a 450 splash before beat Connors with the Rings of Saturn in 15:04. I really dug that and am so happy that PAC has FINALLY won something in this company. [***¾]
Darby Allin, Shingo Takagi and Sting vs. El Phantasmo and The Young Bucks
Speaking of this show being cursed, a fever robbed us of seeing Sting and Hiromu on the same team. Sting didn’t show up for his entrance either but then he showed up with a dive off the entrance onto the heels. New Jack Sting is legitimately the best thing ever. Forget Crow, Joker, and Surfer Sting. By the way, calling the team “Dudes with Attitude” was so dumb. This isn’t Diesel and Shawn Michaels. “Los Stingobernables” is much better. Anyway, this was your wild party match of the evening. The guys were doing fun stuff throughout from ELP’s over the top back rake antics to Sting no selling superkicks. Some stuff didn’t work like the overdone nipple spots or the triple superkick totally whiffing. Shingo got the win with Last of the Dragon on ELP in 12:58, previewing their upcoming G1 match. Really fun match here. [***¼]
AEW Women’s World Championship: Thunder Rosa [c] vs. Toni Storm
I think this women’s roster is loaded but the booking has been so bad. Like, nothing feels important outside of whatever Jade Cargill is doing. Even TK’s precious Britt Baker feels mid. Toni Storm and Thunder Rosa are both good but they kind of just had a match here. There were solid back and forth exchanges and they didn’t technically do anything wrong. It was just kind of bland. Even things like a German suplex on the apron came off as lackluster. They countered each other’s signature moves late and Rosa retained with Final Reckoning in 10:39. A disappointing bout. [**¾]
IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship: Will Ospreay [c] vs. Orange Cassidy
I wasn’t excited about this one coming in but I knew they could deliver. The early goings here proved why as Cassidy’s attitude of not caring played perfectly into Will’s overly serious nature these days since he’s trying so hard to be a vicious heel. Cassidy frustrated him at every turn. They got into the actual meat of the match and most of it was strong. I did get distracted by Jim Ross on commentary. He is like, historically terrible. Cassidy’s comeback with his hands in pocket was awesome. It’s wild that he can do a better kip-up with no hands than most athletic guys can with the help of their hands. Anyway, the final few minutes were absurd with huge moves that looked great. Cassidy casually avoiding the Oscutter and hitting a sick Stundog Millionaire were great moments. I liked that Will got to be the bigger brute here though I wish Hidden Blade came off better. He kind of whiffed. I also felt that they went a bit into overkill mode on close calls and near falls late though I did bite on one for OC. Will finished it with Stormbreaker in 16:10. I keep saying it OVER and OVER but again, Willy was at his best in a shorter match setting. [****¼]
Post-match, Orange Cassidy got jumped by the United Empire and even Roppongi Vice couldn’t really make the save. So then Katsuyori Shibata’s theme hit and I LOST MY SHIT. He took out Aussie Open and got to kick Willy’s ass (their 2017 match was sick, especially since Shibata laid into him). Then Cassidy put his glasses on Shibata and posed with him. Wrestling peaked. Pack it up guys.
Claudio Castagnoli vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
As expected, Claudio Castagnoli was Bryan’s replacement and the new BCC member. He got a MONSTER pop. He came out with a bang, running over Sabre Jr. with an uppercut and hitting the Neutralizer for a near fall mere seconds in. I bit even though I knew ZSJ wouldn’t get squashed. They never really let up here and had some great action combining Claudio’s high impact stuff with Sabre’s mat work. From small joint manipulation to Sabre turning a Sharpshooter into a heel hook, it was so great. I love that when Claudio attempted to counter ZSJ’s heel hook, ZSJ just simply changed things up with a different grip or by grabbing the leg in a new way. It’s simple, yet effective. The swing didn’t work as well as it usually does since Claudio’s arm was worked over, negating some of his power advantage. I still love ZSJ’s thing of eating a big hit or two to goad stronger opponents in for his submissions. The European Clutch led to a great near fall before Claudio hit the uppercut and Ricola Bomb to win in 18:23. A hell of a match from two of the best in the world. Claudio will fit right into the BCC. [****¼]
IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Jay White [c] vs. Adam Cole vs. Hangman Page vs. Kazuchika Okada
I came into this wishing that it wasn’t a multi-man match. The Cole/Hangman interactions still didn’t work for me because I didn’t care for their feud and still don’t. On the other hand, I could watch Jay White do anything. He’s so goddamn good. Okada also looked great here. As I’ve said, if Okada isn’t sticking to formula, he’s a blast. Whenever he was involved, the match felt special because he’s such a big deal. The Rainmaker zoom out had me popping. Cole and White worked as a unit for a bit but as is often the case in matches like this, that didn’t last long. I had two big problems with this match. One was that there wasn’t enough Okada. There were moments where he kind of took a backseat and they focused on the Cole stuff too much. NXT Cole was top-tier but AEW Cole has been such a disappointment. He’s back to ROH levels for me. Okada killed but he didn’t get enough time to do so. The finish was the other problem, as Cole got concussed and after White took out Okada with a Blade Runner, he just covered Cole for an anticlimactic three at the 21:04 mark. I can’t blame them for the finish due to injury but it does hurt the match. [***½]
AEW Interim World Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jon Moxley
I’ve seen that people are kind of mixed on this. Some have rated it as a classic while others have given it scores of just being pretty good. I’m with the former. Tanahashi had the upper hand to start and it seemed to frustrate Moxley. He wants to be the Ace but was getting outwrestled. Moxley turned the tide by picking up the pace with bigger offense like a cutter and piledriver. Tanahashi looked off on his High Fly Flow to the outside. Maybe he’s not used to these American rings/turnbuckles. I thought it was weird that Moxley bladed on a Slingblade (ha) and the cut was really bad. Like, you could see the gash and it was horrifying. It also felt like a weird match for so much blood. Moxley survived the High Fly Flow combo inside and used the kickout to turn it over into the Bulldog Choke in a great moment. Tanahashi survived that but took another choke and the Paradigm Shift to lose in 18:14. Tanahashi is incredible and Moxley is on another level right now. This felt like a big fight and was right up my alley as it came off as epic without having to go 30+ minutes for no reason. [****½]
In a weird ending, they kind of gave up on Moxley’s celebration by having Jericho and his buddies attack. More people got involved until Claudio was last out, getting to stand tall as they sent the heels packing, though he got into it verbally with Kingston a bit. Strange ending.
