We're just a few days away from the fifth(!) annual AEW x NJPW (x CMLL x Stardom) Forbidden Door! And while I've become lukewarm to the idea of this yearly crossover event, mostly due to NJPW not feeling like it's at all on the same level as AEW these days, also due to the partial storyline interruption it necessarily involves, this card looks pretty great as usual.
They've brought back the multi-man Steel Cage match as the main event, but we also have the two Owen Cup Finals, one of which is itself a Forbidden Door rematch, plus a few first- or second-time dream matchups, and a couple of fun tag bouts. This should be a quite enjoyable show, in front of an oddly small crowd for an AEW PPV. As of press time they'd just crossed the 7,000 mark, so I'm hoping by Sunday they can get to 8k or 8500 anyway. Come on, San Jose, get your shit together!
But let's get to it....
Zero Hour AEW Women's Tag Team Championship: Divine Dominion vs. Thunder Rosa & Olympia
AEW really needs to get Megan and Lena into a proper feud, as they're only ever featured on pre-show bouts these days. Pretty sure the plan is for the Brawling Birds to dethrone them at Wembley, but in order for that to feel like a big deal they need to run through more teams that actually matter, not just squash makeshift tandems on the free shows.
Pick: DD retains
Young Bucks vs. Shingo Takagi & Titan vs. Mistico & Mascara Dorada
Not gonna lie, this match could end up stealing the show. There's no real story here but boy is there some great talent involved. This is one of the few traditional Forbidden Door-type matches on the card, so I could see it opening the show to set the tone. Literally any of the three teams could win here but since the Bucks are undoubtedly in line for a title shot at Wembley I'll go with them.
Pick: Bucks
AEW Tag Team Championship: Cope & Cage vs. The Dogs
This match is to keep the champs busy till the 3- or 4-way at Wembley with FTR and the Bucks. Should be a fun little outing and I suspect Gabe Kidd will make an appearance since he's back from injury. I suppose with that in mind there's a chance the Dogs could steal the belts for a month, but I think the champs probably retain.
Pick: C&C retain
IWGP Global Championship: Shota Umino vs. Pac
This should be awesome. Glad to see Umino is finally getting a run with some gold, I dunno what took New Japan so long to get behind him, he's been pretty excellent for seven years. Pac will give him a helluva match, as Pac is fucking incredible.
Pick: Umino retains
Continental Championship: Jon Moxley vs. Bandido
It's the Continental Champ vs. the ROH champ, and it's gonna be great. Mox pretty much always delivers in these no-bullshit bouts, and Bandido rules. Mox'll keep the title.
Pick: Mox retains
AEW Women's World Championship: Thekla vs. Starlight Kid
Thekla's done a fine job of making this match about AEW vs. Stardom and pulling in her old storyline of being fired from her former promotion. This should be a lot of fun. Thekla's obviously keeping the belt till Wembley.
Pick: Thekla retains
Owen Cup Final: Mercedes Mone vs. Maya World
Man, this women's Owen tourney has been cursed, not once, not twice, but thrice. First the intended winner Toni Storm ends up on the shelf suddenly, not due to injury but still no word on the actual reason, then her substitute Willow Nightingale suffers a shoulder injury and has to bow out. So Mercedes is brought back to take up the slack. Then her likely intended co-finalist Saree has to bow out of the tournament due to her own injury, and Maya World is plugged into that slot. Hopefully Maya can be elevated as a silver lining, because this division needs serious help right now. I've heard some suggest that they shake things up and just give Maya the Cup, but I'm not sure she's ready to be the challenger at Wembley just yet. Mercedes is the safe bet for now.
Pick: Mercedes
Owen Cup Final: Will Ospreay vs. Swerve Strickland
These two absolutely tore it the fuck up at Forbidden Door two years ago and have a whole bunch of storyline juice to make this rematch feel that much more personal. Side note: Will's line about banging his new wife last week was....kinda gross. Felt like something 1998 Triple H would say and didn't fit Will's character at all. That's one aspect of the Attitude Era we don't need brought back, m'kay? Anyway this should be unbelievably great. Will punches his ticket to Wembley to finally take home the AEW Title in his hometown.
Pick: Ospreay
Kenny Omega vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
These two have only wrestled one time one-on-one, in early 2018. They'll both be looking to make this match their definitive meeting and I think they'll succeed in spades. Give 'em 25-30 minutes and watch the fireworks.
Pick: Kenny's probably challenging for, and possibly winning, the AEW Title at Redemption next months so he needs the win here.
Steel Cage: MJF/Kevin Knight/Kyle Fletcher/Kazuchika Okada/Andrade El Idolo/Jake Doyle vs. Mark Briscoe/Konosuke Takeshita/Darby Allin/Orange Cassidy/Roderick Strong/Kyle O'Reilly
Last year's cage match was awesome and this should be too. The stip here is if Mark's team wins he gets a title match with MJF. The heels won this exact match last week (minus the cage of course), so Mark's team is obviously winning this one. But we'll also further the Takeshita vs. Okada/Fletcher storyline, as well as Andrade's impending falling out with the Callis Family. AEW clusterfuck matches are always a gas.
Pick: Team Briscoe
Looks like another fun PPV, another enjoyable way to spend four hours and $40. AEW always gives me my money's worth with their PPVs.
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