The 2022 Forbidden Door was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event and supershow co-produced by the American promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and the Japan-based New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). It was the inaugural Forbidden Door and took place on June 26, 2022, at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, and was the first AEW/NJPW co-promoted event. It was the first professional wrestling pay-per-view held at this venue since Spring Stampede in 2000, which was produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
Thirteen matches were contested at the event, including four on The Buy In pre-show. In the main event, Jon Moxley defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to become the interim AEW World Champion. In other prominent matches, Jay White defeated "Hangman" Adam Page, Kazuchika Okada, and Adam Cole in a four-way match to retain the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, Pac defeated Clark Connors, Miro, and Malakai Black in a four-way match to become the inaugural AEW All-Atlantic Champion, and Claudio Castagnoli, formerly known as Cesaro in WWE, defeated Zack Sabre Jr. in his AEW debut match. The event also saw special appearances by Juice Robinson and Katsuyori Shibata.
Contents
Production
Background
In February 2021, the American professional wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) started a partnership with the Japanese promotion, New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), with Kenta being the first NJPW wrestler to appear on AEW's primary weekly television program, Wednesday Night Dynamite during the Beach Break special. Since then, both AEW and NJPW have had their wrestlers appear on each other's shows in the United States. On April 15, 2022, it was reported that a planned co-promoted event held by the two promotions was in the works.
On the April 20 episode of Dynamite, AEW President Tony Khan introduced NJPW President Takami Ohbari to make a major announcement regarding their respective companies. They were interrupted by AEW wrestler Adam Cole, who officially announced that a co-promoted event titled Forbidden Door would be held on June 26 at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. The event took its name from the same term often used by AEW when referring to working with other professional wrestling promotions. The event aired on pay-per-view (PPV) via traditional PPV outlets, the Bleacher Report app, FITE TV, and was livestreamed in Japan on NJPW World. Pre-sale tickets went on sale on May 5 and sold out in less than 40 minutes, with more than 11,000 tickets sold with only a limited number of tickets set aside to go on sale to the general public on May 6. Forbidden Door became the first professional wrestling pay-per-view event to be held at the United Center since the former World Championship Wrestling (WCW)'s Spring Stampede took place in 2000.
Storylines
Forbidden Door featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines.
On the June 1 episode of Dynamite, newly crowned AEW World Champion CM Punk called out his NJPW Forbidden Door opponent. Hiroshi Tanahashi would make a surprise debut, indicating he would face Punk for the title at the supershow. On the June 3 episode of Friday Night Rampage, however, Punk announced that he needed surgery and would be taking time off. Instead of vacating the title, AEW president Tony Khan announced that they would crown an interim champion at Forbidden Door. A battle royal was scheduled to open the June 8 episode of Dynamite, with the winner facing Jon Moxley, who was the number one ranked singles competitor, in the show's main event, and the winner of that match would be placed in the match to crown the interim AEW World Champion at Forbidden Door. It was then announced on AEW's social media that the winner of Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Hirooki Goto at NJPW's Dominion 6.12 in Osaka-jo Hall would be the other competitor in the interim championship match at Forbidden Door. On the June 8 episode of Dynamite, Kyle O'Reilly won the Casino Battle Royale, but was defeated by Moxley in the main event, who advanced to Forbidden Door. At Dominion, Tanahashi defeated Goto, setting up NJPW's half of the match.
On the June 8 episode of Dynamite, "Hangman" Adam Page wrestled his first match since losing the AEW World Championship to CM Punk at Double or Nothing, defeating David Finlay. After the match, Page called out Kazuchika Okada, the reigning IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, challenging him to a match for the title at Forbidden Door. Page was interrupted by Adam Cole, who pointed out that Okada may not be champion by Forbidden Door due to his scheduled title defense against Jay White at Dominion 6.12 in Osaka-jo Hall. On June 12, White defeated Okada to win the title and insulted Page after the match. Page addressed the situation on the June 15 episode of Dynamite, and was once again interrupted by Cole, who also wanted to face White for the title. White appeared from behind Page and attacked him with a Blade Runner. White went on to explain that he would not defend his title against Page, pointing out that he was 2–0 against Page, much to Cole's amusement. At the same time, much to Cole's dismay, White also stated he would not defend the title against Cole either, leaving White's Forbidden Door opponent still to be decided. On the June 22 episode, Cole and White once again attacked Page, however, Okada made his AEW debut, helping Page fend off Cole and White. It was later announced that White would defend the title in a four-way match against Okada, Page, and Cole at Forbidden Door.
Event
The Buy-In
Four matches were contested on the Buy-In pre-show. In the first match, The Factory (Aaron Solo and Q. T. Marshall) faced Bishamon (Hirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi). Marshall went for a 450 splash, but Hashi avoided it. Hashi and Goto performed a Powerbomb/Spinning headlock elbow drop combo on Solo for the win.
Next, Lance Archer took on Nick Comoroto. Comoroto attempted to attack Archer before the match had begun, but Archer prevented it and took out Comoroto with a cannonball. In the end, Archer performed the Blackout on Comoroto to win the match.
After that, Swerve In Our Glory (Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland) took on Suzuki-gun (El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru). Strickland hit a backbreaker on Desperado, who came right back with a clothesline, which was followed by Strickland hitting him with a flatliner. Kanemaru took a swig from a whiskey bottle at ringside and spit the whiskey into Lee's eyes, which led to a nearfall. In the end, Lee performed the Big Bang Catastrophe on Kanemaru to secure the win. Following the match, Ricky Starks and Powerhouse Hobbs spoke from a luxury box. Hobbs stated that Strickland and Lee think they are Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, and then compared himself and Starks to Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. Starks questioned how Strickland and Lee could call themselves the best tag team, when they have not beaten him and Hobbs.
In the final match of the pre-show, Max Caster (accompanied by Anthony Bowens) and Gunn Club (Billy Gunn, Austin Gunn, and Colten Gunn) faced Yuya Uemura and New Japan LA Dojo (Alex Coughlin, The DKC and Kevin Knight). Before the match began, Danhausen appeared on the screen and introduced a new "Ass Boys" theme, which caused Austin and Colten to run to the back. The NJPW dojo wrestlers took advantage of the numbers advantage while Austin and Colten were gone. In the end, Caster performed the Mic Drop on the DKC for the victory.
Preliminary matches
The actual pay-per-view opened with Minoru Suzuki and Jericho Appreciation Society (Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara) (accompanied by Tay Conti) facing the team of Eddie Kingston, Shota Umino, and Wheeler Yuta, with the winning team receiving the man advantage for the upcoming Blood and Guts match between the Jericho Appreciation Society and Blackpool Combat Club. Early in the match, Yuta performed multiple German suplexes on Jericho. Yuta and Kingston performed suicide dives on Guevara and Jericho, respectively. In the final moments, Suzuki hit a Gotch-Style Piledriver on Kingston. Umino knocked both Guevara and Suzuki down, but Jericho took advantage and dropped Umino with a Judas Effect for the win, thus giving the Jericho Appreciation Society the man advantage for Blood and Guts.
Next was a Winner Takes All three-way tag team match for both the ROH World Tag Team Championship and IWGP Tag Team Championship between ROH World Tag Team Champions FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood), IWGP Tag Team Champions United Empire (Great-O-Khan and Jeff Cobb), and Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero and Trent Beretta). During the match, Harwood legitimately injured his left shoulder, leaving Wheeler to fly solo. Later, Harwood returned with his shoulder wrapped. Romero performed a suicide dive onto Harwood and Khan on the floor. FTR hit Romero with the Big Rig to win the IWGP Tag Team Championships and retain the ROH World Tag Team Championships.
Backstage, Tony Schiavone interviewed Juice Robinson and Jay White. Robinson had the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship and White noted that Robinson never lost the title. White also spoke about retaining his IWGP World Heavyweight Championship later in the night.
After that was the inaugural AEW All-Atlantic Championship four-way match between Pac, Clark Connors, Miro, and Malakai Black. Outside the ring, Connors landed a Spear on Miro through a table. Back in the ring, Miro applied the Game Over submission on Pac but was broken up by Black who sprayed a mist into Miro's face. As Black and Connors were fighting over an armbar, Pac performed a 450 Splash on Black and applied the Brutalizer submission on Connors to become the inaugural AEW All-Atlantic Champion.
The next match was between Dudes with Attitudes (Darby Allin, Sting, and Shingo Takagi) against Bullet Club (El Phantasmo, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson) (accompanied by Hikuleo). As the Bullet Club was making their entrances, Sting dove onto Bullet Club from the top of one of the entrance tunnels. Allin hit a cutter on Phantasmo, but the Young Bucks took Allin out with a double superkick. Takagi performed the Last of the Dragon on Phantasmo to win the match.
Main event
In the main event, Jon Moxley took on Hiroshi Tanahashi to determine the interim AEW World Champion. Early in the match, Moxley performed a piledriver on Tanahashi for a near fall. Outside the ring, Tanahashi landed a crossbody block on a bloodied Moxley. Back in the ring, Moxley applied a bulldog choke submission on Tanahashi, who escaped the hold. Tanahashi slapped Moxley multiple times and ran the ropes, but Moxley blasted him with a clothesline. Moxley covered Tanahashi, but Tanahashi kicked out at one. Moxley applied the rear naked choke submission, who later released the hold and executed the Paradigm Shift on Tanahashi to become the interim AEW World Champion. Post-match, Moxley celebrated his victory. Chris Jericho and Daniel Garcia ran out and attacked Moxley and Tanahashi. Eddie Kingston ran out and went after Jericho, but Garcia put him in a sleeper. Wheeler Yuta, Santana, and Ortiz ran out and attacked Jericho and Garcia. Jake Hager, Matt Menard, Angelo Parker, and Sammy Guevara ran out to help Jericho and Garcia. Castagnoli ran out and went after Jericho. The Jericho Appreciation Society fled and lost the brawl, culminating in the Blackpool Combat Club celebrating.
Aftermath
The following episode of Dynamite was the special episode Blood and Guts. Due to Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, and Minoru Suzuki defeating Shota Umino, Wheeler Yuta, and Eddie Kingston, the Jericho Appreciation Society earned the advantage in the Blood and Guts match. Additionally, due to Bryan Danielson's injury preventing him from participating in Blood and Guts, Claudio Castagnoli took his place in the match. The match resulted in the Blackpool Combat Club, Kingston, Santana, and Ortiz defeating the Jericho Appreciation Society.
Due to Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI's win over The Factory, The Young Bucks challenged them to a match on the Rampage special episode Royal Rampage for an opportunity at the Bucks' AEW World Tag Team Championship, however at the show Goto and Yoshi-Hashi were defeated.
On March 15, 2023, a second Forbidden Door event between AEW and NJPW was scheduled to be held on June 25, 2023.
Results
AEW Interim World Championship Eliminator Series bracket
Casino Battle Royale
Dynamite – June 8 (Cable Dahmer Arena – Independence, Missouri, U.S.)
Casino Battle Royale entrances and eliminations
– Winner