AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door 2023 6/26/2023

AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door 2023 6/26/2023

Here's what I saw:

AEW World Title - MJF (c) vs Hiroshi Tanahashi

This was not good and just sad to watch. Tana did the high fly flow for over a decade and completely ruined his knees. He had a hard time moving around here plus he has put on extra weight, which makes it worse. MJF carried and tried to cover for him as much as he could here, but Tana is sadly done.

Owen Hart Foundation 2023 Men's Tournament Quarter Final Match - Satoshi Kojima vs CM Punk

This match was basically taken over by the crowd. The crowd booed Punk for most of the match over stuff from the Elite/Punk worked incident. I don't know if I ever mentioned it here, but I believe the whole thing was just a cover for Punk's injury and absence. The only real evidence you can point to over this being legit is the Elite dropping the trios. Multiple parts of this story have proven to be false over the past year. Punk and Ace Steel returned after we were told they never would return. Colt Cabana was never fired like we were told.And Punk and the Elite have been on the same shows since then. It wasn't a great match and it had little chance to be due to both guys being older, limited and being one of the early matches with no build and an outcome that was never in doubt. 

IWGP Title - SANADA (c) vs Jungle Boy

It was just a match. It was short. They didn't get to do a ton of stuff nor did they go all out. It wasn't awful, but nothing memorable or real interesting. The existence of this was a burial for Sanada. He's the IWGP champ and is in one of the lower card matches against a midcard guy.

The most notable moment here was JB turning on Hook after. It was rumored this would happen and I didn't like the sound of it as Hook doesn't talk and JB sucks at talking. JB shouldn't be happy about it because he's clearly being groomed for a top role and this turn signifies that they don't think as highly of him anymore.

The Young Bucks, Adam Page, Eddie Kingston and Tomohiro Ishii vs Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta, Shota Umino and Konosuke Takeshita

Ishii's team got the win here. I really liked this at first, but it just went on and on with everyone getting their own time near the end to hit finishers. The Bucks had two stupid spots here with one spot where a Buck was german suplexed and held onto the other during it, causing him to german suplexed too. The Bucks also tried to break up a rocket launcher spot, but they missed and Yuta did a top rope belly flop onto nothing.

IWGP US Title - Kenny Omega (c) vs Will Osperay

 

They trade basic holds early and Will handstands out of a headscissors. Will hits forearms and chops. He gets his os cutter blocked and caught and he flips out of Kenny's dragon suplex attempt. Will eye pokes him and pounds on him and Kenny hits a hurricanrana. Kenny rolling death valley drivers him and 2nd rope moonsaults him. Kenny runs the ropes and Don Callis trips him. Will then plancha's him. Kenny is sent into the post.

Will spinning backbreakers him then brainbusters him. Will abdominal stretches him and Kenny hits his over the back legdrop on his neck. Kenny punts his ribs then facebusters him. Kenny is hung over the top rope and Will springboard ssp's onto him. Will then os cutters off the 2nd turnbuckle chain, dropping Kenny on the apron. Will bangs Kenny's head off the table and Kenny is bleeding.

Will slaps him and takes some forearms then Will spinning forearms him. Will running knees him. Will grabs a Canadian flag and abuses it then Omega lariats him. Kenny puts the flag around his throat and throws him. Kenny then hangs him with it. Kenny running knees him against the rails. Kenny bangs Will's head off the steps. Will then starts bleeding.

Kenny ddt's him on the side of the steps then hits mounted shots. Kenny triangles him then powerbombs him out of it. They german suplex each other and Kenny jumping knees him. Will then hits a running spanish fly. Will sharpshooters him then does a crippler crossface. Will hits Kawada kicks and chops then headbutts him.

Will buzzsaw kicks him and superkicks him then Kenny knees him on his Os cutter attempt. Kenny hits snap dragons him the poisonrana's and piledrivers him for 2. Kenny neckbreakers him over the knee. They go up on the buckles and Will superkicks his head into the top buckle. Will then corkscrew moonsaults onto him off the buckles outside.

Will forearms the back of his head off the 2nd buckle. They kick and lariat each other at the same time and Will sit out powerbombs him for 2. Will top rope os cutters him then Kenny hits a beach break. Kenny hits a stiff knee then a running knee. Don Callis gets on the apron to protect Will but Kenny hits a v-trigger on him anyway. Don tries to pull Will out and gives him a screwdriver. Will stabs Kenny with it. Will hits a hidden blade then does his stormbreaker ddt for 2.

Will v-triggers him and hits a one winged angel, which Kenny kicks out of at 1. They immediately get up and slap each other. Kenny knees him and is hook kicked then Kenny brainbusters him. Kenny hits an electric chair into a german suplex. He pumping knees him in the back of the head and takes an elbow. Will hits a tiger driver 91 which of course is only worth a 2 count then Will hits a hidden blade. Will hits a stormbreaker ddt and wins it.

I hated this. They did way too much here and were not that interested in selling it. Kenny kicked out of a one winged angel, which has been super protected here and a tiger driver 91, amongst a million other things.

Darby Allin, Sting and Tetsuya Naito vs Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara and Minoru Suzuki

Naito pinned Suzuki to get the win here. I didn't like this. They really tried to make Sting and Jericho facing off a moment and nobody cared. The big spot here was Sammy doing a top rope 630 to the outside onto Sting through a table. It was a dangerous and dumb spot and Sting ended up just getting up 2-3 minutes later and going on like usual. This did make me want to see Sting vs Minoru Suzuki though. I don't know if it would be any good, but that'd be different. The crowd sucked here and it dragged.

Jericho hit Naito with a bat after then Sting hit Jericho with the bat and cleared him off.

Kazuchika Okada vs Bryan Danielson

They go to the mat early and do a test of strength. Bryan puts Okada's knees into the mat and Okada shoulders him over. Bryan flips over him off the buckles and takes a running back elbow. Okada baseball slides him out, throws him into the rails then facekicks him over them. Okada is put into the post then Bryan dropkicks him through the ropes. Bryan then flying knees him off the apron.

Okada is sent into the post and Bryan knee drops his arm as it is draped across the top rope. Bryan hits some downward elbows then puts him in cattle mutiliation. Bryan hits chops and kicks in the corner. Bryan hits forearms then Okada flapjacks him. Okada facekicks Bryan and ddt's him for 2.

Bryan is put on the top rope and dropkicked to the floor. Okada is put into the rails outside then dives over the rails onto Bryan. Okada neckbreakers him over the knee for 2. They fight up top and Bryan top rope dropkicks him. They trade euros and Okada shotgun dropkicks him. Bryan germans him then hits flying kicks.

Okada hits a nice dropkick then hits another. Okada goes for a top rope elbow but Bryan catches it and Fujiwara's him. Bryan topes him, gets caught then flying kicks Okada outside. Bryan hits chest kicks outside then Okada tombstones him on the ramp. Okada top rope elbows him and the doc comes in to check on Bryan. Bryan then hits a flying knee out of a rainmaker attempt.

Bryan gets out of a german and hits a flying knee for 2. Bryan spinning forearms him then buzzsaw kicks him. Bryan runs at Okada and is dropkicked then Okada fire thunders him. Okada rainmakers him for 2. Okada hits short arm lariats then Bryan lebell locks him. Bryan then wins via submission.

The finish didn't really work here. The crowd didn't buy it and didn't cheer for it. Bryan worked the arm some early, forgot about it for most of the match then won with an arm submission. Had they worked the arm more and made it more part of the match, maybe it would have gotten more of a reaction. The match was okay, but it really had no way to live up to its expectations and being the last match on the card when people are kicking out of tiger driver 91's makes it even harder.  

Overall thoughts: It was a long show that I had to watch in parts. The match structure was interesting with the three biggest matches happening in opener, middle of the card and at the end of the card. These cards are hard to do because they have no real bearing on the overall picture for either company and they have to build to it for a month, only to completely forget about it after. If you wanted a bunch of AEW/NJPW matches, you got it here and they did try to give people a good show here. It was a good effort.