Hyperbolic High Hopes for Forbidden Door
The Optimistic, Misanthropic, and Downright Delusional Expectations for the Joint AEW and NJPW Supershow
Takami Ohbari and Tony Khan (courtesy of AEW Dynamite)
IF “STONE COLD” STEVE AUSTIN CAME BACK IN 2022, WHY NOT ANTONIO INOKI?!?!?!?
Alright, while nobody is suggesting that, with the announcement of an AEW x NJPW Supershow PPV, you’re going to see obnoxious hot takes and perhaps even more unpalatable—endless fantasy booking—until the card drops for Forbidden Door. Depending on your emotional disposition, you’re either going to be cynical or think like a crazy fangirl for what this event could be.
And you know what, let’s have some goddamn fun. Tony Khan, if nothing else, is equally a fan as he is a businessman, so I think I’m warranted the space for just this column to be a deluded fangirl and swing for the fanatical fences.
Could we get Kazuchika Okada vs. CM Punk? That would be the logical main event wouldn’t it, if you presume it will be title holder vs. title holder. Okada is the current IWGP Heavyweight Champion. And well, CM Punk isn’t currently the AEW World Champion, “Hangman” Adam Page is, but with Punk vs. Hangman suggested after their staredown on the 4.20 edition of AEW Dynamite for Double Or Nothing, that can be amended after Memorial Day weekend. Let’s not forget, Forbidden Door is being held in the United Center. If you want an instant sell-out you'd think you’d put Punk on top. Especially when the fanbase is going to be solidly behind Punk and nobody will get a bigger babyface response anyways.
Running away with the possibilities, dysphoric thoughts creep in. While I want that to be the main event, nothing was specifically stated that it would be AEW vs. NJPW up and down the card. Should we prepare for some inevitable deflation? Should we just assume they’ll run back the same template for the MSG supercard NJPW did with ROH? Should we temper our expectations and think that this is simply War of the Worlds on a grander stage? But we hadn’t had such an established branding of the Forbidden Door then. You’d think both companies wouldn’t have gotten this far and announced the show if they were just going to do, say, Okada vs. Jay White and Punk vs. Hangman, right? Especially if we get on the same night as the announcement, Adam Cole vs. Tomohiro Ishii, a Forbidden Door match if there ever was one.
Another way to make this a pimple on the ass of blown opportunity PPVs if we just get a slew of tag matches. We can’t rule that out, as New Japan did that vs. NOAH on “Night 3” of WrestleKingdom this year which meant fuck all to hardcore fans. I get why they don’t want to do it. There’s the obvious dick measuring contests between companies where they don’t want anyone to go over the other guy. It’s why any WWWF vs. NWA, champion vs. champion matches in the 70s and 80s ended in fuck-finishes. Not wanting to lose and a preoccupation with looking strong is similarly what turned the InVasion angle in 2001 from a dream storyline to an angle everyone universally wanted to see mercy-killed.
Invariably, we’ll see a lot of tag matches. How could any promotor and booker not want to have a little protection of top stars not eating losses. It’s easy, dare I say natural, to run stable vs. stable matches when both companies are run amuck with factions. Both companies will want to get as many guys on PPV as possible. You already see wrestlers calling their shots and challenging people across companies. Not everyone is going to get on TV, and, the likelihood of this show going long is going to be high, too, so you’ll have to do something like a ten man tag, two six man tags, maybe even a battle royal, just to get people on the shows as any worker would rightly be disgruntled as hell with hurt feelings if they don’t get to perform on this PPV.
So what matchups should we salivate over the possibilities for?
I’ll take an easy leap and suggest that we’ll get Adam Cole with the Undisputed Elite vs Jay White and whatever iteration they’re on of his Bullet Club. Even their weird, out of nowhere interruption of Tony Khan and Takami Ohbari making the announcement of Forbidden Door took nothing away from the interest of this shit (oh, and about that—if TK is gonna take acting classes from the school of Becky Lynch’s Shocked-By-A-Kickout-At-Two-Derp-Face, let’s hope he and Ohbari will not be presented as characters representing their respective companies).
Jon Moxley should wrestle Hiroshi Tanahashi. Tanahashi threw out a challenge for the US title last fall, so this may have been in the works for a while. Yes, there was a contested finish to Mox and Will Ospreay earlier this month, but that match has already been done in Chicago.
Speaking of Ospreay, let’s go with him against Hangman. With Moxley occupied, Bryan Danielson will be free to go against Zack Sabre Jr. FTR will have the AEW tag titles by then, have them wrestle Jeff Cobb and Great-O-Khan, the IWGP title holders. Shingo Takagi will need something to do, make the guy who stated he hates NJPW, MJF, do the favors for the Dragon. Nobody will have a problem with Hiromu Takahashi going over Sammy Guevara. And whatever, fuck it, let Yano and Danhausen do something wacky to cool off Chi-Town.
Memes will continue to litter wrestling Twitter the rest of this week that not having Kenny Omega wrestle on this show is akin to RVD being off One Night Stand. If we’re gonna fantasy book, let’s play doctor and magically heal and thus reform the Golden Lovers against House of Black’s Malakai Black and Kenny Omega’s dark doppelgänger, Buddy Matthews. If the Golden Lovers can’t be cleared, L.I.J. reformed with Tetsuya Naito and Andrade El Idolo will suffice.
So why can’t we pine for CM Punk main-eventing against Okada, one-on-one, with a clean finish? In the late 70s and early 80s, and even when big names jumped to the WWE to make dream matches, promoters cared so much about optics and their home-grown stars looking supreme. With this show being for hardcore fans, we can handle our favorites doing a clean loss. Would an AEW Stan exist if not nuzzled initially from the sweet, sweet bosom of NJPW? If the Tweets from the boys are any indicator, the rosters seem to be frothing over the chance to perform and steal the show, and that visibility in having a great mach means more than looking strong via a win.
The safest bet, is you book CM Punk vs. Okada for Forbidden Door. Punk goes over in Chicago. Okada can get his heat back by winning the G1, and he calls his shot by challenging CM Punk to get his win back at WrestleKingdom. Everyone is happy. Everyone looks strong in their native land. No company is getting worked. The fans can leave happy. C’mon. Just book that. Please. It’s easy because it’s the greatest, most logical, dream come true. And nothing short of placating our greatest delusions will kill this show from happening twice, and we think Tony Khan knows that, don’t we?
(courtesy of AEW.com)
