Airing on Sunday, the 24th of August at 6 PM BST (1 PM Eastern), All Elite Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling will be co-hosting their fourth annual Forbidden Door pay-per-view. The show serves as AEW’s third PPV outing in the United Kingdom, and it’ll be the first event from the company held in the famed O2 Arena in London. Other featured promotions include World Wonder Ring Stardom and Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL).
At the top of the card, “Hangman” Adam Page will be defending his AEW World Championship against MJF. Zack Sabre Jr. will defend the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against Nigel McGuinness in the challenger’s first world championship match in fifteen years. A ten-man Lights Out Steel Cage match, Toni Storm’s challenge against a fellow Women’s World Champion, and the reunion of a legendary tag team have also been announced.
Here’s a rundown for what to expect on Sunday’s show.
AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door Full Match Card
Match | Stipulation/Championship on the Line |
|---|---|
"Hangman" Adam Page (c) vs. MJF | Singles match for the AEW World Championship |
Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. Nigel McGuinness | Singles match for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship |
Darby Allin, Will Ospreay, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and the Golden Lovers (Kota Ibushi & Kenny Omega) vs. The Death Riders (Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli), the Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson), and Gabe Kidd | Lights Out Steel Cage match |
"Timeless" Toni Storm (c) vs. Athena | Singles match for the AEW Women's World Championship |
Mercedes Moné (c) vs. Alex Windsor vs. Persephone vs. Bozilla | Four-way match for the AEW TBS Championship |
The Hurt Business (Bobby Lashley & Shelton Benjamin) (c) vs. FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) vs. Brodido (Brody King & Bandido) | Three-way tag team elimination match for the AEW World Tag Team Championships |
Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Swerve Strickland | Singles match for the AEW Unified Championship |
Kyle Fletcher (c) vs. Hiromu Takahashi | Singles match for the AEW TNT Championship |
Adam Copeland & Christian Cage vs. Kip Sabian & Killswitch | Tag team match |
After winning the AEW World Championship at July’s All In: Texas show, Hangman Page will face MJF in the first PPV title defense of his second reign. Page and MJF are 1-1 in singles with their Revolution bout ending in Hangman’s victory this past March. Friedman will be going into this match with the psychological edge, having pressured Page into agreeing that the title can change via DQ or count out. Initially incited into using his Men’s Casino Gauntlet title opportunity, this match will no longer deplete MJF of that contract.
Both Nigel McGuinness and Zack Sabre Jr. have publicly campaigned for a bout, with Uproxx reporting that McGuinness referred to facing ZSJ as a “dream match.” Meanwhile, Sabre has gone on record with PWI saying McGuinness “owes” him a singles match after their run-in at last year’s All In. Sabre Jr. is fresh off his semifinals loss at the grueling G1 Climax to tournament winner Konosuke Takeshita, bringing his physical state into question versus his comparatively more refreshed challenger. Daniel Garcia will be in McGuinness’ corner.
The Lights Out Steel Cage match will see the Golden Lovers (Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi), Darby Allin, Will Ospreay, and Hiroshi Tanahashi stand opposite Jon Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli of the Death Riders, Gabe Kidd, and the Young Bucks. This match will serve as Tanahashi’s last contest on European soil, as he looks to retire in January. Kidd’s last match was a G1 tournament opener against Konosuke Takeshita, where he suffered a knee injury that resulted in his forfeiture and has spent most of the last month on the shelf.
The driving force of this match is the ongoing feud between the Death Riders and the ragtag coalition formed to combat their siege over AEW programming in the last year. Fresh off losing the World Championship thanks in part due to interferences by Allin and Ospreay, Moxley’s Death Riders and the recently-usurped ex-EVP’s the Young Bucks are looking for a second wind.
ROH’s Women’s World Champion Athena will challenge “Timeless” Toni Storm for the AEW Women’s World Championship. The self-proclaimed "Forever Champion" earned a title shot in the Women’s Casino Gauntlet at All In before a crowd of her fellow Texans. Approaching 1,000 days with the gold as of writing, Athena is the longest tenured champion ever between AEW and ROH. However, Storm is the only woman to have won the World Championship four times and has the most days with that championship in her own right.
In a four-way for the TBS Championship, Mercedes Moné will defend against AEW newcomer Alex Windsor, CMLL’s Persephone, and Stardom’s Bozilla. Since winning the TBS Championship at last year’s Double or Nothing, Moné has taken on all comers while accumulating a wealth of other belts including those from CMLL and RevPro.
After debuting for the company last year, Windsor was signed in June and wrestled her first match as a contracted talent at All In in the Women's Casino Gauntlet. Persephone made her ROH debut at Supercard of Honor, failing to win the Worldwide Women's Wild Card for the interim ROH Women's World Television Championship. Bozilla is a standout of the German independents with who made waves in Marigold last year before jumping to Stardom earlier in the summer.
The Hurt Syndicate have held a firm grasp over the World Tag Team Championships after winning them in January, heading into what will be their seventh defense. Due to a time limit draw in the finals of the Tag Team Eliminator Tournament, FTR and Brodido both qualified for this title shot. While FTR is among the company’s most distinguished teams with the second-most days as tag champions on record, the recently-formed Brodido are looking to make a name for themselves. This will be conducted under elimination rules, unlike the Hurt Syndicate's last three-way defense at All In.
Unified champion Kazuchika Okada will have his first defense of the championship against Swerve Strickland. Their sole previous encounter in a July 2024 Dynamite broadcast ended via disqualification after Swerve was attacked by the Young Bucks.
NJPW’s Hiromu Takahashi is set to challenge TNT Champion Kyle Fletcher of the Don Callis Family. Takahashi is among Japan's most well-regarded junior heavyweights, being the only man to win four Best of the Super Juniors tournaments, three of those being consecutive. Fletcher, on the other hand, won the belt off Dustin Rhodes at the end of July in a Chicago Street Fight and put the veteran on the shelf after kneecapping him with a screwdriver.
Christian Cage and Adam Copeland will team up for the first time in over a decade to take on Kip Sabian and Killswitch, formerly of The Patriarchy. Cage’s followers turned their backs on him at All In, with Copeland making the rescue as the two friends look to reconcile their tag team glory days. The newly-returned Killswitch will be substituting for the injured Nick Wayne, who was originally announced as Sabian’s partner but dropped out due to a broken foot.