Quick Links

The term Forbidden Door has been thrown around so much in pro wrestling since it was introduced, it's hard to remember a time when it wasn't a part of the industry's lexicon. The phrase has become so integrated in the business that on Sunday night, there was an entire PPV based around the concept. AEW and NJPW teamed up and put on a show for the first time, live from the United Center in Chicago.

Most of Sunday's matches pitted AEW stars against their NJPW counterparts. Titles were on the line, new champions were crowned, and an Interim World Champion was determined. Below is a rundown of everything that happened at Forbidden Door, and whether each match and moment was a winner or a loser.

RELATED: Tony Khan Is Already Thinking About A Two-Night Forbidden Door 2

Winner: The Buy-In

Unlike WWE, which broadcasts its premium live events to Network subscribers, AEW has to rely on people ordering their marquee shows on PPV. While loyal fans will almost definitely do that regardless, the Buy-In, which precedes AEW's shows, is supposed to convince those on the fence to fork out for the main card. AEW isn't always good at doing that, but this felt different. The hour-long pre-show was loaded with matches, and odds are that action convinced some fans to buy the PPV.

Winner: Advantage, Jericho Appreciation Society

With the number of big matches with significant stakes on the card, opening with a trios match to determine who gets the advantage in Blood & Guts on Wednesday seemed like an odd decision. It didn't take long for that decision to make all the sense in the world. This was a terrific opener and kicked an already excited crowd up another gear. Chris Jericho also did a terrific job of making Shota Umino look good before eventually picking up the win over him. Not to mention his and Minoru Suzuki's entrances were the perfect way to rile up the fans right off the bat.

Winner: FTR Win All The Gold

ftr iwgp tag champions
via AEW

This match guaranteed at least one title change with two sets of championships on the line. As Dax Harwood was escorted to the back with an injury early on, it seemed guaranteed FTR would be losing the ROH Titles. That wasn't to be, as shortly after, Harwood came marching back to the ring riding a wave of momentum. That was enough to make this match a great one, and watching FTR win every set of Tag Titles available to them is pretty great.

Winner: Pac Is Your First All-Atlantic Champion

pac all atlantic champion
via AEW

Some fans have argued AEW is at risk of stepping into WWE territory by adding too many titles too quickly. Nevertheless, the All-Atlantic Title was introduced at Forbidden Door, and Pac is the first champion. A great match to mark the new championship's arrival, and one many will have been happy to see Pac win. The Brit looked beaten at the hands of Miro at one point, so to see him come back and make Clark Connors tap made for a terrific and well-deserved moment.

Loser: The Bucks And Dudes With Attitude

This match felt thrown together for very little reason, simply to make sure Bullet Club was represented on a card made up of AEW and NJPW stars. Not really enough to warrant this match happening, especially since the group isn't nearly as relevant as it has been in the past. Plus, the match was changed very late on, losing a member from each team over the weekend due to illness and travel issues. Sting no-selling superkicks was a cool spot, but overall this was the first dip in what was an otherwise terrific show up until this point in the night.

Loser: Thunder Rosa Is Still Champion

thunder rosa women's champion
via AEW

That there was only one women's match on this entire card was a point worthy of the loser tag all by itself. That'll happen when you team up with a promotion that doesn't have any female wrestlers. It also wasn't a great match, doing no favors for what is quickly becoming a floundering division once again in AEW. That's partly thanks to the focus being on Forbidden Door, but also for some reason, Thunder Rosa as champ isn't working. Switching the title to Toni Storm might have been a good idea here, but it wasn't to be.

Winner: Ospreay And Orange Hit A Homerun

There were a number of matches at Forbidden Door that could have potentially stolen the show, and this one was right up there. Even if these men didn't give it their all this would have probably been a pretty great match. They did, of course, and as expected, despite being very different wrestlers, Will Ospreay and Orange Cassidy's styles gelled perfectly. Shibata coming out after the match was the icing on the cake.

Winner: Claudio Castagnoli Is All Elite

Claudio Castagnoli AEW

There didn't even need to be a match here. It was a winner as soon as Claudio Castagnoli, the man formerly known as Cesaro, was revealed to be Bryan Danielson's mystery man. The United Center erupted when his music hit, and the match that followed was the technical masterclass Danielson promised. A loss for Zack Sabre Jr, and we'll get to see Castagnoli again on Dynamite this week when he joins up with the rest of Blackpool Combat Club for Blood & Guts.

Winner: Switchblade Retains

The IWGP Title on the line in an AEW x NJPW PPV on US soil, and Kazuchika Okada was in the match. What a time to be alive. Look at the four men in this match, and like so many others on Sunday night, you knew it was going to be a barn burner. Some absolutely incredible spots in this match, and while the superkick is overused in wrestling right now, some of the ones Adam Cole landed in this one were so damn good. The only mark on this match was that it may have ended prematurely. Cole appeared to be legitimately hurt when Jay White covered him for the win, and he was tended to by officials after the bell.

Winner: Moxley Is Interim Champion

The main event of this show was supposed to be CM Punk versus Hiroshi Tanahashi. Thanks to Punk's injury, Jon Moxley took his place so he and Tanahashi could compete for the Interim AEW Title, and what a match it was. Mox got busted open midway through, and since no one else bled all night, the impact of it felt so much bigger. It might not have been the best match of the night, but it was up there, and it was different from everything else on the show.

Results

  • Hirooki Goto and Yoshi Hashi def. QT Marshal and Aaron Solo
  • Lance Archer def. Nick Comoroto
  • Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland def. Yoshinobu Kanemaru and El Desperado
  • The Gunn Club and Max Caster def. NJPW Dojo
  • Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, and Minoru Suzuki def. Eddie Kingston, Wheeler Yuta, and Shota Umino
  • FTR def. United Empire and Roppongi Vice for the IWGP and ROH Tag Team Championships
  • Pac def. Clark Connors, Miro, and Malakai Black for the AEW All-Atlantic Championship
  • Dudes With Attitude def. Bullet Club
  • Thunder Rosa def. Toni Storm for the AEW Women's Championship
  • Will Ospreay def. Orange Cassidy for the IWGP US Championship
  • Claudio Castagnoli def. Zack Sabre Jr.
  • Jay White def. Adam Cole, Kazuchika Okada, and Hangman Page for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship
  • Jon Moxley def. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the Interim AEW Championship

TheSportster Podcast has returned! Check out latest episodes of the show where Jim Parsons and Norman Quarrinton cover the latest news and events happening in the worlds of WWE, AEW and more!