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.
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.
Also on the June 8 episode of Dynamite, AEW unveiled a brand new men's singles championship, the AEW All-Atlantic Championship, to be a secondary championship of the promotion to "represent the AEW fans watching around the world in over 130 countries". It was announced that four wrestlers, determined through qualifying matches, would battle in a fatal four-way match at Forbidden Door to be crowned the inaugural champion. Pac defeated Buddy Matthews that same night to qualify. On the June 15 episode, Miro defeated Ethan Page to become the second qualifier, and Tomohiro Ishii defeated Clark Connors on June 21 at New Japan Road to qualify. Malakai Black was the last qualifier, defeating Penta Oscuro on the June 22 episode of Dynamite. On June 23, Ishii was replaced by Connors following an injury.
On the May 25, episode of Dynamite, the United Empire's (UE) Great-O-Khan and Jeff Cobb interrupted a match for the ROH World Tag Team Championship between FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) and Roppongi Vice (Trent Baretta and Rocky Romero), attacking both teams. The following week, faction leader Will Ospreay made his surprise debut where, along with other UE stablemates Aaron Henare and Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis of Aussie Open, they attacked Beretta and FTR. On the June 10, episode of Rampage, Beretta and FTR picked up a victory against Ospreay, Davis, and Fletcher. Ospreay competed in his first AEW singles match at Road Rager on June 15, where he defeated Harwood. After the match, Ospreay and United Empire, including new IWGP Tag Team Champions O-Khan and Cobb, attacked FTR and Roppongi Vice once more, only to be interrupted by Orange Cassidy, who stared down Ospreay. Soon after, a singles match between both men was scheduled for Forbidden Door for Ospreay's IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship. A few days later, a Winner Takes All three-way tag team match between FTR, Roppongi Vice, and O-Khan and Cobb for the ROH World and IWGP Tag Team Championships was announced for the show as well.
Since the announcement of Forbidden Door, Zack Sabre Jr. had continuously called out in post-match interviews, challenging "The American Dragon" Bryan Danielson to find out who the best technical wrestler was. However, following defeat in the Anarchy in the Arena match at Double or Nothing, it was speculated that Danielson had suffered an injury. This was confirmed by Danielson on the June 22 episode of Dynamite, yet he acknowledged Sabre Jr.'s challenge, revealing that he had organised a replacement as "the one person" he trusted to take his place at the PPV and the subsequent AEW Blood and Guts special episode of Dynamite. This led to Sabre Jr. making his AEW debut, verbally mocking Danielson.
Following their defeat in the Anarchy in the Arena match at Double or Nothing, Eddie Kingston along with Santana and Ortiz continued to feud with the Jericho Appreciation Society (JAS). On the June 1 episode of Dynamite, Blackpool Combat Club's (BCC) manager William Regal and Kingston issued a challenge to the JAS to fight the trio and the BCC in a Blood and Guts match, which Jericho declined. Ortiz then jumped Jericho from behind and cut a lock of Jericho's hair off, which led to Jericho accepting the match while also challenging Ortiz to a Hair vs. Hair match. On June 15 at Road Rager, Jericho defeated Ortiz in the match after seemingly receiving outside help from Fuego Del Sol, only for it to be revealed as Sammy Guevara under the mask, who would later be revealed to have joined the JAS along with his fiancé Tay Conti, turning both heels. Later in the night, Jericho interrupted the face-to-face confrontation between Moxley and Tanahashi, and both men were immediately attacked by Suzuki-gun members Lance Archer and El Desperado, despite additional help from Wheeler Yuta. Jericho announced that he and Sammy would team up with their leader, Minoru Suzuki, to face Kingston, Yuta, and Moxley's NJPW protege Shota Umino in a six-man tag team match.
On the June 8 episode of Dynamite, Thunder Rosa successfully defended her AEW Women's World Championship against Marina Shafir, only for Shafir to attack her after the match. Toni Storm rushed out to the ring to successfully stop Shafir's assault. Storm then picked up the championship belt, admired it, and handed it back to Rosa, indicating a possible future match against the two. Soon after, the match was made official for Forbidden Door.
In June, reDRagon (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly) began feuding with Darby Allin and Sting, which led to reDRagon challenging Allin to a match on the June 17 episode of Rampage. Allin defeated Fish, before being attacked by O'Reilly, however, Sting made the save, helping Allin fend off O'Reilly, with Allin breaking Fish's leg. The following week on Dynamite, O'Reilly and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) challenged them to a match at Forbidden Door with their partner being Hikuleo, rejoining Bullet Club for one night only. Allin and Sting accepted their challenge with their partners being Los Ingobernables de Japón's Hiromu Takahashi and Shingo Takagi. On June 23, it was announced that O'Reilly would be forced to miss the event, due to an injury, being replaced by El Phantasmo. On June 25, it was announced that Takahashi would be forced to miss the event, due to suffering from a fever, and that the match would be a trios match with Sting, Allin, and Takagi facing The Young Bucks and El Phantasmo.
Event + Other on-screen personnelRoleNameCommentatorsExcaliburKevin KellyTazJim Ross Tony Schiavone Caprice Coleman Japanese commentatorsHaruo MurataMilano Collection A.T.Miki MotoiHollywood Zakoshisyoh Spanish commentatorsAlex AbrahantesDasha GonzalezJon CruzFrench commentatorsAlain MistrangéloNorbert FeuillanGerman commentatorsGünter ZapfMike RitterRing announcerJustin RobertsTakuro ShibataBobby Cruise RefereesAubrey EdwardsBryce RemsburgPaul TurnerRick KnoxStephon SmithInterviewerAlex Marvez
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.