AEW Forbidden Door - When the door is actually forbidden and we are just tempting fate

[KawadaSmile]

Sadly messy.

[Timbo Slice]

Not as messy as the booking for this show. 

[strobogo]

For fuck's sake, Ishii is injured and off the show 

[Tetsujin]

Honestly the weirdest thing for me is Naito not having anything to do with this. Like, both Shingo and Hiromu are there, but not Naito? Seems super weird to me. Why does Ospreay/Orange exist when you could have had Naito/Orange instead?

[ragemaster]

I thought Naito eye was due a operation?

[Embrodak]

If we ever get a "Rise and Fall of AEW" doc, the bad to "eh" ratings the last few weeks, the disastrous booking for this show (and the bland booking since Tony bought ROH in general), and the huge slate of injuries they're dealing with all at once seems like it'll be a narrative turn. This NJPW show, and the way they're booking it, just assuming that every fan already knows who all these wrestlers are and will be intrinsically hyped to see them tussle with their AEW faves - no packages, minimal setup by the announce team, minimal to no compelling storylines... idk, man, seems like Tony Khan is finally hitting his Icarus moment. If he were smart, he'd do a lot of delegating and move to a "booking committee" type of format like JCP in the 80s. Dustin, Billy Gunn, Mark Henry, tons of people that can take some of the load. And he def needs to just let someone else do the ROH booking, have that be the developmental and house show brand or something.

[Matt D]

Or things will rebound over the next few weeks as they turn the attention inwards again, people start to get cleared from injuries, and they shuffle the roster pairings around a bit.

Product-wise, we're not in 99 WCW here or anything.

[Timbo Slice]

Tony’s issue has never been his long term vision: it’s been his ability to adjust on the fly. 

[Johnny Sorrow]

So, on Dynamite the announcers and Regal kept going on about how Mox has to win cause it'd be the end of the world if the AEW Title was taken by New Japan, mentioning an "invasion" and stuff like that. Have they even hinted at this being an inter-promotional feud where NJPW is going to "kidnap" the AEW title? I mean, I don't always pay attention but I don't recall that being part of the build. It's especially weird since so many of the other matches have NJPW guys teaming with AEW guys.

[funkdoc]

Part of what hurts Forbidden Door w/ the younger crowd imo is the lack of strong Youtube retrospectives on NJPW - there are people in my watch group who were completely out of wrestling until just last year, so they didn't know who any of these guys are.  They get most of their wrestling history from videos since you can play those in the background at work (while you can't read the WON or forums), and NJPW is infamously anal about copyright to the point of striking Twitter GIFs.  That last part makes it not worth it to try high-effort, longer videos about the promotion...there's better historical content available on Youtube for TJPW than NJPW, lol

EDIT: If this bombs the way we think it will, though, i think it'll simply be a weird blip on the radar to look back at if AEW rebounds decently at all.  i mean, how often do people bring up Starrcade '95 in wider histories of WCW?

[Jmare007]

3 hours ago, ragemaster said:

I thought Naito eye was due a operation?

Yup. Technically he was the first talent off the show due to injury, lol.

[Timbo Slice]

I’m sorry, but given the gimmick, Naito having eye surgery is ironic as all hell. 

[El-P]

17 minutes ago, funkdoc said:

EDIT: If this bombs the way we think it will, though, i think it'll simply be a weird blip on the radar to look back at if AEW rebounds decently at all.  i mean, how often do people bring up Starrcade '95 in wider histories of WCW?

It already sold out in the building way before they announced any matches and it will be a big crowd, so from that standpoint it can't bomb. And really the crux of the matter for AEW is TV rights, not PPV buys. I hope it doesn't bomb on PPV for very selfish reasons, I want more interpromotional shows in my pro-wrestling regime.

[Timbo Slice]

I think the big takeaway from this show is how much NJPW controlled talent here. They really protected specific interactions to the point of really hampering how this show could go down, and it’s selfish due to what they want to do on 1/4/23. For example, I don’t see them rushing to have AEW representation on upcoming shows or tours even after the G-1 based on how they set the G-1 up this year, and feel like there are certain matches they’d rather have on their turf. That’s all well and good, but while injuries tell a good chunk of the story, throwing in the booking mishaps and NJPW letting guys get big paydays for minimal involvement in multi-man matches and 3-way/4-way matches dampens the impact of the show even more. 

[strobogo]

lolgedo taking America by storm

[KawadaSmile]

LOL at WARDLOW, Hobbs and Starks having fuck all to do in this event. 

[Embrodak]

Wardlow I can kinda forgive because he’s honestly too green to do much good for himself wrestling bigger name New Japan guys, and I doubt Gedo or Tony would fly some underneath guy out to do a squash.

 

All exclusion of Hobbs and Starks is inexcusable going forward, though. Those are guys with a big future.

[Champagne]

16 hours ago, Timbo Slice said:

Tony’s issue has never been his long term vision: it’s been his ability to adjust on the fly. 

His ADHD booking is another major issue.

14 hours ago, El-P said:

It already sold out in the building way before they announced any matches and it will be a big crowd, so from that standpoint it can't bomb. And really the crux of the matter for AEW is TV rights, not PPV buys. I hope it doesn't bomb on PPV for very selfish reasons, I want more interpromotional shows in my pro-wrestling regime.

The "sell out" is the result of scalpers buying up large volumes. There are quite a few tickets for the show available for resale, some for as low as $6. With that said, I'm sure there will be a near capacity crowd in attendance and they will be fired up for the show.

[Dale Wolfe]

First time looking at the card for this

Can't believe there are two different four-ways, both for different titles, and a three-way tag as well

Feels a bit like overkill

[El-P]

4 hours ago, Dale Wolfe said:

Can't believe there are two different four-ways, both for different titles, and a three-way tag as well

Feels a bit like overkill

Totally is. To me it's also a matter of booking trick so as to protect some people, but it makes the matches lesser than they would have been (although honestly, that All-Atlantic stuff has nothing to do on this PPV, and is even less of a thing now with the non AEW guy being Clark Connors, who's very good but also is a NJPW Strong american worker, not a true, Japanese NJPW fixture). The four way for the IWGP title is much less as it is than Okada vs Hangman or White vs Hangman. The three-way tag team is less than FTR vs Cobb/O-Khan (and I sure hope Roppongi Vice aren't the one to lose here so as to none of the champs do, that would be really lame and cheap).

Despite timing issues and injuries, they did not have to book it that way. In the end, will the show be really fun with some excellent matches ? I bet so. Is the show a lot less than it should have been, despite the injuries, it looks that way to me.

[strobogo]

Lol at Goto going from a match to get into the main event for the main title to pre-show in a tag with the JTTS team of Cody's buddies. The constant trolling of this dude lol.

[Embrodak]

1 hour ago, strobogo said:

Lol at Goto going from a match to get into the main event for the main title to pre-show in a tag with the JTTS team of Cody's buddies. The constant trolling of this dude lol.

That’s what you get letting Omega do the chainsaw arm hair spot to you at a Wrestle Kingdom show.

[Alucard]

Hiromu is out with a fever and cannot travel, so that 8 man tag is now a trios tag with Sting/Darby/Shingo vs. Phantasmo & the Bucks 

[El-P]

41 minutes ago, Alucard said:

Hiromu is out with a fever and cannot travel, so that 8 man tag is now a trios tag with Sting/Darby/Shingo vs. Phantasmo & the Bucks 

*FACEPALM*

[KawadaSmile]

7 hours ago, Alucard said:

Hiromu is out with a fever and cannot travel, so that 8 man tag is now a trios tag with Sting/Darby/Shingo vs. Phantasmo & the Bucks 

No fucking way, man