Winners, live scores, reaction and highlights

All of Elite Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling united once again for Forbidden Door, the annual inter-promotional pay-per-view extravaganza, live from the UBS Arena in Long Island, New York.

The show featured the AEW World Championship match between Swerve Strickland and top contender, AEW International Champion Will Ospreay. A number of dream matches and high stakes fights were held.

Local hero MJF took on CMLL star Hechicero, while AEW Women’s World Champion “Timeless” Toni Storm and Stardom contender Mina Shirakawa battled for both the coveted title and the affections of Mariah May.

Who won the best matches of the night and who advanced to the Owen Hart Foundation tournament matches?

Find out in this report of the June 30 spectacle.

The following events were announced prior to Sunday’s event:

• AEW World Championship Match: Swerve Strickland (c) vs. Will Ospreay
• Title by Title: TBS Champion Mercedes Mone vs. NJPW Strong Champion Stephanie Vaquer
• IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Match: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito
• AEW Women’s World Championship Match: “Ageless” Toni Storm (c) vs. Mina Shirakawa
• TNT Championship Ladder Match: Mark Briscoe vs. Lio Rush vs. Dante Martin vs. Konosuke Takeshita vs. Jack Perry vs. The Phantasma
• Owen Hart Men’s Tournament Quarterfinals: Bryan Danielson vs. Shingo Takagi
• The Elite (The Young Bucks and Kazuchika Okada) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi and The Acclaimed
• Orange Cassidy vs. Zack Saber Jr.
• MJF vs Hechicero
• Hook, Samoa Joe and Katsuyori Shibata vs. Chris Jericho, Big Bill and Jeff Cobb

Forbidden Door: Zero Hour Kickoff Show

• Yota Tsuji, Titan and Hiromu Takahashi vs. Mistico and The Lucha Bros.
• Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament Quarterfinal: Mariah May vs. Saraya
• Willow Nightingale and Tam Nakano vs. Kris Statlander and Momo Watanabe
• 4-Way Tag Team Match: Kyle O’Reilly and Tomohiro Ishii vs. House of Black vs. Private Party vs. Gabe Kidd and Roderick Strong

Imagine looking at the already bloated Forbidden Card, with its unfathomable fourteen matches, and thinking, “You know what this show needs? A Kyle Fletcher squash match.”

That was apparently the mentality, however, as the Ring of Honor Television Champion ran through Serptentico to kick off the in-ring portion of the evening’s card.

Fletcher certainly shone, but how much when his opponent is a man whose greatest achievement was “his last match in Ring of Honor” is questionable.

Result

Fletcher defeated Serpentico

Figure

F

Key Takeaways

• This served no purpose and had no reason to exist on this map.
• Fletcher is certainly a talent, but he’ll never reach his maximum level of hypersensitivity by losing on TV and winning meaningless squashes on pay-per-view pre-shows.

Brody King and Malakai Black of House of Black took on Kyle O’Reilly and Tomohiro Ishii, the team of Roderick Strong and Gabe Kidd and Private Party in a four-way tag team match.

An action packed match saw some hard punches and attacks from Ishii, O’Reilly, Strong and Kidd, while Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen brought the high flyers to the table.

Ultimately, Black and King got the win thanks to a Gonzo Bomb from the latter to Kassidy.

The right team (one of only two legitimate tandems in the match) transferred, continuing a bounce-back year for the House of Black.

Result

House of Black defeated O’Reilly and Ishii, Kidd and Strong, and Private Party

Figure

C+

Main Pickup Points

• Ishii and King forearm-swiping is always fun, even if there’s no reason for this match to exist other than “just because.”
• “Daddy Magic” Matt Menard indicated on commentary that O’Reilly and Strong may be becoming increasingly friendly with each other, which may be an indication of the direction the two are heading in the coming weeks and months.

Sunday night saw two rivalries between two different promotions play out, as Willow Nightingale and Kris Statlande wrote the latest chapter in their feud, while Tam Nakano and Momo Watanabe showcased their talents to a new audience.

What started slowly, with a crowd that initially found it hard to get involved, developed into an excellent tag team match that centered around Statlander as she and Nightingale were purposely kept apart ahead of Wednesday’s Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament semifinal between the former friends.

Nakano and Watanabe also showed off some in-ring action that likely won over fans previously unfamiliar with their work, with the former winning the babyface match with a hammerlock German suplex.

Result

Nightingale and Nakano defeated Watanabe and Statlander

Figure

b

Top takeaways

• Nightingale has great babyface fire, something we already knew, and it woke up the fans in Long Island for this.
• Statlander’s height and strength make her a more effective heel. Hopefully this is the role where she finally finds the sustained success that reflects her talent.