On Sunday, the proverbial prohibited portal opens for a third time, and wider than ever, as Long Island, New York hosts AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2024, with special guests STARDOM and CMLL! The 13-match card features 11 matches involving at least one talent from another promotion (and only 11 that we're picking, since two of the three preshow matches were announced after we had already submitted our predictions). It's the kind of show where you never know who might show up though, as it turns out, we do kind of know (or at least, we think we know) how most of the matches will turn out.
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If we seem a little less confident than we usually are, there's a good reason for that. WWE Clash at the Castle was the roughest show yet for this column; thanks to a surprise tag team title victory by The Unholy Union, Otis abandoning Chad Gable long enough for him to lose to Sami Zayn, and the unfortunate matter of a tie pick in the World Heavyweight Championship match, our collective picks went 2-2-1 in Scotland. Our worst-ever showing drops our collective record to 61-8-4, and we're all a little humbled by it.
That said, we're not going to succumb to despair! While AEW cards are typically harder to predict than WWE cards, but this time (possibly thanks to ForbiddenDoor's cross-promotional nature) there are four matches that absolutely everyone saw going the same way, and two more that almost everyone agreed on. Can this aberrant AEW show get us back on track? Let's get to the picks!
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Is this match even happening? Is it really two matches, instead? On last week's "AEW Collision," the team of HOOK, Samoa Joe, and Katsuyori Shibata challenged "The Learning Tree" Chris Jericho and his disciples, Big Bill and Bryan Keith, to a trios match at Forbidden Door. On this week's "Dynamite," however, Jericho revealed that Keith is injured and attempted to enlist "Murder Grandpa" Minoru Suzuki, but Suzuki challenged Jericho to a singles match instead. It seems that the trios match is still on for Forbidden Door, however, and based on reports fromWednesday's "Collision" taping, most people are assuming Jericho and Bill will team with NJPW's Jeff Cobb. Nothing has been announced, however, and Cobb had previously issued aForbidden Door open challenge for his NJPW World Television Championship. This combination of circumstances have led some to speculate that Forbidden Door will play host to singles matches between Cobb and Joe, and another between Jericho and Suzuki.
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We're going with the six-man tag with Cobb because it really seems like that's the way AEW is going, but all this surrounding weirdness makes it easy to understand why the WINC staff are fairly well split on this one. And while several of us believe in the power of Chris Jericho to get himself put over in non-title matches, a slim majority of 57% see the babyfaces taking the contest, and hopefully chopping down "The Learning Tree" once and for all.
Written by Miles Schneiderman
Coming off a historic reign as AEW World Champion, the recently-returned MJF looks to get himself back on track with his first pay-per-view win since November 2023. To achieve that, though, MJF will have to conquer former CMLL World Heavyweight Champion Hechicero. According the entirety of Wrestling Inc. staff, MJF will do just that.
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A singles match between MJF and Hechicero was first introduced as a "surprise" by Cage of Agony and Hechicero himself on the June 19 episode of "AEW Dynamite." Since then, MJF has found his attention relatively diverted, particularly by the likes of Daniel Garcia and AEW International Champion Will Ospreay, the former of which he is aiming to wrestle at AEW All In. At the same time, MJF has made it clear that he's also keen on regaining the AEW World Championship, which is currently held by Swerve Strickland. Regardless of which path he ventures down, MJF is more than likely to be involved in at least one championship program in the aftermath of AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door. As such, his momentum should remain quite favorable, and a win against Hechicero will ensure that remains the case. Furthermore, AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door will be located within the vicinity of MJF's hometown of Plainville, New York, making an MJF victory celebration all the more enticing for fans (especially those of his hometown) and MJF himself.
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If for nothing else, Forbidden Door marks the MJF's first in-ring PPV appearance in six months, so why not pair it with a win?
Written by Ella Jay
"The American Dragon" is facing "The Dragon" on Sunday, and the Wrestling Inc. Staff are almost unanimously behind the one from America.
Bryan Danielson sure does lose a lot. Even the former WWE Champion recognized it in a recent promo, where he admitted he was less than thrilled with his track record against former IWGP World Heavyweight Champions like Kazuchika Okada and Will Ospreay. He's adamant that if he can't pass muster in the Owen Hart Cup then it might be time for him to retire from full-time wrestling once and for all. At Forbidden Door, Danielson has a chance to change his fortunes, as he faces a former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion who has extensive rivalries with both Okada and Ospreay, Shingo Takagi. Fresh off losing the NEVER Openweight Title to Henare, Takagi is ready to prove himself in the first round of the Owen Hart Cup, but 94% of the Wrestling Inc. Staff believe that Danielson will finally get that big win he's been itching for.
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Takagi and Danielson will no doubt put on a stellar match, and it's a little unfortunate that Takagi is once again going to put on a Herculean performance in service of making someone else look better, but only a minute percentage of the WINC staff give him a shot to win.
Written by Ross Berman
A year after their initial faceoff at NJPW Resurgence, Stephanie Vaquer and Mercedes Mone will soon meet once again, with the stakes greatly elevated. For this occasion, Mone will defend her TBS Championship, while Vaquer raises the NJPW STRONG Women's Championship. The winner, of course, will then walk out of AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door with not one, but two titles.
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Vaquer's reign as NJPW STRONG Women's Champion began with a hard-fought victory over Giulia at the 2024 Stardom Cinderella Tournament event. Since then, "La Primera" has successfully defended the title across Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Her most recent retention took place at the CMLL x NJPW Fantastica Mania Mexico show on June 21, after which Mone confronted her in the ring.
Looking back on their previous encounter, Mone recognized that Vaquer had immensely grown since then. Nevertheless, Mone vowed to show Vaquer why she earned the nickname of "The CEO." Furthermore, Mone asserted that "money changes everything" a sentiment that AEW President Tony Khan seems to agree with as well.
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On the heels of Mone's arrival to All Elite Wrestling, Khan touted Mone as one of the official new faces of the company. To back up his claim, Khan pointed toward Mone's ability to not only deliver stellar in-ring performances, but also bring in a fresh, and consistent, palette of viewers from all over the globe. With this in mind, 92% of Wrestling Inc. staff believe AEW will continue to push Mone as a prominent fixture, and award her the distinction of "Mercedes Two Belts."
Written by Ella Jay
Though this is one of the more intriguing matches with a good storyline build behind it, not a single one of us who cast our Forbidden Door predictions here at WINC believe that STARDOM's Mina Shirakawa is taking the AEW Women's World Championship from "Timeless" Toni Storm. Which also means Shirakawa won't be taking her former tag team partner and Storm's current protegee Mariah May from the "Timeless" one, either, something she promised to do during their contract signing on "Dynamite." Though, May and Shirakawa may not continue to be friends for long following the STARDOM talent accidentally cracking May over the head with a bottle of champagne, aiming for Storm, following their most recent match on "Dynamite," though they did score a win over The Outcasts.
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At the time of Forbidden Door, Storm will have held the title for 225 total days this reign, and we just don't see it ending right now. Many of us here are big fans of Storm's "Timeless" gimmick and May's current story of going through Storm's "eras" in character. Even those of us who aren't Storm fans believe the title is changing hands when May gets to her own "Timeless" era of Storm cosplay and the two go head-to-head in the culmination of this "All About Eve" story. While the feud over the title (and May) between Storm and Shirakawa has been a great storyline on AEW programming, we just don't see the STARDOM star sticking around to hold the gold over such an over gimmick that is Toni Storm.
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Written byDaisyRuth
