Eric Bischoff was effusive in his praise for AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door main event between Swerve Strickland and Will Ospreay. Strickland overcame Ospreay to retain his AEW World Championship after 27 minutes of back-and-forth action, ending his challenger's undefeated streak in the promotion. Reacting to the event on his "83 Weeks" podcast, Bischoff hailed the bout as potentially Tony Khan's best creative decision thus far.
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"I'm gonna say this right off the f***ing bat, kudos to Tony Khan in his creative decision, perhaps the best one he's ever made," he declared. He reasoned that Ospreay had put Strickland over in a way that had not been seen, "Having Will Ospreay put over Swerve and not only, by the way, put over Swerve but make Swerve look like a billion bucks... Ospreay can make himself look really, really good, he made Swerve tonight."
Bischoff is often critical of AEW and has been especially critical of the booking surrounding Swerve Strickland previously, but at Forbidden Door he made sure to acknowledge Strickland, Khan, and Ospreay, with the latter getting specific credit for his part. "[Swerve] got the opportunity and he was in there with a pro in Ospreay. Ospreay did everything he could in his power to make that a phenomenal freaking match. Not taking anything from Swerve but Swerve couldn't have done what he did to the level he did it without someone as professional and as talented as Ospreay... I can't say enough good things about it. It gives me some hope, it actually does, it was powerful enough to give me hope."
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