AEW heads into London for Forbidden Door 2025, and this preview breaks down every match you need to know:
🚪Lights-Out Steel Cage: Young Bucks & Death Riders vs. Golden Lovers & friends
🚪Cope & Cage vs. Kip Sabian & Killswitch—tag rivalry returns
🚪Hurt Syndicate vs. FTR & Brodido for the AEW World Tag Titles
🚪Okada vs. Swerve – unified championship stakes
🚪Hangman Page vs. MJF – AEW World Championship main event
🚪Toni Storm vs. Athena, Mercedes Moné vs. Alex Windsor vs. Persephone vs. Bozilla, Kyle Fletcher vs. Hiromu, Sabre Jr. vs. McGuinness & more!
We break down the storytelling behind each bout, discuss injury concerns, dream match potential, and make bold predictions. Got thoughts? Drop your match-by-match picks down below.
#AEWForbiddenDoor #AEW #Wrestling #ProWrestling #ForbiddenDoor2025
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🚪Lights-Out Steel Cage: Young Bucks & Death Riders vs. Golden Lovers & friends
🚪Cope & Cage vs. Kip Sabian & Killswitch—tag rivalry returns
🚪Hurt Syndicate vs. FTR & Brodido for the AEW World Tag Titles
🚪Okada vs. Swerve – unified championship stakes
🚪Hangman Page vs. MJF – AEW World Championship main event
🚪Toni Storm vs. Athena, Mercedes Moné vs. Alex Windsor vs. Persephone vs. Bozilla, Kyle Fletcher vs. Hiromu, Sabre Jr. vs. McGuinness & more!
We break down the storytelling behind each bout, discuss injury concerns, dream match potential, and make bold predictions. Got thoughts? Drop your match-by-match picks down below.
#AEWForbiddenDoor #AEW #Wrestling #ProWrestling #ForbiddenDoor2025
🎧 Listen on: Apple https://apple.co/49NGm2L | Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/3QgazeHcSKSteZbBIubcuM?si=icY7NEBvT7yZadv_JFlT6Q
💬 Follow for live breakdowns: X.com/primetimepk | Twitch.tv/primetimepk | Kick.com/primetimepk
🔗 Support the Show:
- Tip Jar: https://streamelements.com/couchpotatodiary/tip (fuels more content!)
- Partners: C of Dead http://cofdead403.ca/ | Swift Energy https://www.swiftenergy.gg/?ref=mriusnqm PROMO CODE: PKPrimetime for 25% Off!
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SportsTranscript
00:00AEW has taken a trip over the pond to walk through the Forbidden Door once again.
00:07Do I like how we got here? I don't love it.
00:10Do I think this is going to be a fantastic show? I do.
00:13Let's take a look at AEW's Forbidden Door.
00:16We can debate if the Forbidden Door concept is working or if it's something that has maybe fallen off a little bit.
00:38Don't know where that accent came from. Fallen off a little bit.
00:40But what you can't deny is the action we're going to see Sunday afternoon on pay-per-view is going to be awesome.
00:49So let's dive right in.
00:53Just going off of what the matches are on Wikipedia and they have up first.
00:58I'm kind of bouncing around a little bit because they have Cope and Cage as the main event and that's not it.
01:03But up first, Lights Out Steel Cage match.
01:06Golden Lovers, Darby Allin, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Will Ospreay taking on the Death Riders, the Young Bucks, and Gabe Kidd.
01:14This is such a mishmash of talent in this bout.
01:21Ospreay is going to get a phenomenal response.
01:24He is going to feel like a superstar.
01:27I do worry about the neck injury and coming back too quickly for a match like this.
01:31Because he is not...
01:33Well, yes, there's 10 other guys in there.
01:36He's not going to be, to use the racing term, he ain't going to be conserving fuel out there to try to get this one across the finish line.
01:43He is going to be totally fine if he has to drive across this thing on one wheel to get to the finish line.
01:48That's what I anticipate this being for him.
01:51And so, like, this is going to be your crazy, wild, gif-able moments for AEW this weekend with all of the insane humans that are going to be in this.
02:02It's wild, like, look, I, again, this is not a disrespectful take for Hiroshi Tanahashi or anything like that.
02:10But this is definitely one of those things that's not like the other, right?
02:14Like, Omega, we've seen him in Anarchy in the Arena and all these things before.
02:18I guess Ibushi kind of, although, like, he's done the DDT stuff.
02:21Like, he has done some wild things as well.
02:23Darby Allin, enough said, right?
02:26Like, he has jumped off of ladders through glass before and all of those things.
02:29Will Ospreay, you think of the bloody cage match that he had with Kyle Fletcher.
02:34The Death Riders, it goes, like, Jon Moxley death match stuff.
02:37Like, it just kind of goes hand in hand.
02:38The Young Bucks have superkicked guys with tacks on their shoes before.
02:41And Gabe Kidd, while we haven't seen him in these types of matches on this sort of a level, feels like he fits, right?
02:48He feels like he kind of fits in to that mold.
02:50And Tanahashi, it feels weird to think of, oh, no, and Tanahashi is going to hit the high fly flow onto a guy with tacks on the ground.
03:01So, it's cool that he is in this.
03:02It is a fascinating mix.
03:05And one of the last times we're going to see him with a North American promotion, probably,
03:10as we head toward his January 4th retirement right now to take over as president of New Japan Pro Wrestling.
03:16But I think that they've treated him with the reverence that he deserves with Mox being like, wait, they got, like, Hiroshi Tanahashi to just kind of drive home like, this is still a dude.
03:27So, I think it's going to be a fun one.
03:29I would imagine the team with Ospreay and Tanahashi on it do get the win in this spot.
03:34And there's going to be at least a few moments where people are going to be squeamish and turning away from their televisions.
03:40Cope and Cage taking on Kip Sabian and Killswitch in a special attraction tag team bout.
03:47Um, I do think we maybe speed ran this Cope and Cage reunion a little bit.
03:54But I, like, we're obviously getting ready for All Out in Toronto and these two guys to be on that card in somewhat of a big moment.
04:04And to get this one here out of the way, like, this is going to be, I think, a fun match.
04:07And the story, like, they have done enough with it that it makes some sense.
04:10I think you maybe could have drawn it out a little bit longer, but I understand why you didn't.
04:14And I think you were still able to get there with a relatively reasonable amount of time.
04:21Um, I think the addition of Killswitch to this match is a really, really strong job.
04:27I think, like, Nick Wayne would have benefited from this level of a spotlight, I think, given the veterans in this match and everything like that.
04:33But Killswitch, to bring him in, it feels like an oh shit thing, which makes him feel like a bigger deal.
04:40And someone who, like, there's, it's a weird gimmick, obviously.
04:45A, a, a luchador who's a dinosaur, right?
04:48Um, but there's, I think, a lot of potential in that guy.
04:54So, I, I, I'm interested to see how he fits with all this.
04:58I can't imagine that Cope and Cage don't get the win in this match.
05:02But I think that we're going to see Killswitch at least looking pretty good.
05:05And we'll, we'll see what we get out of, um, out of Kip Sabian here.
05:10The AEW World Tag Team Championships on the line as the Hurt Syndicate defend against Brodito and FTR.
05:17We talked about it on the AEW preview that, um, there's been a lot of talk about if the Hurt Syndicate, maybe they don't want to put FTR over.
05:24So, is Brodito going to win this one?
05:26I do sometimes try to stay away from some of those things.
05:28But now, um, they do the draw on Dynamite and you have an incredibly talented triple threat tag team match here with the Hurt Syndicate, Brodito, and FTR.
05:39So many interesting styles clashing and just guys who feel like they can kind of work in a lot of them.
05:45So, um, I am, I think that this could steal the show.
05:48And it's going to be a tough show to steal, given a lot of the talent on here.
05:52But I, I do think that it would make for an interesting story.
05:57And it kind of, it makes some sense to go into Toronto, have FTR win the tag team titles here.
06:04And then you have Copencage go for the tag team championships out in Toronto.
06:10Um, like you have that ready-made story of Adam Copeland against FTR.
06:16Give them the belts, add, um, add another layer onto it.
06:19Now, you could have them come out and cost FTR the titles.
06:22Because that is something that doesn't necessarily need a, uh, a championship attached to it.
06:27But my, my pick is going to be FTR so that they can wrestle Copencage for the championships in Toronto.
06:32And then if Hurt Syndicate want to get them back after against those guys and just create a few different programs, I think you could do that for sure.
06:40Unified championship on the line.
06:42Okada against Swerve Strickland.
06:43This match is going to be awesome.
06:45We have now seen serious Okada.
06:47I think that how they have built this feud has been very effective for it being a bit of a quicker one.
06:54But I think the intensity and the seriousness that both guys have brought into this feud has added something pretty substantial to it.
07:02I do think it is a little bit quick to take it off of Okada after beating Omega in that big match at All In.
07:10I think one of the things that AEW needs to do in this next kind of build-up here for All In is, like, for next year.
07:19Like, in their kind of new year for wrestling.
07:21We're not quite at the point where it feels like the way it does with WWE, where the Raw after WrestleMania is, like, New Year's Day.
07:28But still, for this, like, kind of next year of AEW's cycle, I think one of the big things is getting Okada back to being a main event guy.
07:36And that match at All In did a lot to do that, for sure.
07:40And the build-up with Kenny did a lot for that, absolutely.
07:43I think losing to Swerve here, while Swerve is awesome, I think it does kind of slow that up a little bit.
07:48And Swerve is set.
07:49Swerve right now, I think, can afford a loss and still be fine, given the character and everything like that.
07:55You don't want to abuse that, but I think he can afford it.
07:57With Okada, I feel like we are still—well, we're still not all the way there.
08:02It hasn't clicked as a main eventer with AEW.
08:05The match quality on some of the TV matches hasn't been there.
08:08The quality of feuds, the storytelling, he got caught up in that Young Bucks thing and the EVP thing, and I think that held him back.
08:14We are getting serious Okada again.
08:16I think losing here would be a mistake.
08:18And so that's why I think Okada retains the unified—horrible name—unified championship.
08:25AEW Women's World Championship on the line, as timeless Toni Storm defends her belt against Athena,
08:32who is cashing in her Casino Gauntlet contract.
08:35I am of two minds of this, because on the one hand, the timeless Toni Storm character is the best character in pro wrestling right now,
08:44and it's not particularly close.
08:47So keeping the title on her makes all the sense in the world, because she's great.
08:51And it feels like you just came off of this huge build with her and Mercedes, and she still got the win there.
08:57And then to just rush and do the title change a month after, it just feels like, oh, okay.
09:04Like, this hasn't felt like it's built up to the point where this feels like it should be the time for Toni Storm to lose.
09:10On the other hand, Toni Storm is another one that, if she loses the championship, I don't think it hurts her that much.
09:17And Athena, you're coming off of this big win streak sort of a thing in Ring of Honor, and now throwing her right into the title mix,
09:24I worry that she just becomes one of the other women if she loses this match.
09:30So I think that there is a real world where Athena comes in and wins this championship and continues to build up.
09:37Because right now, like, Toni Storm, it's an amazing character, and you can do this with anyone.
09:41But they have had a bit of a lack of main event level stars on the women's side.
09:47A lot of it is just a lack of utilization.
09:49We talked about this after the gauntlet that Athena won.
09:52You see, there's a lot of talent there.
09:53They just haven't elevated enough of it into this main event vortex with Toni Storm just yet.
09:59And I understand she is a unique character, and it takes a unique type to be able to fit with her.
10:04But I think that if you have Athena lose here, the main event scene for the women's division right now is Toni Storm, Mercedes Monet, and that's it.
10:16So I think this is one where you need to elevate Athena.
10:18So it feels maybe a little rushed, and a lot of the talk coming off of Dynamite wasn't, hey, Athena, Toni Storm, let's go.
10:25It was Toni Storm and the sniffing of Mercedes Monet and that whole thing.
10:30So this is one where it doesn't feel like maybe a hot enough feud to have Toni lose it.
10:37But I think maybe you could tell a thing where Toni was still focused on Mercedes, took her eye off the ball, and Athena's too good for that.
10:44Excuse me.
10:44And now she is the women's champion.
10:46So I think you could do that one for sure.
10:49TBS championship on the line.
10:51Mercedes Monet defending against Alex Winder, Windsor, sorry.
10:55Persephone from CMLL and Bozilla representing Stardom here.
11:01Like, it's cool.
11:03Like, this is a fun sort of a thing.
11:05But again, like, Stardom has lost quite a bit of talent over the last little while.
11:10Whether it is performers that have gone on to Marigold or Mina Shirakawa, Mariah May, on their way over to AEW and then NXT.
11:20Um, so this doesn't have the dream match feel that you would think with champion against AEW, uh, CMLL stardom.
11:31Like, this doesn't have that kind of, like, oh, damn, here we go, dream match thing.
11:35Um, and so because of that, like, I think we can count Bozilla and, um, Persephone just out on this one, right?
11:41Um, so I think what it comes down to is Alex Windsor and Mercedes Monet.
11:49And with that, like, they, the Windsor build has been interesting to me.
11:59Because they brought her in with, like, a little bit of hype and a little bit of, like, okay, that this is someone you need to be preparing for and getting ready for.
12:07And then they brought her in and she has been in this kind of the, the TBS vortex area, whatever.
12:14But it just, it hasn't felt like, it felt like they thought we're gonna do a couple vignettes and hype her up a little bit.
12:19She's gonna get a big moment at All In.
12:22Box check, we're good, and off we go.
12:24And they haven't really followed up, I feel like, in the necessary ways with her to kind of drive the star thing home a little bit.
12:31And so, again, it's kind of like the Athena thing where I worry that a loss in this match, even if she's not the one taking the pin,
12:37I worry that a loss in this match just kind of puts her in as a face in the crowd in this division.
12:43And I think she can be a little bit more than that.
12:45So I do wonder if you use the stipulation to your advantage and have Windsor pin Persephone or Bozilla and she wins the TBS championship and Mercedes didn't have to be pinned to lose it.
13:02So you have now built up Windsor as, again, someone who can be a star in this division.
13:08Mercedes-Benz Monet doesn't lose a whole lot and you have now established a couple of performers at a higher level.
13:15If Mercedes just got the win, wouldn't be surprised.
13:17She is the belt collector, all these things right now.
13:20But I just, I wonder if you are looking to elevate someone, if this isn't an easy spot to be able to do that with an Alex Windsor.
13:28TNT championship on the line, Kyle Fletcher against Hiromu Takahashi.
13:32This match is going to be insane.
13:34The result of it is not in doubt for one second.
13:36I don't think there is any way that, we said this in the look ahead,
13:39I don't think there's any way that Kyle Fletcher stabbed Dustin Rhodes in the knee to lose the belt to Hiromu Takahashi a few weeks later.
13:47So the match is going to be bonkers.
13:50It's going to be insane.
13:51I cannot wait to see what this match looks like.
13:55But at the end, Kyle Fletcher is getting his hand raised.
13:58And rightfully so, as he is the next project in the men's division over on AEW.
14:04IWGP world title on the line as Zack Sabre Jr. defends against Nigel McGinnis.
14:09The people who are looking for a youth movement in New Japan, I think would get a little upset if it was Nigel McGinnis who took the belt off of Zack Sabre Jr.
14:18So again, this is another one where the result is not in doubt.
14:22It is more just, it's going to be cool to see in England, Nigel McGinnis against Zack Sabre Jr.
14:28And to be able to get this last little dream run out of Nigel.
14:33And I like that they put him in the Daniel Garcia tag team matches, all of that, to kind of get him ready for this moment.
14:44So it's not just, you're thrown in after a few months off.
14:46Let him get that ring rust out of the way and get ready for what should be a fast-paced, highly technical matchup on Sunday against Zack Sabre Jr.
14:56But again, ZSJ is coming away with the WIN, I think, for sure.
15:02And that brings us to the main event.
15:03It is the AEW World Championship on the line as Hangman Adam Page defends against MJF.
15:09We said in the preview of Dynamite that it kind of felt like they were setting something up
15:13where MJF was going to weasel his way back into not using that contract for this.
15:20And that threat was attempted murder on Mark Briscoe.
15:24But they were able to use it.
15:26So some of those storyline things that I was potentially excited about might be able to creep their way back in with this match.
15:34I still think, like, it is interesting because these guys have the potential to be the Rock Austin of AEW.
15:44Like, I think that these, like, Hangman has just, he has found another level with this character.
15:49He has found another level with the connection with the audience with this character.
15:53He is just that good.
15:55MJF goes without saying, right?
15:57Like, this guy is the best heel in the business right now.
16:01And so, it, like, it feels too soon to take the belt off of Hangman Adam Page after you just made him kind of the face of the franchise,
16:08beating Jon Moxley, again, by attempted murder, at all-in, and being able to have him kind of ride into this new era of AEW,
16:20only to lose the belt a month later against MJF, it feels too soon for that.
16:26So I think having the out of MJF still having the contract and still being able to do this, I think, makes it a little bit easier.
16:33I think Hangman does get the win.
16:35And I would be a little surprised if MJF got it, but you could convince me that is the right move,
16:40just because of how good a performer he is, and just how serious he can get in this role.
16:46But yeah, I think that these two guys have unlimited potential when it comes to what kind of rivalry they can have with AEW,
16:52and I think the match is going to be absolute brilliance on Sunday.
16:56So, like, we said that about a lot of these matches on this show.
16:59I'm not going to go too far into the Forbidden Door thing again.
17:01We talked about it in the look-ahead at the beginning of the week.
17:06New Japan is just, it's a cold product right now.
17:08The attendance figures were not great for the G1.
17:11The reaction off the G1 wasn't awesome either.
17:16You certainly have your New Japan defenders, and different people like what different people like.
17:20But this is not the product that it was when AEW started this whole thing with Forbidden Door and doing all of this.
17:30Like, they're just not at the level that they were at that particular time.
17:33So this doesn't feel like it's at that level.
17:36And as we mentioned before, like, it just, it feels like an AEW pay-per-view with a couple of New Japan throw-ins just because.
17:44So, that's a little unfortunate, and we would want a bit more of a growing of this relationship going forward.
17:51But for now, it's still going to be an awesome show.
17:54Whatever you want to call it, wherever you want to put it, this is going to be an amazing wrestling show coming up on Sunday on pay-per-view.
18:01So, again, I want to remind you guys, if you're watching this live stream, we're just about a couple hours into this now.
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18:21So, for the wrestling fans, there is a podcast just for you.
18:25It is called Living Room Lariat.
18:26It is available wherever you get your podcasts, that, of course, again, is on Spotify, as well as on Apple Podcasts.
18:36It is all the wrestling talk from here.
18:37We have a couple bonus segments that get thrown in there as well that you're not going to get on the regular Couch Potato Diary.
18:43So, if you're a wrestling fan and you just want the wrestling talk, it is over on Living Room Lariat from Couch Potato Diary.
18:51Also, if you want some of the other stuff, like if we're doing wrestling right now, if you're here because of the UFC, hey, thank you.
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