00:00We've got new Tag Team Champions! The Young Bucks came out to Umbop, and we opened our
00:05own Forbidden Door as I took a photo with Frasier from Cultaholic and Simon Miller from
00:09WhatCulture. No, don't worry, we're not going to do a big cross-channel thing, I just wanted
00:13to pop the comments. I'm Luke Owen and this is my review of AEW X New Japan Pro Wrestling
00:18Forbidden Door 2025.
00:23The August bank holiday weekend has become a really fun wrestling tradition here in the
00:27UK. RevPro had their anniversary show where Sha Samuels won the British Heavyweight Championship
00:31in what could have been his last match. AEW's Nyla Rose won the EVE Championship Progress,
00:37are running a show today with Man Like Derese vs. Luke Jacobs, and from what I can gather,
00:41Derese is on fire and Luke Jacobs is terrified. And Nico Angelo won the Riot Championship on
00:47Friday night with a cameo from WWE's Pete Dunne. It was also so lovely meeting so many of you and
00:53chatting with you about this wonderful sport. I got not one, not two, but three friendship
00:58bracelets that have warmed this cynical heart. But perhaps the biggest news of all is I met
01:03Scotty 2 Hottie and he did the worm with his son when facing the Lions pride of Rocco Gyoza and
01:09Fabio Romano. It's Scotty 2 Hottie, he does the worm. I love professional wrestling. And it was all
01:30surrounding AEW, New Japan, CMLL, Stardom and a bit of RevPro putting on Forbidden Door at the O2,
01:35and for my money, shh, don't tell Wembley Stadium this, I prefer to the O2. AEW are also claiming
01:41that they set an attendance record for the venue for a wrestling show with over 19,000 fans. If
01:47accurate, not only does it beat WWE's Money in the Bank 2023 at the O2, but it also makes it the
01:53largest wrestling arena show in the UK, beating out a WWE show from 1998 in Manchester. So expect
02:01WWE to announce a two-night PLE at the O2 fairly soon so they can reclaim their record.
02:05The action kicked off with the Zero Hour Bunch of Lads match as Crew, Josh Alexander and Hechisero beat
02:10Paragon, El Desperado and Yu-Gi-Mara, and Ricochet teamed with the Gates of Agony to beat Jet Speed
02:15and flag bearer and bar setter of British wrestling Michael Oku, who had a fabulous match with TNA's
02:20X-Division Champion Leon Slater at RevPro on Saturday. Oku was pinned, which makes sense,
02:24as he doesn't even go here, but it was sad to see him take the L, the Heat brother. Willow Nightingale,
02:30Chris Statlander, Queen Aminada and Harley Cameron beat Triangle of Madness and Megan Bane and,
02:34respectfully, I'm of the belief that Kyle Fletcher and Sky Blue are having a competition
02:38of who can wear the smallest pants. And the Ops successfully defended their trios titles against
02:42the War Dogs of Clark Connors, Drilla Maloney and Robbie X, and it was so delightful to see Robbie
02:48put on a fantastic performance in front of such a big crowd. He also got to do the Joe walkaway spot,
02:53which is nice. The main show kicked off with Cope and Christian having their first tag match
02:57together in like forever, and who has two thumbs and was 14 in the year 2000? This guy. So this
03:03match really did hit me in a special place. Remember, I lost my mind because I met Scotty
03:07to Hoddy on Friday. They had a great match with Kip Sabian and a returning Luchasaurus, which,
03:11of course, saw Cope and Christian get the win. And while this was a nostalgic trip,
03:15seeing Edge and Christian back together, this isn't a nostalgic act. They're new characters,
03:20and this is a new version of their team. Christian is still an a-hole, and he wouldn't face off against
03:25Luchasaurus, making Cope do the heavy lifting, both figuratively and literally, and Cope played
03:29up his role as the wily veteran. Sabian kept disrespecting Luchasaurus throughout,
03:33so that story will continue. And a huge shoutout to the crowd for the chant,
03:36Hey, hey Christian, ooh, ah, I wanna know, will you be my dad?
03:44Kyle Fletcher beat Hiromu Takahashi to retain the TNT Championship in a really good match that got great
03:49in the final stretch. Even though it was pretty clear a title change was never on the card,
03:53these guys really did make me buy into some of the Takahashi near-faults. Fletcher won with the
03:57Brain Buster. Mercedes-Benz Monet got a big entrance with B-Feeders. Spot your favorite local India
04:02wrestler amongst them, Hello Sunshine Machine, as she defended the TBS Championship against Alex Wintar,
04:06Persephone and Bozilla, who, as the most unknown of the foursome, really impressed and showed out.
04:11She had all the cool power spots, and the crowd got super into her work. But being from the home of
04:16Alan Partridge, Wintar was the fan favorite despite a lot of love for Monet, and Mercedes
04:20got the win pinning Persephone. And I'm sorry, but I did not get the chance to ask either Mercedes
04:26Monet or Tony Khan about James Storm's pitch for Beer Monet at the Po Show press conference.
04:31I tried, but other people wanted to ask real questions.
04:34I then had an outer body experience as Zack Sabre Jr. defended the IWGP Championship against
04:39Nigel McGuinness. It's crazy to think that last year, Nigel made his return to the ring
04:43when we didn't think it was ever going to happen. And here he is, in a sold-out 0-2,
04:48against the best technical wrestler on the planet. I said this to Oli at RefPro on Saturday,
04:53but I said it differently when I watched Zack matches. I leaned forward more, as if studying
04:57the intricacies of what they're doing. Yes, nice transition to the lower part of the arm there,
05:01yes, very clever. I can't wait to watch this one back with Bryan Danielson on commentary,
05:05who I can only imagine was as excited as Oli Davis when he saw Shayna Wayne.
05:09Queen Aminada and Tecla were brawling backstage and spilled out onto the ramp,
05:12and Jamie Hayter made her AEW return for the second year in a row at a UK show on the August
05:17Bank Holiday weekend to help Aminada. It's great to have her back, and I'm happy that she's in a
05:21big storyline with Tecla, rather than farting around in the midcard not looking as good as she
05:25did two years ago. Brodito won the AEW Tag Titles in a match I completely missed,
05:29because in my infinite wisdom, decided during the entrances it would be a good time to go get
05:33something quick to eat. But it turns out, the O2 ran out of food halfway through the show. Hilariously,
05:38Crystal Palace National Sports Centre also ran out of beer halfway through the Rev Pro show.
05:42So the only thing I could eat were these chicken nuggets and chips, terrible for someone who tries
05:46to eat vegetarian, and it cost me, and I'm not kidding here, 25 quid with a beer. 25 great British
05:55pounds sterling for a meal I cooked for my three-year-old and do a better job off because,
06:00and this is the real kicker, it wasn't seasoned. I'm sorry, O2, do I have to pay an extra fiver for
06:06Salt-N-Pepa, you f***ing criminals doing daylight robbery, and it took me ages to get served because
06:10everyone was ordering the same f***ing thing because you had no other food? You should be f***ing-
06:14It was weird because on Wednesday this was announced as a normal triple threat tag match,
06:17and I speculated it was so Hurt Syndicate could lose the titles without being pinned.
06:21And then, on Friday, it was announced as an elimination match, which put to rest some
06:24of the speculation it was made a triple threat match so the Hurt Syndicate could lose the titles
06:28without being pinned. But then, it turns out, it was just a normal tag team triple threat match,
06:33and the Hurt Syndicate lost the tag titles without being pinned.
06:36Ricochet and the Gates of Agony brawled with Lashley and Shelton and Brodido got the pin,
06:40which was sort of botched in terms of timing so the pop was a little off. This has done
06:44zero favours to the rumours that the Hurt Syndicate don't want to put anyone over and it's getting
06:48them heat backstage. An eight month reign where they didn't even get pinned is terribly lame.
06:53I like the winners and I was surprised it was Brodido, but I do not like how we got here.
06:58Kazuchika Okada successfully defended his Unified Championship against Swerve Strickland
07:02in a brilliant match, and the big story came in the post-match as Swerve was written off TV.
07:07Fight was late to report he could miss a few months of shows as he's off to get surgery,
07:11as Wardlow made his return to AEW, joining forces with the Don Callis family. He had a tense moment
07:17with Kanusuke Takeshi and it would appear they're on the same page… for now.
07:20It will be interesting to see where this goes, but I've seen a few big Wardlow pushes start and go
07:25nowhere, so I'm not getting too invested at this point. But speaking of amazing matches,
07:29and Toni Storm defended her AEW Women's World Championship against Athena in a barn burner.
07:34I really hope Storm gets the credit she deserves when it comes to the end of year awards,
07:38because this match, the Monet match at All In, and the Hollywood ending with Mariah
07:42May have been some of the best matches in all of All Elite Wrestling this year.
07:46Mina Shurikawa ran down to stop the interference from Billy Starks on the outside,
07:49and Storm finally managed to tap Athena out with a TCM chicken wing. Fabulous stuff this was.
07:54As was MJF vs Hangman Page for the AEW World Championship, with the extra added stips that MJF could
08:00win the title via countout or DQ. These two have incredible chemistry together, and Hangman Page
08:06brings out a genuine emotion in me where I screamed, at the top of my lungs,
08:11he's my effing champion when he made his entrance.
08:14Mark Briscoe ran out at one point and he punched out Sunshine Machine and Rocco Gyoza,
08:18which didn't seem very nice of him, and there was some wackiness as referee Bryce Remsberg
08:22counted the three on MJF doing a pin, but didn't spot that Page's foot was on the ropes. It was wacky,
08:27because he didn't call for the bell immediately after counting the three, and then saw the foot
08:32after the Mark Briscoe stuff, which made it all feel a little convoluted. What saved it all was an
08:37insanely hot crowd who so desperately wanted to see Page retain his title, which he did,
08:42with a buckshot lariat. Tony Khan announced at the post-show press conference that he's making a
08:46change to the ruling of the casino-gauntlet contract, where it's no longer a money in the
08:49bank cash-in deal, even though it sort of was and also sort of wasn't. It's now official,
08:53you have to announce at least one week ahead of time that you're executing the contract.
08:58I'm just glad we've got some clarification on what this contract gimmick actually is.
09:02And the main event was an absolutely insane, bonkers, and mad 10-man, lights-out,
09:09steel cage match, as Jon Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli teamed with Gabe Kidd and the Young
09:13Bucks to take on the super team of Golden Lovers Darby Allin, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Will Ospreay,
09:18a team where they had probably one working body between them, and the fittest one of the lot has just
09:22come back from climbing Mount Everest. Thankfully, this was that New Japan-style cage where there's
09:27space around the ring and it's slightly lower, so not only does that mean that it's not lethal
09:31lockdown levels of Cluster Efri, it also means that everyone in the building can see what's actually
09:36happening. And what they saw was utter carnage. The Young Bucks had their entrance music changed
09:41to Hanson's umbop, and playing off a gag in the Zero Hour, their bag of nails and tacks was replaced
09:46with gummy bears bouncing here and there and everywhere. It set the tone for this insane match that saw
09:52a barbed wire board and Gabe Kidd and Darby Allin sailing off the top of the cage through four
09:57tables on the outside. One of the big talking points with people we met before the show was
10:01the state of Tanahashi's knees and TK being a mad lad putting him in a steel cage match. And yes,
10:07it was kind of sad at times to see how little Tanner could move around the ring, but there was a
10:11hilarious spot where he threatened to jump off a ladder and his teammates had to talk him out of it.
10:15He was also never in danger of being thrown into the barbed wire board, because his knees would not
10:19allow him any momentum to run towards it, meaning he stopped pretty easily. Personally, I wouldn't
10:24have booked him in a match where he can't, you know, just stand on the apron for 99% of the time
10:28and then tag him at the end to play their hits. But credit where credit is due, Hiroshi Tanahashi
10:34scoring the pin with the high fly flow made me feel very emotional. It was a beautiful ending to what
10:40was an amazing show. And then the Death Riders absolutely murdered Will Ospreay. It was a heck of an
10:45angle as Mox hit several paradigm shifts to a lifeless Will who sold it so incredibly well.
10:50This got a ton of heat from this O2 crowd who all stayed well after the show was over to watch
10:56Ospreay get stretched out of the building. It was reported going into the show that Will legit
11:00needs to get neck surgery, and like the Swerve angle earlier, this was done to ride him off TV
11:04for a while. Speedy recovery, Will. I can't wait to have you back. I think it's a testament to the
11:09stacked nature of the current AEW roster that losing Swerve and Will at the same time, while a blow,
11:14doesn't feel like a kill shot. I had the best time at Forbidden Door. I had the best time this
11:18weekend. I loved professional wrestling, and I loved all the shows that I went to, and I loved that I
11:21met Scotty Too Hotty, and I loved that I met all of you, and I loved Forbidden Door. Some genuine
11:26match of the year contenders in there, a fantastic atmosphere, and some killer angles. And there was
11:31no Chris Jericho, which means no lousy, fozzy performance. So what's going on with him in AEW?
11:36Oli Davis and I looked into that and the WWE ESPN deal on the WrestleTalk Podcast, which you can watch
11:41by clicking the video on screen right now. I need to go get some breakfast.
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