AEW-NJPW Forbidden Door Match Ratings By Dave Meltzer
The match ratings are in the AEW-NJPW Forbidden Door pay-per-view from the mind of one well-known wrestling observer.
This past Sunday night in Toronto, the second annual AEW-NJPW Forbidden Door pay-per-view took place with some of the top stars from All Elite Wrestling facing off against the biggest names from New Japan Pro Wrestling.
There really wasn’t a competition about what promotion was going to win more matches because AEW dominated in that regard since they won seven matches on the main show while NJPW representatives only won two matches. Instead, it was about putting on some unique matchups that weren’t necessarily about storylines, but instead were more about putting on a great show for the fans.
Two matches stood out the most as the companies did their best to promote a “double main event” for the show. Will Ospreay regained the IWGP US Title that Kenny Omega took from him back in January at Wrestle Kingdom 17. That Wrestle Kingdom match was a classic that a lot of fans loved, but they may have topped it at Forbidden Door as they had a bloody battle for 40 minutes with Ospreay finding a way to beat Omega in his home country of Canada.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter thought so highly of the Ospreay-Omega match at Forbidden Door that he rated it six stars. Meltzer has been known to go over five stars (some people, like yours truly, use a five-star scale where you can’t go over it) and it’s his right to do it because it’s all a personal choice.
The other major match presented at Forbidden Door was the Bryan Danielson-Kazuchika Okada dream match between two of the best wrestlers of this generation. Bryan won the match by submission even though he worked the last ten minutes with a broken bone in his arm.
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As is always the case when we present match ratings, it’s important to remember that one person’s four-star match is another person’s two-star match. No different than your friend liking a movie or a television show more or less than you do. It’s all just opinion, after all.
The Dave Meltzer star ratings for the AEW-NJPW Forbidden Door lineup are below.
- Tom Lawlor vs. Serpentico NO RATING
- Mogul Embassy vs. Chaos ***1/4
- Athena vs. Billie Starkz – Owen Hart Tournament **1/4
- El Phantasmo vs. Stu Grayson ***1/4
- Los Ingobernables de Japon vs. United Empire ***1/2
- MJF (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi – AEW World Championship ***1/4
- CM Punk vs. Satoshi Kojima – Owen Hart Tournament ****
- Orange Cassidy (c) vs. Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Daniel Garcia vs. Katsuyori Shibata – International Championship ****
- Sanada (c) vs. Jungle Boy Jack Perry – IWGP World Heavyweight Championship ***3/4
- The Elite & Eddie Kingston, Tomohiro Ishii vs. The Blackpool Combat Club ****3/4
- Toni Storm (c) vs. Willow Nightingale – AEW Women’s Championship ***1/4
- Kenny Omega (c) vs. Will Ospreay – IWGP United States Title ******
- Sting, Darby Allin & Tetsuya Naito vs. Les Suzuki Gods ***
- Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada ****3/4