SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
ZERO HOUR CARD
Skye Blue vs. Maika (Stardom) – TBS Championship Survival of the Fittest Qualifier Match
Preview: Skye Blue has been deeply intertwined with AEW Women’s Champion, Thekla, and Julia Hart in the Triangle of Madness. Maika is a fixture in the Stardom promotion. This is a prototypical Forbidden Door match with the added dimension of being a Survival of the Fittest qualifier.
Prediction: Skye Blue defeats Maika to qualify for the Survival of the Fittest match for the TBS Title
Skye Blue is the established AEW wrestler, thus, it would be easier to slide into any storylines they want to build or continue coming out of the Survival of the Fittest match.
Divine Dominion (Megan Bayne & Lena Kross) (c) vs. Thunder Rosa & Olympia – AEW Women’s World Tag Team Championship
Preview: Divine Dominion are being built as dominant Women’s tag team champions (as they should). They both look and wrestle the part. Thunder Rosa and Olympia feel a bit thrown together for Forbidden Door purposes, but that is okay with me for a Zero Hour match.
Prediction: Divine Dominion (Megan Bayne & Lena Kross) (c) defeat Thunder Rosa & Olympia to retain the AEW Women’s World Tag Team Championship
Divine Dominion is clearly being built to face the Brawling Birds (Jamie Hayter & Alex Windsor), very likely at Wembley for All In as the Birds are London-natives. Divine Dominion will obviously hold the titles until that point.
MAIN PPV CARD
Adam Copeland & Christian Cage (c) vs. The Dogs (David Finlay & Clark Connors) – AEW World Tag Team Championship
Preview: Cope & Cage have down a great job ramping up their intensity for a credibly violent team that calls for that escalation in The Dogs. Their continued brawls, both in the ring and in various parts across arenas, over the last several weeks has really worked for me. The Dogs were a great call for Cope & Cage’s first tag title defense.
Prediction: Cope and Cage (Adam Copeland & Christian Cage) (c) defeat The Dogs (David Finlay & Clark Connors) to retain AEW World Tag Team Championship
It’s clear that Cope & Chrisitan are destined for a major tag title match at All In (I’d imagine with multiple teams of varying fame across several eras). The Dogs are a very good act but they have plenty of time to be on the championship chase in their young careers. Cope & Cage are on a very impressive final ride with the tag belts and they have many more stories to be told until the end of summer, at the earliest.
The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) vs. El Sky Team (Místico & Máscara Dorada) vs. Unbound Co. (Shingo Takagi & Titán)
Preview: This is a fun, Forbidden Door-themed match with little to no consequence. The Young Bucks could use a few wins on their road for what is likely a tag title match with Cope & Cage in the immediate future. The other two teams should perform well in the ring and this will almost certainly be a “Bucks-style” match.
Prediction: The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) defeat El Sky Team (Místico & Máscara Dorada) and Unbound Co. (Shingo Takagi & Titán)
The Bucks need the win and the other teams likely won’t be seen together on AEW anytime soon.
Jon Moxley (c) vs. Bandido – AEW Continental Championship
Preview: This match should be a really fun stylistic match-up. Mox will be his usual hard-hitting, brawling self and Bandido will mix in his power moves with his high-flying ability. This match is basically on a two-week build and doesn’t have much consequence. I suppose that they could use it to advance the Mox-Death Riders-Ospreay story, if they so choose.
Prediction: Jon Moxley (c) defeats Bandido to retain AEW Continental Championship
Moxley is in the midst of what will likely be the central story for AEW’s biggest show of the year at All In. I can’t see him dropping the title to Bandido here unless it somehow furthers his story with Ospreay, but I just couldn’t see any feasible way that would make sense.
Shota Umino (c) vs. Pac – IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship
Preview: Another Forbidden Door-themed match without much consequence. Once again, it should be a fun, in-ring match but there is little doubt to the outcome due to logistics and company politics.
Prediction: Shota Umino (c) defeats Pac to retain the IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship
In no way would NJPW agree to take the title off of Umino for Pac, nor should they. This is a rather important NJPW title and it wouldn’t make sense to put it on Pac who rarely visits the main event scene in AEW.
Thekla (c) vs. Starlight Kid – AEW Women’s World Championship
Preview: Thekla has almost single-handedly made this a solid to strong build (depending on your perspective) with her obsession in essentially feuding with the promotion who fired who in Japan, being Stardom. Starlight kid is almost secondary but she will do her part in making this another quality, in-ring match.
ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…
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Prediction: Thekla (c) defeats Starlight Kid to retain the AEW Women’s World Championship
Thekla is bound to be the Women’s AEW World Title main event at All In and Starlight Kid isn’t even with AEW outside of this one-off.
Mercedes Moné vs. Maya World – Women’s Owen Hart Cup Final – The winner receives an AEW Women’s World Championship match at All In
Preview: The Maya World, underdog, feel-good story after her Brother’s sudden death before her first tournament match has been a fun ride and the juice has been worth the squeeze. That being said, Mercedes Mone is a Bonafide star and carries herself like one.
Prediction: Mercedes Moné defeats Maya World to win Women’s Owen Hart Cup Final and receives an AEW Women’s World Championship match at All In
Mercedes is the star here and I just don’t really think that AEW can legitimately build-up Maya World in just about two months to reach the point of being deserving of a Women’s World Title match at AEW’s biggest show of the year in London. I would advise using this match, as best as they can, to build Maya World’s resume. I do see something there and there is potential to elevate her to another tier in AEW’s women’s division. Particularly with all of the recent injuries and absences. It will be needed in the near future.
Will Ospreay vs. Swerve Strickland (with Prince Nana) – Men’s Owen Hart Cup Final – The winner receives an AEW World Championship match at All In
Preview: Will Ospreay has been pegged as the obvious “man of destiny” as he has been on a multi-year, babyface journey with AEW and, should he win, his Men’s AEW World Title match would be occurring in his home Country of England at Wembley Stadium in August at All In. The story writes itself and both the Kenny Omega and Moxley-Death riders wrinkles to the story have certainly added an intriguing twist that leaves many paths this story could go and culminate. Meanwhile, Ospreay and Swerve have a history as they were tag partners at last year’s All In event in Texas in the animosity that has been building since Swerve turned back, full-heel, earlier this year.
Prediction: Will Ospreay defeats Swerve Strickland (with Prince Nana) to win the Men’s Owen Hart Cup Final and receives an AEW World Championship match at All In
It would be a massive gut punch to the AEW audience should Ospreay lose this match. Fans would feel like their time and investment in the Ospreay story was for naught. AEW doesn’t tend to do that and I don’t see that happening at Forbidden Door.
Team Briscoe (Mark Briscoe & Orange Cassidy & Roderick Strong & Kyle O’Reilly & Konosuke Takeshita & Darby Allin) vs. MJF and The Don Callis Family (Kevin Knight & Kyle Fletcher & Jake Doyle & Kazuchika Okada & Andrade El Ídolo) – Steel Cage match – If Briscoe’s team wins, he will earn an AEW World Championship match against MJF in the future
Preview: This match was likely brought on by the fact that MJF is dealing with injuries and wouldn’t be able to carry the necessary full load in an outright singles match for the AEW Men’s World Title against Mark Briscoe on Sunday. Therefore, to buy the necessary time to have an adequate one-on-one match, Tony Khan booked this multi-man match to earn a future title shot for Briscoe where MJF won’t have to do much. It also works in kayfabe in that MJF is the type of character who is willing to buy mercenaries (like Don Callis and his family) to get what he wants and Briscoe is the type of character who has real, loyal friends who are willing to go to battle with him. There should be fun match inter-stories, as well, like MJF co-existing with Andrade and Kevin Knight (who are also gunning for his title), Takeshita and Okada who have a long-standing rivalry and Darby and Knight who have great animosity for one another after Knight turned on Darby at the end of last month’s Double or Nothing PPV.
Prediction: Team Briscoe (Mark Briscoe & Orange Cassidy & Roderick Strong & Kyle O’Reilly & Konosuke Takeshita & Darby Allin) defeat MJF and The Don Callis Family (Kevin Knight & Kyle Fletcher & Jake Doyle & Kazuchika Okada & Andrade El Ídolo) – Steel Cage match and Briscoe earns an AEW World Championship match against MJF in the future
This match was likely supposed to be MJF Vs. Briscoe in the first place, so I can’t imagine scheduling this match if the idea isn’t to have MJF Vs. Briscoe, at some point in the near future. I’m looking forward to several other feuds being advanced through this match. I expect that we might get MJF Vs. Briscoe for the AEW World Title at Dynamite’s “Beach Break” on July 8.
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