AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door could feature a huge title change.
The third cross promotional event goes down on Sunday, June 30th at the UBS Arena in Long Island, New York and will feature the stars of AEW clashing with the stars of NJPW.
One such match will see Jon Moxley defend the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion against the man he beat for it, Tetsuya Naito. The anticipation for the rematch is high but, the outcome of the title bout may have been spoiled by the announcement of the G1 Climax participants.
The Japanese promotion revealed wrestlers who are competing in the competition and there was one surprise name included and one glaring omission. Konosuke Takeshita is the surprise name added to the list, while Moxley’s name is not included, which strongly hints that he won’t be the IWGP champion much longer.
The G1 Climax usually features the reigning champion as one of the participants. However, champions Riki Choshu (in 1992), Kazuyuki Fujita (in 2001 and 2004), and Keiji Mutoh (in 2008) did not compete in the tournament.
One title that will definitely change hands is the TNT Championship, and the final entrant for the Forbidden Door Ladder Match has now been determined.
What other matches are happening at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door?
The event has several big matches announced with more to be confirmed in the coming weeks. The full card so far is as follows:
- Swerve Strickland (c) vs. Will Ospreay – AEW World Championship
- Jon Moxley (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito – IWGP World Heavyweight Championship
- Mercedes Mone (c) vs. Stephanie Vaquer (c) – TBS Championship / NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship
- Mark Briscoe vs. Konosuke Takeshita vs. Jack Perry vs. Dante Martin vs. TBC vs. TBC – TNT Championship Ladder Match
- Toni Storm (c) vs. Mina Shirakawa – Women’s World Championship
- Orange Cassidy vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
In recent news, AEW is teaming up with Reebok to release a commemorative Brodie Lee sneaker.