Going through the Forbidden door – By Gareth ‘Wrestle G’ Huish

Hello NoDQ readers and welcome to a Jam-Packed column here on this week from yours truly, your boy, Wrestle G.

Now you may have noticed at the top of the column I’ve elected to put my full name in. I want to address that quickly before I go through the meat and bones of this week’s topic which is my Forbidden Door preview. I started this Column in an attempt to dip my toes into the water of using my journalism degree and finally put it to good use. I’ve loved wrestling since I was little, and I have always harboured a desire to try contributing positively to the wrestling space.

I wholeheartedly believe that for opinions NoDQ.com is one of the best wrestling sites around, heck I’ve been reading Mr Tito Columns since 1998! And I am blessed and extremely thankful for Aaron Rift and the whole NoDQ.com staff for giving me this platform. I believe I have some interesting things to say, and I love discussing the product with everyone.

But I put a moniker on myself with my social media and this column to see if I could make it work. To see if I could be a positive contributor, and thanks to the great team on this website, some hard work from myself and all of the lovely and amazing people who have followed me or read my stuff. I am now super confident I can. So, for me to take the next step I need to add some more legitimacy to my online persona and stop working under a hood as it were. I want to keep progressing and see how far I can take this project.

Further to this I will be starting with that this weekend, when I will be covering Forbidden Door all Sunday day and evening when I go to the event. I am super excited, and my column next week will go into great detail about my experience.

So, thank you so much for giving me the confidence that I can be myself and that I may actually have a future covering wrestling. It warms my heart and keeps me happy.

But enough about me……. It’s all about AEW this weekend.

Forbidden Door Preview

Here are my thoughts on the card for this Sunday live from the O2 in London:

Kyle Fletcher v Hiromu Takahashi for the AEW TNT Championship

I am firmly in the camp that Kyle Fletcher is a future AEW world champion. However, I think he may have a bigger task in front of him right now and that is him making the TNT championship back into a title where you want to see competitors win it. Sadly, I feel like it’s been a bit of an afterthought over the past 18 months. But now in Kyles hands I can feel it heating up a little bit. Forbidden Door feels like a place for him to stamp a bit of authority on his reign. Takahashi, I think is a great opponent at this point as he holds credibility and can hold up his end of the bargain in terms of work rate. It will also be a seriously colourful sight with both guys ring gear. Fletcher has to go over here, and he has to have most of the match. I suspect Callis family shenanigans during the bout, but we have to come away with Fletcher standing tall.

Prediction – Kyle Fletcher

Adam Copeland and Christian Cage v Kip Sabian and Luchasauras

I am still in shock that we are going to be seeing Edge and Christian tagging together. Growing up I loved myself some 5 second poses (did anyone ever take those and have them developed? I’d love to see them) and it’s not a stretch to suggest that as a tag team they are innovators who’s work can still be seen influence heavily to this day. They are also two of the most successful singles competitors coming out of a tag team.

At present I love the odd couple dynamic they have, where christian refuses to change his ways but Copeland just goes with it knowing when the bell rings they each will know what to do and have each other’s backs.

On the other side of the ring are Kip Sabian whose fallout from the Patriarchy seems him as a default mentor to Nick Wayne, the wrestling prodigy who has been forced out of this match with a broken foot, a speedy recovery to him of course. I am so pleased for Kip that he has the opportunity to wrestle in the UK in front of a crowd the size of the O2 and how loud it will be. It’s been quite a journey for him, and this feels like a just reward.

His partner is a returning luchasauras. I am so pleased to have him back given how close we seemingly were to losing him, not just to wrestling and AEW but to the world. Scary times and I hope the crowd show their appreciation.

This has to be a Copeland and Christian win. They need to be set up for the All Out PPV in Toronto where they need to be crowned champions. After the match I wonder if we will see some Jack Perry teases….. it certainly looked like he was the main who revived the big monster in the vignette on Dynamite on Wednesday.

This tag doesn’t need the razmataz we will see later on in the night. Just a straight tag match and get the Canadians over.

Prediction – Cope and Christian

Kazuchika Okada v Swerve Strickland for the AEW Unified Championship

I’ve made no secret that I don’t really get Okada in this run. And I’ve made no secret that he doesn’t really excite me as a performer in his current guise. But I do love Swerve and I’m hopeful that Swerve can bring a little something extra out of Okada.

The fly in the ointment of course is that Swerve is likely to take some time off to heal an MCL injury he has had since 2019!! I’ve not got tonnes to say about this match really; Okada is going to go over to continue his run with the unified title as he builds to what I assume will be an eventual re match with Omega down the road.

Swerve out of everyone involved in the main event of All In feels the most sidelined storyline wise coming out of it. A rest may be a great re set for him. And of course, both guys can work so it will be an extremely solid match.

Prediction – Okada

Mercedes Mone v Alex Windsor v Persephone v Bozilla for the AEW TBS Championship

WINDSAAAA the beginning of Alex Windsor pops me every time. It is just so British. This is probably the most Forbidden Doorsy match that is on the card. Competitors from AEW, CMLL and Stardom and while Alex Windsor is current AEW roster member she has up until recently been flying the flag across a number of top UK promotions. I think it’s great that this match is going to expose people to Persephone and Bozilla who haven’t seen them before. I am certainly no expert on their work, so I am looking forward to seeing what they bring between the ropes.

I can’t see Mercedes losing any of her belts at the moment so she will take the win here, but I’d like them to set up a reason for her and Alex Windsor to lock horns going forward I think that would be a nice feud for both women to get their teeth sunk into.

Prediction – Mercedes Mone

The Hurt Syndicate v FTR vs Brodido for the AEW World Tag Team Championship in an Elimination match

Brodido are one of the best examples of thrown together tag teams making it work. Poor Brody King has been snakebit pretty much his entire AEW run with his partners being injured or unable to perform for a variety of reasons. All the while Brody has been putting in the work and performances in the times, he’s been able to be showcased. Bandido is arguably the wrestler of the year so far with his ROH world title run leaving a string of Match of the Year Candidates along with his other stack of matches in Mexico. Together Brodido have captured something and catapulted themselves into world tag title contention.

In their way are the champs the Hurt Syndicate who just have a bit of a weird feel around them right now. The storyline with MJF seemed to end abruptly and their direction doesn’t feel clear. They are amazing performers and no doubt they will hold up their end of the bargain in this match. But I have no idea where they go next.

Rounding off our trio of teams is FTR who continue to do great heel work week in and week out and Stokely has fit right in, and they feel like a trio now. Given they took cope out of action they need to be picking up the belts again here at Forbidden Door as they go forward to All Out where Cope and Christian will surely await. I can see the Hurt Syndicate leaving the match first weather that is through a fall or some shenanigans or maybe a count out or something of that nature. But they will be protected, you can count on that. FTR to stand tall come the final bell.

Prediction – FTR

Zack Sabre Jr v Nigel McGuinness for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship

For this match Nigel McGuinness will have Daniel Garcia in his corner and my Heel Turn Spidey Senses are tingling. But even if that does happen, I won’t mind because this match for me is all about Nigel showing up and trying to give us as much as his Ring of Honour best as he can in front of his hometown crowd.

Last year at All In when his music hit for the gauntlet battle royal I lost my shit. As someone who through their work in ROH influenced a ton of modern day wrestlers and as a performer who stopped wrestling sooner than he should have, to come full circle and be in the capital city of his homeland was fantastic, but it was only a cameo.

This match will be a showcase of McGuinness, and he has the best dance partner to do it with in Zack Sabre Jr who is arguably the most fluid wrestling technician on the planet right now. It is also a homecoming for him and another one that is richly deserved.

Sit back and enjoy this one, no tables, no dives, no flamethrowers. Just two masters of their craft getting their chance to shine.

Prediction – Zack Sabre Jr

Timeless Toni Storm v Athena for the AEW Women’s World Championship

Athena has been the best kept secret for the last few years. I’m not going to sit here and claim that I am a religious watcher of ROH because I am not, but I have kept tabs on Athenas work down there. Regular viewers assure me that she has kept that brand as much alive as she can and has consistently been the best thing on the show for a while now.

Since her time on the AEW roster, I can see why, she carries herself with a confidence and a starlike quality which makes her instantly believable. So much so that this match is the one where I genuinely don’t know where it’s going to go.

The champion is of course Timeless Toni Storm someone who is just so effortlessly them that I don’t think a loss would hurt them at all. In all of wrestling I don’t think there is a wrestler who feels as comfortable and able to project their persona better than her. On balance I think a loss hurts Athena more than it hurts Toni and Toni chasing a title we have seen can bring amazing things out of her like it did with the Mariah May feud. And the crowd is still behind her.

If Athena were to lose now, I wonder how much more rebuilding it would take as she hasn’t fully established herself on AEW TV yet. Her with the belt is easier to do that for me. So, it’s my boldest choice yet….

Prediction- Athena

‘Hangman’ Adam Page v MJF for the Men’s AEW World Championship

I’m a little surprised they went early with this match after Hangman won the title just a few short months ago. But I have been sold on the dynamics of the two of them and I know there is some dissent with Hangman’s motivations from Dynamite in succumbing to his anger and emotions again, but I quite like that.

Adam Page is always going to have all of his quirks bubbling under the surface, but out of all of the roster who is best to tap into those. No one is on the level of the Devil and MJF is always best when he is manipulating his opponents and finding those chinks in the armour.

MJF has felt the last few weeks like the main event player he was the last time he held his beloved Triple B. It Is a rehabilitation into the main event he sorely needed. But it is too soon for him to take the belt. I am glad they put the contract back in play this Wednesday as this allows MJF to not leave London with the championship but still have a link to the top of the card.

Hangman needs to be solidified as THE guy in AEW, and I have no concerns over the match quality.

Prediction – Hangman Adam Page.

Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi, Darby Allin, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Will Ospreay v Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, The Young Bucks and Gabe Kidd in a Lights Out Steel Cage match

Ok is there anyone in this match who isn’t held together by tape? Amazingly I think Darby Allin might be the guy who the least banged up. This is likely to be the main event given AEW’s previous form of doing the unsanctioned lights out after the show is ‘finished’.

I am fascinated by what’s going to happen, Tanahashi bless him has agreed to do this match at his stage of his career and I have no doubt he is going to do something wild. Ospreay is likely to take a bump to write him off for his neck surgery, but he will go out in a blaze of glory. I genuinely don’t really know what to expect from this one, other than unpredictability. It will be extremely difficult to reach the heights of the recent anarchy in the arena match. But everyone is going to put the work in as they always do.

Since All in the Death riders and the Bucks have taken their licks, so they need to start raising up again. So, I can see them going over here. I also expect to see a PAC appearance given we are in the UK. Oh and maybe a few YES chants?……….

Prediction – Death Riders and the Young Bucks

So, there we have it that’s my preview and predictions for this weekend. I am so hyped to be at the event. Nothing beats live wrestling, and I am going to bring you as much coverage as I can being there in person. And of course, NoDQ.com always bring so much coverage of these events as well while they are happening and you know how good that coverage is, else you wouldn’t be here reading this website.

But my personal socials you can catch me over on X via @Wrestle_G and TikTok via @wrestleg.

Enjoy your wrestling weekend. I will be back next week with all of my thoughts on my Forbidden Door Experience.

Until Next Time,

Cheers,

G