Welcome to the live results watch page for AEW x NJPW FORBIDDEN DOOR 2023 pay-per-view!
The event is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. ET with the Zero Hour pre-show, followed by the main show starting at 8 p.m.
Follow along here throughout the show for the results of each match as well as my personal thoughts on everything throughout the night down after the separation bar.
Keep refreshing for new updates, check out the quick results at the top of the page for the winners and chat it up with everyone in the comments as the show goes on!
Quick Hits Results:
- [Zero Hour] Mogul Embassy (Swerve Strickland, Brian Cage, Toa Liona, and Bishop Kaun) (with Prince Nana) defeated Chaos (Chuck Taylor, Rocky Romero and Trent Beretta) and El Desperado by pinfall.
- [Zero Hour] Women’s Owen Hart Cup Tournament First Round Match: Athena defeated Billie Starkz by pinfall.
- [Zero Hour] El Phantasmo defeated Stu Grayson by pinfall.
- [Zero Hour] Los Ingobernables de Japon (Shingo Takagi, Bushi, and Hiromu Takahashi) defeated United Empire (Jeff Cobb, Kyle Fletcher, and TJP) by pinfall.
- AEW World Championship Match: MJF (c) defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi by pinfall.
- Men’s Owen Hart Cup Tournament First Round Match: CM Punk defeated Satoshi Kojima by pinfall.
- AEW International Championship Four-way Match: Orange Cassidy (c) defeated Zack Sabre Jr., Katsuyori Shibata and Daniel Garcia by pinfall (on Garcia)
- IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Match: Sanada (c) defeated “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry by pinfall.
- 10-Man Tag Team Match: The Elite (“Hangman” Adam Page, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson), Eddie Kingston, and Tomohiro Ishii defeated Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley, Wheeler Yuta, and Claudio Castagnoli), Konosuke Takeshita, and Shota Umino by pinfall.
- AEW Women’s World Championship Match: Toni Storm (c) defeated Willow Nightingale by pinfall.
- IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship Match: Will Ospreay defeated Kenny Omega (c) by pinfall to win the title!
- Trios Tag Team Match: Sting, Darby Allin, and Tetsuya Naito defeated Jericho Appreciation Society (Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara) and Minoru Suzuki by pinfall.
- Bryan Danielson defeated Kazuchika Okada by submission.
Author’s POV, Running Commentary & Thoughts:
Zero Hour Pre-Show
- Not too much to talk about here. The pre-show was a series of solid matches that aren’t the most bombastic out there, but filled in some time and showcased some good talents.
- I’m surprised United Empire didn’t win that trios match.
AEW World Championship Match: MJF (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
- MJF teases walking out to start the match, which is great. Of course, he comes back in, goes for a handshake and tries to land a disrespectful kick, but Tanahashi knows what he’s up to. Gotta love MJF.
- MJF is trying to get out of the match by disqualification, but the ref isn’t falling for it.
- Split crowd chanting for both MJF and Tanahashi. CM Punk got booed a bit earlier. I hope we have an oddball crowd all throughout tonight that keeps things fresh.
- Very good back-and-forth balancing.
- Tanahashi had MJF for a five-count, but the ref was distracted handing the title to a stagehand. All that confusion (and MJF pushing Tanahashi into the ref) led to MJF putting on the Dynamite Diamond Ring and nailing Tanahashi with that for the pin.
- Textbook stuff. Simple and effective. Thumbs up for sure.
Men’s Owen Hart Cup Tournament First Round Match: CM Punk vs. Satoshi Kojima
- Definitely not a warm response for CM Punk. This crowd’s the loudest for him than anyone so far, though, so that means something.
- Kojima shows off how he can pop his pecs. Punk can apparently do the same. Between this and ELP grabbing Stu Grayson’s nipples, we’re getting more of that action on this card than I imagined would happen, that’s for sure.
- Punk doing the Hulk Hogan ear taunt, followed by a leg drop. I guess that’ll be part of his shtick moving forward.
- Punk hits a GTS for the win.
- Post-bell, Punk does some push-ups. But then, he helps Kojima up and raises his hand. Have your cake and eat it, too, I guess.
AEW International Championship Four-way Match: Orange Cassidy (c) vs. Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Katsuyori Shibata vs. Daniel Garcia
- You put these 4 guys together and you’re going to get a good match. I’m not at all surprised to see that that’s been the case.
- Nothing much to talk about here as far as specific standout moments or anything. It’s just a straight-up good match.
- Ultimately, Cassidy pins Garcia. The three champions have a face-off after the match, all holding their titles. Maybe we revisit this down the line, or at least Zack Sabre Jr against Cassidy? I’m down for any rematch material. Thumbs up on the match and OC retaining.
IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Match: Sanada (c) vs. “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry
- Seems like the crowd is a little more pro-Sanada than Jungle Boy, but not by a huge margin from what I can hear, at least.
- Jungle Boy’s gotten a few good shots in there here and there, but for the most part, this has given me the impression he’s out of his league.
- Sanada wins with a moonsault. No real sign of respect or anything after the match; just Sanada leaving, Jungle Boy being helped up by Hook, and Sanada posing with the belt at the top of the ramp.
- This was “a handsome battle” according to Kevin Kelly’s wife, supposedly.
- Back on the ramp, Hook raised Jack Perry’s hand and…Perry clotheslined him. Heel turn executed. Perry then chucked the FTW title toward Hook.
Taz has left the commentary booth and is replaced by Tony Schiavone.
10-Man Tag Team Match: Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley, Wheeler Yuta, and Claudio Castagnoli), Konosuke Takeshita, and Shota Umino vs. The Elite (“Hangman” Adam Page, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson), Eddie Kingston, and Tomohiro Ishii
- Always a fan of The Young Bucks bouncing around on the ropes and all.
- This is the third or fourth match to feature the “two guys allow each other to punch/chop back and forth” and I doubt it’ll be the last of the night.
- Nice forearm from Takeshita to Ishii. That was a blast and a half.
- Big “Cowboy Shit” chant from the crowd for Page. Takeshita might be the one getting the most heel heat in this match, too, by the way.
- Kingston shoved Moxley out of the way and ate 2 superkicks for him.
- Ishii gets the pin for his team over Yuta.
- All parties are arguing after the match; mostly Kingston arguing with The Elite.
AEW Women’s World Championship Match: Toni Storm (c) vs. Willow Nightingale
- Not much to talk about up until the point that Ruby Soho and Saraya tossed some spray paint into the ring, but the referee noticed it and sent them both to the back. I love how everyone’s always so over the top when they’re thrown out of ringside. That’s one of my favorite tropes in pro wrestling.
- Storm gouges the eyes and hits Storm Zero for the win. Willow had the match won, essentially, so that’s good that they’ve built her up as the rightful winner. She’s made a lot of progress recently.
IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship Match: Kenny Omega (c) vs. Will Ospreay
- This is one of the top matches I’m looking forward to. Here’s hoping they live up to the hype.
- Omega starts getting the Terminator hype going. Don Callis trips him up while he runs the ropes. Security gets between the two and the ref throws Callis out of ringside.
- I’m still anticipating some interference (maybe from Takeshita) to screw Omega out of the match.
- Very nice shooting star press from Ospreay onto a hanged-up Omega lunged over the ropes.
- The story of this match has very much been “Ospreay is fuming mad and wants revenge”. They’re doing a great job exhibiting that with the in-ring action.
- Ospreay grabs a Canadian flag and wipes it between his legs, then picks his nose with it.
- Lots of blood on the outside from Ospreay’s head, it seems. Also lots of leeway on the outside for the 10-count that doesn’t exist right now. Omega stacks up the steel steps on its side and drops Ospreay down on it with a DDT.
- 30 minutes down. Sky Twister Press from Ospreay to the outside.
- Callis is back ringside. Crowd’s chanting “piece of shit” to him.
- Omega hits three knee strikes to Ospreay’s head.
- Callis is interfering to try to stop a V-Trigger. Somehow, this isn’t a disqualification. Callis moves out of the way and Omega hits a V-Trigger, but Callis holds everyone down and passes a screwdriver to Ospreay. Ospreay hits Omega with it while up for a One-Winged Angel (while the ref was being held back).
- Ospreay hits his finishers…but Omega gets his foot on the rope!
- A few beats later, Ospreay hits a One-Winged Angel on Omega for a ONE count.
- Ospreay hits a Tiger Driver 91 for a close near-fall. He follow it up with another Stormbreaker and the three-count. New champion. Hell of a match. Match of the Year candidate.
Trios Tag Team Match: Jericho Appreciation Society (Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara) and Minoru Suzuki vs. Sting, Darby Allin, and Tetsuya Naito
- Sammy Guevara does the “sports entertainer pose” as they’re referring to it. Naito runs the ropes and does the same to mock them. Nice.
- Oof. Sting vs. Jericho quickly turns into Jericho stuck in the Scorpion Deathlock, but Guevara broke it up with a cutter that mostly ended up being Sammy landing on Sting’s head.
- Nice moment with Guevara posing, Jericho posing on top of him and Suzuki then completing the trifecta with a pose on top of Jericho. That’s a photo op.
- Jericho orders Guevara to do a 630 onto Sting through a table on the outside. I don’t know if the plan was for Sting to get out of the way in time and he didn’t, or if he was supposed to just look like he’s trying and eat the move, but it happened regardless. Since Sting is back up to his feet a moment later, I think he was supposed to slip off.
- Naito is able to score a pin on Suzuki for the win. Not the way I pictured this would finish.
- Jericho hits Naito with Floyd after the bell. Sting goes after Jericho, who flees. We’ll clearly revisit this again down the line. Time for the main event.
Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada
- We’ve got Final Countdown playing for Danielson! Nice! One of my favorite songs of all time.
- “Holy shit” chant before the bell, even. People are pumped.
- More support for Okada, overall.
- So far, no gaga. Just straight up wrestling—what people wanted out of these two.
- Okada drops Danielson with a tombstone on the ramp.
- Danielson is convulsing. Referee calls for Doc Samson, but it’s a ruse from Danielson.
- WOW! Okada taps out! I turned my head thinking there was no way this is the end of the match quite yet and that Okada would get out of that and at least a few more moves would happen.
Tell us your thoughts on AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2023 in the comments section, and tune in to my live post-show podcast immediately following the event by clicking on the YouTube video below!