Forbidden Door 2026 On Course To Be AEW's Lowest Performing PPV Of The Year (AEW News)
AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door tracking to be AEW's lowest-performing PPV of 2026.
With it now one week since Forbidden Door 2026, the event is tracking to be AEW's lowest-performing PPV of the year so far.
This comes from the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, where Dave Meltzer notes that, while he doesn't have a specific number, he's under the impression that Forbidden Door is behind all other AEW 2026 PPVs. However, Meltzer adds that 2026 has been a "great year" for AEW PPVs, and that Forbiddeen Door did comparable numbers to AEW Dynasty on the key distributor of HBO Max - approximately 145,000 buys - but was down on other distributors.
As for a reason why Forbidden Door was down when compared to other AEW PPVs, Dave Meltzer believes that one factor was the lack of an AEW World Championship match. Of course, rather than defending that gold, AEW World Champion MJF was involved in a 12-person steel cage match pitting Team MJF up against Team Briscoe, where Mark Briscoe earned himself a title shot after his team picked up the win; a title shot he was unsuccessful with on Dynamite last week.
Meltzer also suggested that competition was another reason for Forbidden Door's number, citing it being up against NXT Great American Bash and the New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox baseball game. That said, Great American Bash was watched by 394,000 viewers, which is way below the recent average of approximately 560,000 for weekly NXT broadcasts.
Up next for AEW, it's the inaugural Redemption PPV taking place from Montreal's Bell Centre on Sunday, July 26th, where the only confirmed match as of this writing is Thekla defending the AEW Women's Championship against the winner of a Casino Gauntlet contest that takes place on this week's Dynamite.