10 HUGE AEW X NJPW Forbidden Door 2023 Predictions You Need To Know
1. *RAMPAGE SPOILER* Surprise Match
(The following match was booked on a taped edition of Rampage set to air on Friday 23rd June. As of this writing, the show has not aired and if you don't want to know the results, click away now).
On the go-home edition of Dynamite, Adam Cole and MJF were forced into working together as part of the new Blind Eliminator format. A randomly drawn set of teams will compete to win a shot at FTR's gold, and the 30-minute men from last week were conveniently now going to be forced to try to get along. Neither man obviously wanted any of it, but the contrast between Cole's anger at working with MJF and the 'Salt Of Earth's rage at having to work at all was genuinely amusing.
A Rampage taping spoiler revealed that it might have already gone sour.
A Cole speech was interrupted by his makeshift partner, who revealed that he'd set up a Forbidden Door match against NJPW's Tom Lawlor. The 'Filthy' former MMA star and associate Royce Isaacs hit the ring and beat Cole down as MJF mocked from afar.
This stunt-casting feels like it'll be Cole's match to lose, and a contest against Pat McAfee in the far more unfavourable circumstances of pandemic-era NXT suggests that this will exceed expectations. Worryingly though, assuming that of this eleventh-hour curio might be the boldest prediction of all.
Winner - Adam Cole