10 HUGE Wrestling Moments That Must Happen By 2022

3. The Forbidden Door Opens To A Major Cross-Promotion Super-Show

AEW NJPW
AEW/NJPW

Wrestling fans put up with a lot in 2020.

They remained loyal to products held in empty arenas that were bittersweet even those products were somehow exceptional. Yes, Fénix destroying Nick Jackson with a Canadian Destroyer to the outside of the ring was just awesome, but the spluttering sound you made in your living room just wasn't an earth-shaking pop.

They, unwilling to abandon something they'd held dear for years, ignored their moral compass as wrestling failed to transparently resolve too many #SpeakingOut allegations. A major wrestling super-show no matter how life-affirming will never correct that, just to be clear. But 2020 was a harrowing time - even writing that in the past tense doesn't feel right - and, when it is possible to do so, wrestling must band together to deliver something seminal if it cannot or will not deliver something ethical.

AEW, NJPW, Impact, others: book a stadium show, call it The Forbidden Door, and deliver a unified front of unadulterated fan service.

Kenny Omega Vs. Kota Ibushi in the match that restores the Belt Collector's soul.

Jon Moxley Vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi in a Death Match that the purist Ace works in disgusted defiance, fighting through the pain of the barbed wire that punctures his battered elbows.

Orange Cassidy Vs. Shingo Takagi in a match that fires up the slacker with more intensity than he's ever shown.

The fans deserve something this big for persevering with wrestling when it never felt smaller.

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Contributor

Michael Sidgwick (Creative Writing BA Hons) is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over a decade of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential UK institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!