10 New Directions For AEW After Forbidden Door 2023

There was something for everybody at Forbidden Door 2023. Like multi-man chaos? It had you covered. Enjoy finisher-heavy near fall feasts? Will Ospreay vs. Kenny Omega is your match. Need to see Bryan Danielson grit his teeth and fight through pain against a New Japan great? You got it.

Now, people will be asking one simple question. What's next?

The boos keep on coming outside of Chicago for one CM Punk, and it'd be daft of AEW to try and Roman Reigns circa 2016 their way around that. Instead, they should embrace the hate, and Tony Khan must do everything in his power to book a mega-match that'd make more tickets fly off the shelves in the UK.

Oh yes, London's Wembley Stadium and the glory of All In awaits, but that's not all. All Elite's busy schedule means they'll be able to squeeze in more before reaching that historic event. They've got trophies to hand out, more dream bouts to set up, and some ultra-violence that'd even make Jon Moxley blush.

Here's what could be coming next for Tony Khan and crew this summer.

There's a key word in that subheading: "Almost". More on that to come, but for now...let's dial back the New Japan integration a bit, eh? If anything, that sort of thing should be kept exclusively for the build towards Forbidden Door, so it wouldn't make sense to keep banging the NJPW drum post-show.

Thanks for coming, Okada.

AEW has Dynamite, Collision and Rampage to focus on heading through summer. They've also got more than enough workers to fill that five hours of television every single week - Tony Khan shouldn't need to draft in a whole string of New Japan lads to keep things ticking over.

Expect to see the Japanese company's influence on AEW's weekly product diminish as the weeks roll on. July and August especially should be all about promoting the Wembley show as an All Elite Wrestling showcase. Of course, they can justify one exception if a local fancies making history...