10 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Collision (June 24)

10. Naito Makes Perfect Sense

AEW Collision Tetsuya Naito
AEW

Following Darby Allin's ominous words on Dynamite about Chris Jericho having amassed lots of enemies over the years, some fans jumped to the conclusion that Bill Goldberg would be coming in to team with Darby and Sting at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door.

Thankfully, that is not the case, as Tetsuya Naito is a far better fit for this role.

In Naito, AEW and NJPW have lined up a man who traded the IWGP Intercontinental Title with Jericho in 2018 and into 2019. Not just is there that history, though, for this role is the ideal landing spot for a Naito who at one point looked as if he may be entirely absent for a second Forbidden Door show.

While the Los Ingobernables de Japón leader isn't viewed as quite as big of a star these days as he was in prior years, he's still a significant name for New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Even more so, he would have been an extremely notable absentee - much like stablemate Shingo Takagi, who has been relegated to the Zero Hour pre-show - should AEW and NJPW have not found a spot for him on the Forbidden Door card.

Also, imagine in 2018, when Jericho and Naito were feuding, if you'd have said in five years time we'd see the two face off in a six-man match for a promotion launched by a billionaire and his son, where Naito would team with the then-retired Sting and a Darby Allin who was floating between promotions such as MLW, EVOLVE, Defy, and Progress...

Forbidden Door's trios bout should be a whole bunch of fun.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.