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

10. Naito Makes Perfect Sense

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.