13 Match Star Ratings For AEW X NJPW Forbidden Door
1. Jon Moxley Vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi - AEW Interim World Title Match
Jon Moxley is the coolest, most badass, and most inspirational wrestler on the planet.
It was a joy to hear him laugh and generally be well on the Sessions this week. He is in incredible Wrestler of the Year form. He is a talent so beloved and a star so major that the injury suffered by CM Punk, around whom AEW was built in 2022, didn't feel anywhere near as heartbreaking nor detrimental as it could have.
And still, deep into a blood-soaked war of a main event, he drew jeers for throwing those hammer and anvil elbows into Hiroshi Tanahashi's jaw because Tanahashi is quite possibly the greatest babyface of all time. A fight broke out in the audience, which detracted from the early building phase, but this was positively awesome when it got going. The storytelling here was terrific.
At one point, Mox screamed "I'm the f*cking ace" before proving it by countering Tana's oldest trick, the dragon screw, into an arm-bar. Tana proved his psychological genius in the blistering closing salvo, which doubled as a changing of the guard; he kicked out of the King Kong lariat at one and teased, beautifully, passing out from the bulldog choke. Everybody bought it, and in a testament to the drama of the match, everybody wanted to see him withstand the pain.
A match that blended Tana's ability to extract drama from the smallest moments and Mox's could-end-at-any-time combat sports-inspired structural approach, this was epic without a single clichéd trapping of that form.
Star Rating: ★★★★¼