13 Match Star Ratings For AEW X NJPW Forbidden Door
9. Minoru Suzuki, Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara Vs. Eddie Kingston, Wheeler YUTA & Shota Umino
This incredible trios match subverted the standard PPV opener to such astonishing effect, and yet, it also fulfilled the remit of a PPV opener.
It was monumentally impressive on so many different fronts. It's one thing to set the tone for a great super-show; this set the tone for an iconic and euphoric night of professional wrestling.
The build wasn't great, "curse" or otherwise. It was felt - even more deeply when Hiromu Takahashi was unable to travel - that the NJPW component was barely there, or at least not there enough. In response, AEW and NJPW crafted an absolutely sensational match in which the very future of the latter promotion was put over and over big.
Before Shota Umino's awesome, fiery last stand, this was stunning. It was stunning in the opening minute; Wheeler YUTA blasted Chris Jericho with so many consecutive German suplexes that the crowd, one of wrestling's greatest ever, incidentally, went f*cking apesh*t with a standing ovation. Eddie Kingston and Minoru Suzuki exchanged chops with such wit, intensity and theatrical machismo. The heel squad brought the heat and built towards Blood & Guts by mocking the Blackpool Combat Club's stereo submission sequence, and after a rousing blitz of babyface offence in a match that never once lulled, Shooter mounted a comeback spot so electrifying that it was thought this was his breakthrough moment.
Against all reason.
He's barely no longer a Young Lion, he was in there with Jericho, and the babyfaces were never getting the advantage for Wednesday - but Shooter was so fantastic in a sequence built on Jericho's NJPW debut that he made everybody in the building believe.
Star Rating: ★★★★¾