25 Worst Wrestling Moments Of 2025
21. Hurt Syndicate Don't Lose At Forbidden Door
Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin's run as AEW Tag Team Champions flattered to deceive.
Initially cast as a workrate Road Warriors/Powers Of Pain upgrade thanks to their massive size advantage over multiple other teams, the squashes succumbed to AEW agenting and ran too long to sustain early optimism. Then came countless stories of their apparent unwillingness to do jobs, which did a number on suspension of disbelief and/or reason to invest in the fiction without thinking about the facts.
Forbidden Door 2025 was a confluence of all of these issues.
A tremendously booked summer tournament to determine number one contenders brought FTR and Brodido (Brody King and Bandido) together for an epic final that ended in a draw. This put both teams into the final for a three-way dance against Lashley & Benjamin at Forbidden Door, and fans cynically assumed it was political protection to save the titleholders doing a job. If only it were just that.
Dragged into a feud with Ricochet's new alliance alongside G.O.A, the pair were dragged into a brawl mid-match, meaning that they weren't even on-screen for the deciding fall. A deciding fall which was unfortunately badly botched when Cash Wheeler was late for a save ahead of the actual three-count.
Brodido becoming Champions turned out to be the shot in the arm the doubles division desperately needed, and the pair became so beloved that they were able to do careful non-title jobs to further their own intra-team narrative and title match stories with others. The contrast didn't go unnoticed.