8 Ups & 1 Down From AEW X NJPW Forbidden Door 2023 (Review)
1. Main Event Delivers
People expected Bryan Danielson Vs. Kazuchika Okada to be one of the very best wrestling matches ever. Bluntly, it wasn't, but it was exceptional - a truly excellent wrestling match that probably suffered through its placement on the card.
Tony Khan should have re-ordered the show, swapping this out for Omega Vs. Ospreay II. The IWGP United States title match was a maximalist epic which, while justifying its excesses, was excessive nonetheless. This is a pedantic quibble. Forbidden Door was obviously an all-timer when the worst one can write about is "the ***** match and the ****3/4 match were the wrong way 'round".
In a contrast that would have worked, had the main event gone on earlier, Okada Vs. Danielson was an understated masterclass in subtle wrestling genius that an exhausted crowd loved without being loud.
Was it perfect on its own terms, if you don't consider the sequencing of the PPV?
Not exactly. In a very rare development, Okada actually telegraphed his momentum-shifter of a dropkick. Usually, he makes the audience gasp with surprise.
Elsewhere, this was just gorgeous. In a good contrast to Ospreay Vs. Omega, when Danielson took a Tombstone on the ramp - after a positively awesome Rainmaker attempt off a suicide dive - he sold it as big as anybody has sold such a move in years. Playing with anxieties, he convulsed. He worked a seizure, and it was terrifying, but it was a ruse. That stunned the audience.
This match will stand up to re-watch, such was its level of detail and build. The commentators talked a lot about the sheer length of Okada's frame throughout, as he neutralised Bryan's submission attempts. The payoff was incredible; Okada was so exhausted at the finish that his leg simply flopped when he tried to reach the bottom rope one last time, and Danielson modified the LeBell lock to trap it. Okada tapped in a major shocker. Everybody has already fantasy booked a sequel in the Tokyo Dome.
While the finish scanned as a shock, it shouldn't have. The match was teeming with unpredictable drama throughout as each man, with every brutal yet graceful German suplex and charging dropkick, convinced the crowd that this was in fact an intricate chess match between two masters who could not be separated.