8 Ups & 1 Down From AEW X NJPW Forbidden Door 2023 (Review)

7. CM Punk Is Mesmerising

CM Punk is worth it.

His match with Satoshi Kojima was excellent in a way totally distinct from the rest of the card. Devoid completely of flab, it wasted not a single second, preserved Kojima's legend, and furthered the CM Punk heel turn. As has always been the case with Punk's awesome AEW run, it was beautiful in its simplicity without ever bordering on the generic. He simply does the simple, logical things wonderfully.

This was a fight.

Strong style in structure, pissy in tone, Punk worked with a God complex and showed ass at the same time. He worked with a smug face, revelling in the heat, but also scarpered into another corner after taking Kojima's machine gun chops. Punk, knowing exactly what the crowd wanted and when, took another salvo seconds later. He recognised and put over Kojima's eternal power, but was excellent defensively, constantly putting over Kojima's lariat by evading it. The neckbreaker counter was especially great as a narrative twist.

Punk mocked Kojima's pose and popped his muscle t*ts to take the piss, but also ate an elbow to the c*ck to give his critics a delightfully funny (if very much unintentional) dose of catharsis.

Punk was loving it in there, playing off Kojima's history with Hiroyoshi Tenzan and his own shoot interview history - "Kojima! Lariat!" - but whenever his work even started to threaten to become self-indulgent, he threw himself over a barricade to convey the idea that his opponent's ageless power was something to be taken very seriously.

A great heel, who hasn't even begun to show how great he truly is in the role, escaping a stern test very narrowly and amusing a crowd who hates him: this was how a predictable novelty undercard match is done.