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

4. One Of The Best 10-Man Tags EVER

Hangman Page Konosuke Takeshita
AEW

The low-key undercard show-stealer did in fact steal the undercard: The Elite, Eddie Kingston and Tomohiro Ishii defeated the Blackpool Combat Club, Konosuke Takeshita and Shota Umino in one of the best 10-man tag matches you will ever see.

AEW's sprawling, dovetailing storytelling philosophy erected a platform for greatness, and all 10 men delivered in a thoughtful, layered match that intersected action and emotion to awesome effect - at the exact same time, on occasion.

Several individual showdowns were fantastic. Konosuke Takeshita KOing Tomohiro Ishii with a vile forearm was a fantastic tease of a singles meeting in the future, and that was one of the key themes in a complex match that was never too busy.

The aim here was to get Take over as the new heel killer in the promotion, and while he took some incredible blows - that Hangman Page Discus lariat counter to the Takeshita line was literally unbelievable in how it didn't mark his face - he was featured prominently as a dangerous, nigh-on invincible game-changer.

Claudio Castagnoli was an opportunistic coward d*ckhead in his pairing with Eddie Kingston, only going after him when he had been weakened, which informed the brilliance of Eddie's war-within-a-match with Jon Moxley. He was the crowd's hero, and this was framed to perfection. They exchanged vicious, charged strikes in a sequence so intimate that they didn't even notice the spectacular carnage of a typically awesome Young Bucks sequence overlapping it. Overflowing with ideas, and yet not a single one got lost, this was flawless stable warfare.

The action was blistering, violent, dramatic, and, through the dynamic of a save-heavy 10-man tag, unpredictable at every breathless turn - but the layered emotion propelled it to another level.

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Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!