CM Punk Vs. KENTA At AEW X NJPW Forbidden Door Is OFF!

Despite being initially planned, this dream match has seemingly now been scrapped.

by Andrew Pollard
AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door CM Punk KENTA
AEW/NJPW

UPDATE 22 June - 07:30 AM: Updating its original story, Fightful notes that alternative Forbidden Door pitches for Punk included El Phantasmo, Jeff Cobb, and Satoshi Kojima, who was announced as the 44-year-old's Forbidden Door opponent on last night's Dynamite. The outlet acknowledged Ibou of WrestlePurists' tweets on AEW making adjustments to Saturday's episode of Collision following the Punk/KENTA match's collapse.

For those hoping to see CM Punk and KENTA finally face off at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door this coming weekend, it looks like you're in for some disappointment.

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As per Fightful Select, despite this match at one being planned for Forbidden Door, the bout it seemingly now off.

From this Fightful report, KENTA has made it clear to NJPW and AEW that he won't be facing the Second City Saint at this weekend's huge crossover PPV. While this match was intended to take place, a decision had been made by the past weekend that the contest was now not happening.

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To be a little more specific, by the time KENTA tweeted out how that match "is never going to happen", the former Hideo Itami was indeed no longer scheduled for that match.

For his part, CM Punk is said to have been open to facing KENTA, and there are now other options being weighed up for the Straight-Edge Superstar at Forbidden Door. Of course, it could end up being that Punk simply doesn't have a match at Sunday's PPV. Likewise, it remains to be seen what role, if any, KENTA will have to play on Sunday.

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These two veterans of the squared circle have long butted heads over the use of the GTS, a move KENTA initially popularised. As of this writing, though, it looks like any hopes of seeing Punk and KENTA finally square off - at least at Forbidden Door - have been dashed.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.