NJPW Star Qualifies For AEW All-Atlantic Title Match At Forbidden Door

A major New Japan favourite qualifies for this weekend's All-Atlantic Title match.

Jun 21, 2022 June 21st, 2022

As many had speculated and hoped, Tomohiro Ishii will be competing for the AEW All-Atlantic Championship at AEW X NJPW Forbidden Door this coming weekend.

At today's New Japan Road event, the Stone Pitbull emerged victorious against Clark Connors to cement himself a spot in the upcoming four-way battle to crown the inaugural All-Atlantic Champion. The day prior, Ishii defeated Yoshinobu Kanemaru whilst Connors bested Tomoaki Honma to progress to today's bout.

With this NJ Road victory, Ishii will go up against PAC, Miro, and Malakai Black or Penta Oscuro at Forbidden Door. Black and Penta do battle on tomorrow's AEW Dynamite to qualify for the final spot in this four-way All-Atlantic Title contest. Considering the Lucha Bros. have contracts with AAA, the belief is that neither Penta nor Rey Fenix will be appearing at Forbidden Door, which would suggest the House of Black's leader will emerge victorious in Wednesday's final qualifying match. Of course, AAA talent are not being allowed to compete at Forbidden Door due to New Japan Pro-Wrestling having a working relationship with AAA's long-time rival promotion, CMLL.

Where Tomohiro Ishii is concerned, he's no stranger to All Elite Wrestling, having tagged with CHAOS teammate Orange Cassidy to best the Butcher and the Blade on a November 2021 episode of Dynamite, before then losing to Adam Cole in the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament this past April. Ishii was also recently unsuccessful in challenging for Josh Alexander's IMPACT World Title.

Emanating from Chicago's United Center, AEW X Forbidden Door takes place this Sunday.

As of this writing, the Forbidden Door card looks as follows:

- PAC vs. Miro vs. Tomohiro Ishii vs. Malakai Black/Penta Oscuro for the AEW All-Atlantic Championship

- Wheeler Yuta, Eddie Kingston & Shota Umino vs. Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara & Minoru Suzuki

- IWGP United States Champion Will Ospreay vs. Orange Cassidy

- ROH Tag Team Champions FTR vs. IWGP Tag Team Champions Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb vs. Roppongi Vice

- AEW Women's Champion Thunder Rosa vs. Toni Storm

- Jon Moxley vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the interim AEW World Championship

Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

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 day job, 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. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.

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