These Brilliant AEW Success Stories Should Have SUCKED
1. Forbidden Door 2022
A dream show was plunged into nightmarish depths in mid-2022 when a minor injury crisis robbed the first ever Forbidden Door show of two of its biggest matches.
The planned CM Punk Vs Hiroshi Tanahashi and Bryan Danielson Vs Zack Sabre Jr contests were both taken off the whiteboard when the two regulars went down injured at the same time, but respective replacements Jon Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli didn't have to be lone saviours on a night that made good on years of electrifying promise.
The nine-match card boasted no duds and offered such a glorious range of different styles and stars that it felt like AEW and NJPW had put down a marker for every future inter-promotional supercard. Short on all the obvious compromise and backstage politics typically laid bare in front of the cameras, this was nothing more than the best possible version of itself and thus, totally awesome.
The show's biggest loss was AEW's gain over a year later too - Danielson and ZSJ eventually lit up a WrestleDream 2023 card, earning Match Of The Year plaudits for a contest that ultimately wasn't even a big miss 18 months earlier.