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We will be previewing all matches from the pay per view this week.
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Forbidden Door 2025
Lights Out Steel Cage Match
Team Darby (Darby Allin, Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi, Will Ospreay, and Hiroshi Tanahashi) versus Death Riders (Jon Moxley, Gabe Kidd, The Young Bucks, and Claudio Castagnoli)
Let me start by saying I wouldn’t have too much of an issue with this match in itself if they didn’t say lights out.
Lights out always means the last match on the show, meaning that Hangman Adam Page, after all of the success AEW has had recently with All In Texas, with attendance up, with ratings up? Will not be main eventing his first pay per view as a two time AEW Men’s World Champion. I don’t care if they say it’s a main event and then do the lights off lights on. It isn’t the final match of the show. This cage match will be.
You’ll also notice I called it Team Darby. That’s what it is supposed to be. It’s supposed to be Darby gathering the troops to fight Jon Moxley. In recent weeks this has turned into Will Ospreay leading the charge, bringing on the Golden Lovers and bringing in Hiroshi Tanahashi from New Japan Pro Wrestling. Darby is just the guy in the bag.
Despite this being an opportunity to do something different, to show that Jon Moxley can have other cards up his sleeve, showing his desperation? It’s the same Death Riders + Gabe Kidd + Young Bucks mix we’ve seen since May. This will be the fifth time Moxley has teamed with the Young Bucks, and the second time he has teamed with Gabe Kidd. Mox didn’t try to reach out to anyone else in New Japan Pro Wrestling. Didn’t try to get someone new. The only thing new? Gabe Kidd had some extra members of War Dogs back him up in Glasgow.
I’ve heard people say that this match is about taking a bunch of beaten up wrestlers and having them all in one match to protect them. Tanahashi only has a few matches left in his career. Kenny Omega is probably not doing so well. And then you got Will Ospreay, who scared people with his promo saying he wasn’t actually cleared. Maybe he is delaying a surgery, but I’m sure he’s only saying that in kayfabe. If he was working hurt, why the heck would they ever put him in a steel cage match?
I really don’t know why AEW is so afraid to just do an elimination match like they did years ago between Dark Order and The Elite. That would have solved a lot of the issues with this.
Either way, the guy I’m watching is Darby Allin. This should be the Darby Allin show. I know Ospreay is the England guy but this match needs to be about Darby getting his revenge. I also wonder what Kota Ibushi, who just got healthy, ends up doing with the steel cage. I hope he doesn’t put himself in too much risk.
Come on AEW. You got two days. Remove the lights out stipulation. Just open the show with this.
