The joint AEW and NJPW Forbidden Door show on 6/26 in Chicago was the most unique major show of the year, and one that would seemingly answer a lot of questions.
The nearly five-hour show was unique in that shows of similar lengths were said for being too long. While they could have cut 30 minutes off the Buy In and 11 matches would have been better than 13, when the show was over, we heard almost no complaints about length, or just about anything past the very end of the show and the post- match brawl.
The PPV show itself was one of the deepest in history when it comes to great matches. The live crowd was very hot for all but one match. While all the big names were over as expected, some of the biggest reactions came for the newcomers, Claudio Castagnoli, who as an ex-WWE guy making his debut would get that first-time pop as a surprise wrestler, but also Shota Umino and Clark Connors and the surprise physical run-in spot with Katsiyori Shibata.
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