It's time to give our predictions for A&E. Ew X New Japan Forbidden Door 2023. I'm Luke Owen, DAD, and I'm joined by the Jam That Champion Tempest?

Listen, Pete doesn't work on this channel, it seems. He never appears on a podcast.

I mean, that's true. He hasn't been around for a while, but he's doing the live reactions this Sunday for Forbidden Door.

But I'm not, so I still haven't had a chance to give this back to him.

You're just holding on to it for the time being?

Mm.

You're just keeping it warm.

I like.

The clicky sound that.

It makes. I didn't get to do for since full gear.

That's so long. It was a long time ago.

You.

Took this from me. I did take it from you and then I lost it. But anyway, get in your predictions for Forbidden Door. Also, if this is your first time here, press the subscribe button, press the little thumbs up button, leave a comment down below with what you think is going to happen at this event. And also, if you're in the mood for clicking links, join us in wrestle League. Sign up for Ressel League and you can predict against us if you think we're making foolish choices. Show us how wrong we can be by joining Ressel League. The link for that is in the video description down below. I've not had a great run on this season of Ressel League thus far. Nxt and ring of Honor, you all screwed me over.

I would be doing better if I didn't forget about Backlash.

And I... Yeah, that also has not helped me much. But I'm cloring back some points because I had a near flawless Night of Champions card. I think I only got one wrong on that one.

Should have went with those picks for the live stream.

And yeah, I know, right? And I had a near flawless Double or nothing as well. I think I got one wrong on that as well. So I'm cloring things back. So I'm hoping that this show will also prove, well, bear.

Fruit for me. I hope so as well. My picks are in, so make sure you get yours in as well. But we're going to discuss our picks now, aren't we?

We are indeed. Yeah, we'll start with the pre show kicking things off. Athena versus Billy Stark in an O in Heart Cup women's first round match.

I'm very excited for this. I might be the most excited anybody is for this match. I am maybe the biggest Billy Stark fan that there is. This wrestler right here, if I have had my way, I'm signing Billy Stark. She might already be signed, we don't know. I would sign Billy Stark to a contract right now because I see very big things. I don't think she's going to win this match because, of course, you've got the ring of Honor Women's Champion on the other side of this. So I don't think she's losing the title. She's not losing this match as champion, rather. I think this could be a very fun little pre show match here.

The only swerve you might do on this is have Stark's pin her to set her up up for a title match. I pin the champion and then I get to have a title match on ring of Honor. That would be the only argument I would make for Stark's getting the winner here. But really, I think this is a thiners match to lose. I'm just thrilled that atheno s made it onto the pay per view.

Yeah, well, to.

Buy it. It's on the buy it. But I'm like, Athena has been doing amazing work in ring of honour, and every time I see her doing her amazing work in ring of honour, I have this real like, Oh, man, I wish she was on dynamite. I wish she was on collision. I m not saying that ring of Honor is a hollow ground where she's fading into obscurity, but I want to see her on dynamite. This heeled character she's got dead good, and I want to see more of it. I'm actually just thrilled that she's made it onto the pay per view, even if it is the buy in.

I am as well. I fully agree to think that the one pay per view match we've gotten for a thin on AEW programming has been a four minute loss to Jade. That's not enough. That's not enough. I don't think this is going to be match of the night or anything because it's on the pre show. There's a lot of good matches to come and it's not this match's job to steal the show. But I think these two have a chance to really step up and blow people away and exceed expectations. I'm very much looking forward to it, but I'm going.

With Athena. Hot Toronto crowd, first match on the night. That's not a dark match. I think the crowd will be fully behind this and will be fully into it. We would discuss it before we went on mic, will there be more matches announced? There's 10 matches on the card thus far, but could there be more matches announced on Collision? Could they just announce them? Because last year they had what? Four pre show matches on Forbid and Door? There's only one announced thus far. Do you think there's more to be announced?

Maybe. I think there are a lot of people both in New Japan and the AEW roster that just don't have anything to do. I certainly would have thought that we would have seen FTR defend the tag titles against someone on this card.

That's what I thought. The New Japan tag champs aren't going to be seen either.

Now, I would bet that OZ Open getting hurt or Mark Davis getting hurt specifically probably derailed something there. And that would have been maybe one of the matches of the night. But still, there are other choices.

Jeff Cobbs right there.

Jeff Cobbs right there.

You could do FTR with Kyle Fletcher and Jeff Cobb. That is still a match that you could you could do.

Absolutely. It's a United Empire.

Barring that, they could have done Hiroki Goto and Yoshihashi. It's not the big Marquis match that Oze Open would have been. But if you're going to see an AEW versus New Japan card, those are guys that have held titles in New Japan pretty consistently for the last couple.

Of years. I've also just remembered as well, there is actually 11 matches on this card because there was one that was announced on the Rampage tapings that obviously because Rampage hasn't aired yet has not been made official. It's not on the Wikipedia page.

I don't even know what it is.

It is. Maybe we'll jump into it right now. It's Adam Cole versus Tom Lawler.

I love me some filthy Tom.

It's a filthy Tom action on.

Forbidden Door. All right. You could have just...

I'm like, That's the face, isn't it?

All right. All right. I mean, that sounds fun. I'm here for it. Again, there's a lot of names that are not yet booked on this card. M aybe that is the full card at that point. But it's tough for me because I would have thought that you could do L IJ against the House of Black, for example, for the trios titles, do Naito, Shingo and B ushi or Hiromu.

We got Naito as a possibility coming up.

That is also true.

That's what I was thinking of. Who is the mystery partner for Sting and Derby? But we'll cross that bridge when we get.

To it. There's more people in L IJ, though. It could have been B ushi, Tetan, and Shingo or Shingo Hiromu and B ushi.

Shingo not being on this card. There was a big Twitter thing today of being like, Is he hurt? Is there any other reason why he's not on this card?

I don't know.

One of the problems that I've got here with doing Forbidden Door and getting everyone on the card is you've got a big company in New Japan, a big company in AEW, but also Stardom. It's got no presence here. Ring of Honor is not really getting much presence on here either. And it's like, there's almost too many people to try and get onto one card. Not everyone can get a spot, which is why you end up with a 10 man tag and a trios match and a four way for the International Championship. You're trying to get as many bodies on the card as possible.

I understand that, but as we'll get into, the ten man tag is an AEW match, plus Tomohiro Ishi and Shota Umino.

Pretty much. Which, I mean, it doesn't feel like the big AEW New Japan crossover that it could be. But I want to see the trios of House of Black against an L IJ or an FTR tag match with whoever it might be. I want to make sure that people like Shingo are on this card, like Hiromu are on this card. There's so many people that just aren't.

That'd be two years on the balance. The Taka Hashi has not.

Been on the card. Yeah, because he got a fever last year. He got.

Hurt, didn't he? He was supposed to be on the card and then got hurt. That's right. So if Adam Cole, Tom Lawler, I'm going Cole.

I would also go Adam Cole.

And just for the record as well, I'm sure Edis Aurelis would have sorted this out, but I'm picking Athena for the opening match. Just so we're clear, I'm picking Athena for the opening match. Speaking of that International Championship 4 way, Orange Cassidy defends against Katsuhiro Shibata, Daniel Garcia, and my boy, Zach Sabur Jr. The tag match they had on Dynamite was a hell of a lot of fun. I thought they were going to do two singles matches here and doing just Cassidy and Zach with Shibata and Garcia, but I guess you could saving Shibata and Garcia as the singles match for the next ring of Honor Show. So it makes sense to put this as a four way here. And hot dog, am I dead excited for this one?

I think this is going to be fantastic. I think this will be a great four way. I personally probably would have preferred just seeing an Orange Cassidy Zack Sabre Jr. Singles match.

It.

Feels more New Japan style in that sense because they don't really do a lot of four ways. But that being said, this match is going to be so awesome. I am not at all going to complain that we are getting Katsiori Shibata in a big 4 way title match on a New Japan AEW crossover pay per view. I'm going to count my blessings here.

I'm looking forward to the stare down that him and Cassidy have. They were on the same side this week, but there was that moment right at the end when Shibata is holding onto that belt pretty tightly before handing it back to OC.

It's funny because I don't think that this is the match to have Orange Cassidy lose the title? No. I personally thought it could have been that swerve match from a couple of weeks ago, but this is not the match. I want his loss to come against somebody who finally takes advantage of all the injuries that Orange Cassidy's had. But that being said, boy, would I just like to see a Shabbata title run, like a Summer title run in AEW.

I haven't told you this yet because this will be on wrestle Talk Extra that goes out on Patrick next week. My pitch for Orange Cassidy's next big title defense, if he can hold on to it all out, this is my big pitch. It's Orange Cassidy versus Team TNA, King of the Mountain match.

Oh, my God.

It's Orange Cassidy defending against Jareth, Lethal, Dut, and Sat Nam Sing in the King of the Mountain Match. The whole deal. He's fighting against so many odds there. He's on his own against four guys on the same team, three of which have got King of the Mountain experience. The other one could just probably reach up and hang the belt above the ring. Those are some odds for some Orange Cassidy to come back from.

Does he win?

Oh, of course he wins. Okay. You have some real fun spots in there of Jeff Jarrett going to hang it up and Lethal being like, No, I I'm going to be the guy to hang it up and that's how TNA can bust.

What happens when one of them pins Orange Cassidy to be eligible but then none of the others are eligible yet and Orange Cassidy is in the penalty box? They have to pin each other but they don't want to.

Do that. They got to pin each other. It's like, I'm not taking the pin here. I think there could be a lot of great comedy to be had.

I thought you were going to say Orange Cassidy versus Minervis's issue.

I thought that might have been the match they did a.

Forbidden door. I thought so as well.

We've been denied that match so many times over.

I think Orange Cassidy retains here.

Me too.

I would have been more inclined to think that maybe a ZSJ win would have been possible in a singles match. I f anybody's going to take advantage of a hand injury or all these different injuries that Orange Cassidy is working through, I think ZSJ would be a great one to choose from. But in a four way, I think.

Orange takes it. Come on now. He's English. It's ZSJ.

Zsj.

We.

Say Z in Canada.

As well. It's right you do actually, because you're correct. You're a cool country. You can say things right and put us in words.

Regardless of what Don Callis thinks, people from Toronto.

I also think Garcia has taken this pin. Garcia is well eating the pin in.

This match. Yeah, absolutely. That's why he's there.

That's why he's there. The O in Heart Cup kicks off with Satoshi Kajima versus CM P unk.

Satoshi Kajima? What did I say?

Satoshi? I do apologize. Yeah, Kajima versus punk.

Yes. Not the match that we would have thought for CM punk. And not announced in a way that you would have expected for CM punk on this show. Just here's his name in a graphic in a bracket.

Because the reports are this was supposed to be punk versus cancer. Punk reportedly was open to the idea. Cancer was not. We all thought that maybe him just going off on Twitter being like, I ain't doing this match. Was him just working us. No, it was him just flat out telling us, Guys, I ain't doing this match. Stop pretending like this match is happening.

I'm not going to let this man steal my move and then beat me.

With it. I'm not doing that. Exactly. Because punk would have won. And Ken's not been like, I'm not letting him pin me with my own move.

The move he invented. Fair enough. It's strange. It's wrestling stuff. But I think this match, again, has very high potential because Kojima is awesome. And I remember this is very reminiscent of when a lot of people thought we were going to get Jon Moxley versus Hiroshi Tanahashi. I thought at that all out show in 2021. And instead, we got Moxley versus Kojima. And everyone's like, oh, that's not what I was expecting hoping for. And then what we got was an awesome four star match. I think this match has very similar potential here. Here. I don't think there's much of a question about who's winning. Nope.

But I think Pong's winning this whole thing. Yeah.

I find it difficult to look at the field and really see anybody else that sticks out, anybody who will beat Pong.

Exactly. He's probably going to beat Joe in the semis. And then on the other side, it's Stark's and Hobbs and dust in roads. P unks winning this tournament. It feels like it's punk's to lose.

Yeah. And maybe, I don't know, maybe they use that as the un official number one contenders tournament, and you do MJF, punk it all out or something.

I don't know. I feel like we are heading towards punk and MJF based on Collision where he essentially said, I'm still the world champion. There was a bit of fantasy booking I saw online that I really liked, which was because MJF kept saying he wasn't going to do the Tana Hashi match, that instead punk does it, defending the A EW World title because he still thinks that he's the champion. And we get that main event of Forbidden Door that we didn't get last year.

That's.

Fun. It would have been really fun. Instead, we got punk versus Kajima.

I'm sure it'll be grand. Mjf versus Tanahashi, which will also be great.

It is a 10 man tag coming up next with the Blackpool Combat Club of Jon Moxley, Wheely Ute, and Cloudy O'Callah, alongside Takedhester and Shota Umino, versus the elite of Hangman Adam Page, the Young Bucks, and Eddie Kingston and Tomahiro Ishi e. Yeah, man. This is amazing. I am in.

For this. I am very excited for this match. I am in for this. There are so many different character bits that connect all of this tissue together, whether it's the Moxley and Eddie thing, which I'm very excited for after dynamite, or the Eddie C lodio thing, which is never going to be over. Of course, all the elite, Takeshita, elite BCC stuff, as well as Eddie Kingston and Tomahiro Ishi, which that was a feud that they had going on last year. Each year, Kingston or not Kingston, Ishi and Moxley have history. There's a lot of history going on here. Would I have liked to have seen maybe another New Japan guy involved in this? Maybe, but again, you take what... This is an AEW match. It's an AEW match, but I think this match is going to.

Be fantastic. Yeah, this match has got potential to be the most fun match of the night. I know we've got the trios match that we'll discuss in a second, but like, hot dog, there's a hell of a lot to this this match. That's going to be real good. Yeah, it's the young bugs, it's Paige, it's Kingston, it's ECE. I love seeing ECE on pay per view, so this is great for me. I'm really excited to see more elite Black Bull Combat Club stuff. One of the things with Forbidden Door, particularly last year, the criticism against it was that you had to put the big AEW stories on hold to do these three matches. At least we are still continuing on this story, but we're having a little bit of Forbidden Door magic sprinkled in there with ECE and don't know.

I think that is more or less the best of both worlds.

Yeah, I think so.

Again, I do want to give them credit for not just putting this feud on hold so that we could get the hung box against some treacher of New Japan guys that would feel wrong in the context of this story. I think it's going to be so much fun. This, again, was one of the matches, though, that I went back and forth on on who I thought was going to win.

I did the same thing.

This might be one of the ones that splits us.

Who are you going with?

I was going to ask you the same thing because I might just pick the other one just for the sake of fun.

Because I also went back and forth on this a lot and I was like, Okay, well, the Combat Club won at Revolution, so do you give the Elite the win here? T hen I thought about it and I was like, No, because the story is Kingston and Kingston is always someone's downfall. T hey should have won at Revolution last year, but Kingston's desires to set people on fire is what caused his hatred for Gerica. I wonder if his hatred for Cloudio is going to stop the elite picking up the win here and give them another loss to the Combat Club. So I'm going BCC.

Very interesting. I think I've gone BCC in the wrestle league, but for the sake of this being a bit more varied, I'm going to go with the elite.

It could honestly could go.

Either way. I think it could go either way, absolutely. And especially you're bringing in Tomohiro Ishi, who by no means is a protected New Japan guy. He loses a lot of matches, but he is the big New Japan star of the match. And with this being a New Japan crossover show, maybe they could use this as an Ishi showcase and have him be involved in the finish. If he pins Umino, then you don't really have anybody on either side from the AEW side of things taking a loss and sullying their storyline at all. So I could see it either way, absolutely, but I'll go with the Elite.

Up next for the AEW Women's World Championship, just announced out of nowhere, I guess Mercedes Mone's injury has just caused a bit of problems here. It's Tony Storm versus Will O'Knighton Gayle. T he strong women's championship is not on the line here. It's just the AEW Women's World Champion. It is Champ versus Champ, which is a fun little thing. I think if you're going to do a Champ versus Champ match, I would just do it as a straight match with neither title on the line to maybe create some intrig in there of who is going to be the Victor coming out of this. I think having Tony Storm defending the belt very much guarantees this is a Tony Storm win.

It's tough because I did feel like last year when we got Tony Storm versus Thunder Rosa, it was just like, Okay, who do we have on the roster that has the most connection to stardom possible? T hat was Tony Storm. T hey put that match together. Then after that, they started their little team. T hey made a storyline out of it, but going in there wasn't much. At least here, there has been Willow Nightingale and the Outcast going back and forth over the last few months. It just doesn't feel like all of that was building to a title match for this show. No. Maybe if they'd announced that a couple of weeks ago and had a little bit more. But even still, have we seen Tony Storm do hardly anything on TV since winning the title? She faced Sky Blue, but.

That's it. She did the tag match on Collision.

Yeah, I suppose so.

With Willow as well.

Yeah. So at the very least... Sky Blue won that match. Sky Blue won that match. So there's a little bit of... Things aren't quite right. And the.

Reason Willow's here is because she's the NJPW Strong Champion. And again, I think Monee getting injured is the problem we've got here. It's like, For Bed and Door last year, the injuries make plans change. And I think this was supposed to be Storm and Monee, but the injury has made it Storm and Night and Gayle, and I think because it's Night and Gayle who is an AEW talent, it just feels like an AEW match. Stardom and Doing A Show with doing a show with the Night Before. So you can't have one of the big names from there either. I think it feels like it's a bit of not a letdown because the match is going to be really good regardless because Willow's great and Tony's great. But it's not the big showcase match that you want from a company versus company dream card lineup.

It very much, again, feels like last year where it was an AEW match. This one, again, is an AEW match. I don't want to put too much of that on them because, of course, Mercedes got hurt. Again, if Mercedes Mone is facing Tony Storm on this show, that's probably a top three promoted match on the show.

Would have been the top three main event. It would have been like Danielson, Okada, Omega Osprey, and Mercedes and Tony.

Losing out on one of those does hurt a lot, but this is as good of a backup as you could get. Again, with stardom having a show the night before, that does complicate matters because I think this could have been one that would have really benefited by throwing a couple of stardom girls in there and doing a four way match. But we can't do that. So it's tough. We got the best what we can. And I'm sure they'll have a.

Good match anyway. I'm sure they will do.

Tony Storm is the prediction, by the way.

Yeah, Tony Storm is going to get the win there. Up next, it's a trios match of the Gerica Appreciation Society of Gerica and Givara with Minoro Tsutsuki versus Sting, Derby Allen and TBA, that TBA being announced tomorrow night on Collision. Derby's line of you've got enemies, you had enemies in a lot of places. If it's a New Japan thing, it's not Tanahashi because he's already booked for something. It's not Omega because he's already booked for something, which leaves Naito. Could it be Naito?

Maybe. That was my guess.

That was my guess. I mean, a few people were like, Goldberg?

Right. I saw that and went, Come on. How does that fit with any of this?

I mean, I suppose it's got the sting connection.

It's got the sting connection. Derek and him do have a lot of history because they had the beef in WCW behind the scenes that then played into a TV feud in WWE and Goldberg's first run there. I don't think it played into his second run at all or even when he won the Universal title.

And that. Derek is music played and it distracted Kevin Owens and then Goldberg won the title.

Is that what it was?

That is what happened, but they never connected those dots.

My guess is NighT oke. Yes.

My guess is NighT o as well, going through the list of people that J erryco wrestled in New Japan or even since then. Again, it's a fairly short list because he did wrestle. It's a shallow pool. Yeah, he did wrestle and it was a really good run, don't get me wrong, because he faced Omega off the bat, and then he spent a year facing L IJ. So that was two matches with NighT o and one match with Evil. And it's not going to be Evil.

You don't think it's.

Going to be Evil? I don't think it's.

Going to be Evil. No, you don't think it's.

Going to be Evil? I don't think.

It's going to be Evil.

And then he had a match with Okada, who's occupied. Oh, God. Sure. Get the whole House of Torture on this card. That's what we're missing. Watching them as the House of Torture. And then we had the Tanahashi match and then we had... It was pandemic time, so we didn't get any more of that. And then since then, he had a match on TV with Tomihiro Ishi, again, occupied. So it really does just leave Naito. I can't see it being anybody else.

No, I can't see it either.

I think it's a good fit for this, really, because Naito wasn't on the card last year. I feel like not having him on the show two years in a row would be cheating.

It'd be weird. It'd be weird not to have him on the show two years running.

He's one of the biggest stars in New Japan, even if his fall from the main event has been a running story for him in New Japan over the last couple of years. He's still one of those names where the music hits and everyone's going to know who Tetsu Naito is.

Exactly.

I think it's this guy. I wouldn't be upset whatsoever. I think having Darby Allen teaming with Tetsu Naito is just fun.

Yeah, totally. Tetsu Yonaito and Sting, what a weird world we're.

Living in. We're going to see Sting and Minoro Sasuki in the ring together.

That, I hadn't even thought thought of, but you're absolutely right. Because the Sting match last year at Forbidden Door is the one that I think of the most. The 4 way was Ace. Moxley's Hanahashi was Ace. Up and down the card, it was so great. It was all great. But I remember Sting and El Fantasmo. That's the thing that I think of and Sting and the young folks. They're doing the whole exaggerated backrakes and all this stuff. Now I'm getting Sting and Minoro Sezuki. They're like, look, it's Sting and it's Gerica. Don't care. Don't care.

It's Sting and Sezuki.

It's Sting and Sezuki is what I'm interested in. I want to see Sting no sell Sezuki chops and then Sezuki no sell Sting chops.

It's going to be great. I can't wait. This is honestly one of the matches I'm most looking forward to on the show because I don't think a lot of people thought that Gerico's Givara and Sezuki match from last year was going to be the amazing opener that it got. But it was one of the best matches on the show as well. So these are two really good trios, even though we don't know one of the members of one of them. These are two really good trios coming together. And this could be one of those sleeper pick match of the night type candidates. That being said, I think the main event might be the best match ever. You always want to say like, oh, this might be the match of the night. But most shows don't have a match like.

Danielson, Oh God, and.

Omega Osprey. And Omega Osprey.

Who.

Do you have winning this one, though?

Because it's a surprise, I've gone for the good guys. I've gone for Sting, Derby and TBA. I think if you are saving an announcement, I've gone with them to get the win.

It was one of those ones where it's like, I could see it going either way. But given the storyline, again, with Geri K o and Gervara right now where maybe we're heading towards a breakup and there's this like, Oh, play it straight and Geri K o doesn't need you, or, Geri K o needs you, you don't need Geri K o, that thing, I could see some tension between them costing them the match. So I think it's going to be the mystery partner plus Derby and Sting as well. I agree. Choked up about it.

Which brings it into our essentially our four main events that we've got on this show. It's a quadruple main event, everyone. Opening first, the AEW World Championship as MJF defensive against Horseshoe Tanahashi. This, funny enough, when they announced Forbidden Door last year, I did a show with Denice El Sado and we got like, Here are our predictions for what match you could do. T hat was the match I wrote down. It was like before, neither of them were champions or anything, but I was like, MJF Tanahashi, the Ace of New Japan versus the punk of all elite wrestling. That's the match I would like to see. I'm getting it now. It's sure it's a forkl oon conclusion, MJF's winning. Of course it did, but I don't mind. And I don't mind that Tanahashi could barely move these days. And watching him walk around the ring just makes me a bit sad. But somehow he still pulls out that Tanahashi magic because he just plays an air guitar and does a high fly flow. And I was like, Oh, he's still great. Sure, he was really stiff when he was walking down to that ring. But then he did a move and he's awesome.

Hiroshi Tanahashi is maybe the best big match wrestler of all time. And even if he is at 50 % of what he usually is or used to be, he will still pull out a four and a half star match. And I genuinely think that is what we're going to get here. I think MJF being MJF and really playing up the sports entertainment side of it, as he's one to do with loads of trash talk, loads of theatrics, mixing that with the Ace, the poster boy of New Japan Pro wrestling, who's going to try and teach him a lesson with some real good old fashioned New Japan wrestling. I think those two are going to mix together brilliantly. I wish that this was the match where if you could take Tanahashi from six years ago and put him into today and just have him be a phenomenal athletic specimen and really be at the height of his powers, and maybe you could see... I don't think the timing would work out any way for MJF to lose the title. But if this was a younger Tanahashi, I think Tanahashi is a AEW World Champion for a Summer would be so cool.

We said this last year, yeah, sure, you've got the interim World Championship. You're crowning a new champion and all this stuff. But it would have been weird and fun for Tana Hashi to have won the belt. If he held it for just a month and then Moxie wins it back or something, because in trim world championship, it didn't matter. It matters a bit more now because this is just the world title. I'm going with MJF. I'm assuming.

You're doing the same. I'm going with MJF here. There's a lot of things cooking right now for MJF with a lot of different challenges, but this should be an absolutely fantastic match. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm glad we're getting a couple of world title matches that are singles matches as well.

And that is our next one here. It's Jungle Boy Jack Perry going for the IWGP World heavyweight Championship against Sonnada.

Odd match. This is a very strange match.

Real strange. We were talking about this last week when they announced this match and you made the point of The problem with Dream Show matches like this and you got your world titles is that you have to have the not as big stars go for the world titles. T anahashi is one of the biggest names in New Japan, but he is the star you can beat. He's not a protected star within New Japan.

Not.

Anymore. Not anymore. Anyway, you're absolutely right. Jungle boy going for Sonata. You can't have it be punk. You can't have it be Omega or maybe Paige because Paige is a star you can beat.

I don't even know.

But I don't think I wouldn't do it. But I feel like they often treat Paige as a guy that you can beat and it doesn't hurt him in any way. So you have to put someone like a Jack Perry in this match. And I don't think it's the worst idea in the world. And also I think it's going to play more into the heel turn that he's got coming with hook, which elevates hook somewhat, which is good. It just, I think, probably sucks a bit for Sonata.

Yeah, a little bit. I had this point where I was leaving it for, I guess, a show like this where this is the issue and call it an issue, they'll have a good match and it is what it is. But this is the issue with having someone like Sonata as your world champion. It's the same issue that you had when the guns were the AEW tag champions because there are the guys where all of a sudden if the Young Bucks are tag team champions or if Okada is the world champion, you can book them against anybody and have them win. And it just it makes sense because who's going to beat them? So if Okada is the champion, you can have anybody on the AEW roster go in and face him for the title and lose. That's not a problem because you can face Okada and lose and not.

Look bad. Because he's Okada.

He's one of the.

Greatest.

Ever. Same thing with the Young Bucks being AEW World Tag Team Champions. Same with a lot of the different tag team champions they've had. But when you have someone like the Gunns as tag team champions, it limits the amount of people that they can go against because they can't just go in and they're beat the Young Bucks. They can't beat the Lucha Brothers because that would damage those other guys. So you get what we get at Revolution where all of a sudden it's a four way tag. And one of the teams is Dan How's in Orange Cassidy. Yeah. Team TNA. Team TNA. And all of a sudden the quality of teams that they're allowed to beat is much lower than it would be otherwise. And it's the same thing here with Sonata, where, like you said, you can't have someone like Sonata go into this show, and especially on a crossover show where it's really political about who you can beat and who you can't. You can't have Sonata go in there and just beat one of the top AEW guys because that doesn't really work the same way.

You can't beat Cole.

No, you can't, unfortunately. So you get a match like this. And again, I'm sure they're going to have a really good match, but I am a little concerned about how the Toronto crowd is going to treat this one. I think this could be a match where Jungle boy gets booed and potentially.

A lot. I think that's going by the reports from Rampage, that's what happens in his match there. So I think that's going to happen. You're a native. This Toronto crowd, do you think is going to be hot for everything? But do you think this will be the match where they do turn on someone?

I think so. I think this is going to possibly, and this is someone who really wanted to go to the show but couldn't.

Down the road from your house, more.

Or less. Yeah. It would have taken me 20 minutes to get there. But having said that, I think think that the crowd may, and this is going to sound like a really harsh word, but feel a little bit cheated out of a big IWGP heavyweight championship match. Now, granted, I think some of that goes into Sonata being champion as well, where it's now two years in a row where the champion going into the spring was Okata. And you could have seen Okata against somebody for the World Championship. And instead, we're getting now Sonata against Jack Perry. And that's just not the big Marquee IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match that you might hope for out of a show like this. And I think that they might not necessarily turn on the match, but take that frustration out on Jungle Boy just as he's going to be the one they direct that anger at. And I think that might play into their hand if he's going to turn heel on this show and just take all of that and throw it right back at them. But I think it's going to be a very interesting match to watch.

I think so. Sonata did this interview, and obviously a lot of it's in character and things like that. But he was like, I have no idea who Jack Perry is. This feels like a real disrespectful choice for the IW. This should be a belt that's treated special. I don't think Jack Perry is a special choice.

Who would you have done?

Well, that will ask the problem.

Maybe PAC?

Yeah, actually, PAC would have been fun. Pac's a surprising choice, but again, doesn't feel like a tippity top guy that should should be going for this belt. I take your point of what you mean by Sonrta, but I guess as well, Sonrta's comments there time more into this Jack Perry heel turn that is likely going to be coming in the summer. I think Jack Perry versus Hook will probably be one of the more key matches for All Out or maybe even all in.

I could have seen maybe a Cloudio as well.

Yeah, as the ring of Honor Champion.

I think if you had done maybe something like... Again, I'm not advocating for a ton of four ways or anything like that, but this might have been one that could have benefited from it, where if you did Malakai Black, pack, Shingo and Sonata, all of a sudden there's a lot of star power in that match. And even have Jungle boy be involved in one of those. Have him be one of the guys instead of Malakai or whatever you want to do. But I don't know, we'll see.

But here are our two big matches. Holy heckings. Both of these were announced while I was away and I got back to just this incredible bit of news because in my lifetime, I'm going to get to see Brian Danielson versus Okada.

This.

Is the most incredible thing about this show. I know there are some people who are a bit down on this card because it's not every match is a dream match. I couldn't give a rat's ass. You could have loaded this card up with the guns and a bunch of other people I do not care about because you're giving me Danielson versus a card. You could have just given me this match and I would have been a happy boy, but it's on the same card as Kenny Omega Ospreay. Any other night this would be like, oh, this would be a match of the year contender. But it's going up against what was already a match of the year contender in January. I don't think there has been a match that has come within an arse's roar of being as good as Okada or Ospreay.

Sorry, Omega or Ospreay. The only one I have considered in contention is the MFF Brian Ironman match.

That's it, though. That's it. Because that Omega Osprey match at wrestle Kingdom was gosh, darn perfection. And we're getting it again here. And somehow because that match was so good, I'm being like, Danielson versus Okada is good a tough actor to live up to. Danielson Okada has got a tough night to live up to. But this match is going to be something real special.

I mean, which one do you want to talk about first?

Let's go with Danielson and Ocata first, because I think they have announced that Omega Rospry is the main event of the show.

Interesting. I thought that it was going to be Okada and Danielson as.

The main event. I'm pretty sure they announced a couple of weeks it might have been last week, Omega Rospry is closing the show because then that's when they were like, Ah, they're going to do a big angle at the end there. It could be the Kota Robuchie. The big angle is coming at the end of the show. Kind of like how last year's Forbidden Door was the build for.

Blood and Guts. Oh God. I like to forget about.

That, honestly. Maybe this is also going to be...

It's been a while that the best pay per view of AEW and the best pay per view of Wwe had the weirdest goddamn ending last year with the Tyson Furi sing along? And and the blood and guts thing.

Anyway. We'll go with Danish and Okada first.

I think we have, and this is overblown a lot, I think we have a legit chance to see the best match of all time. It could be, man. I am still of the belief, five years later, that Omega Okada 4 is the greatest match in the history of wrestling. How many people can you say are potentially better than Kenny Omega in the ring?

It is a small.

Small pool. It is a very short list. And Brian Danielson is potentially, depending on your argument, one of.

Those people. You can count those number of people on one hand while holding something.

And this is a match in front of a crowd that wants to.

See it.

That's right. This has the dream match feel. This is in front of a dream match ready crowd.

You remember when at Grand Slam when it was Danielson's squaring off against Omega and the crowd were losing their mind because the bell rang? I think we may get something pretty similar here.

You're going to get holy S word dance at the Bell ringing. I guarantee it.

Just the entrances alone, I'm excited for because Danielson's going to make his entrance and be like, oh, Danielson's so cool. And then, Hiccardo is going to be like, oh, my God, it's Hiccardo. And Hiccardo is now going to wrestle Danielson. And I feel like every fibre of my being is excited for this.

Yes. There are very few just match announcements that could elicit the reaction that this match announcement got out of me watching Dominion live at 10 in the morning and just sitting in bed just going, Oh, my God. I can't wait. This has match of the year written on it, and that might be an understatement.

Yeah, pretty much.

Just match of the year.

Badness. It is. But who do you think is winning?

This is a very good question.

Okay, in wrestle League, I've gone Danielson.

Interesting. In wrestle League, I've gone Okada. Really? Yeah.

I didn't know. I didn't know. So I just went Danielson and I've got honestly no argument. I've got no argument for my pick. I just went with my gut.

The only thing I thought of when I was picking a winner here was that Danielson said in his promo that he's the litmus test of great. And this is like, I don't think Okada necessarily needs to prove his greatness by any means. But if that's the story of prove to me that you're great, I think Okada beats Danielson. I actually am the best.

Of all time. That is a good argument. Damn, but that's going to be a.

Good match. I could see it going either way, though. This is one of the ones where I almost don't care. I'm glad that I can feel it going either way because it's just going to make all the near falls that much better. Whereas if this was the World Championship match, I probably would have thought, it's probably a more clear cut winner here. Here it could go either way. I'm just going to be excited for the whole thing.

I'm so pumped.

Did they do a time limit draw? Maybe.

I think that would maybe s ully the fan's enjoyment. I think you have to give this one a finish.

I think this needs a finish. Unless you are building to a rematch.

Even still, I think this needs a finish. You could just do it again. If you do the first one, give them a finish, and then do the second one, basically follow the structure of the Omega Okata series. Because the first one goes like 45 minutes with a great finish, and then the second one's a time limit draw. I think that makes it easier to then build to a third.

Or this is just a one-off thing.

I would be.

Happy either way. I think the only thing that gives me the credit is that they could do a time limit draw is if it isn't the main event. What you don't want is this show to end on a draw with probably the crowd booing the finish. And that brings us to our final match to discuss. It is a singles match for the IWGP United States heavyweight championship. The rematch from wrestle Kingdom as Kenny Omega defends the belt against Will Ospreay. I got my boy Will here. Will wins the belt back. I said this when we did the reactions for wrestle Kingdom. I was like, This is brilliant. You have Omega win here and you do the rematch of Forbidden Door and Osprey gets the win there. I am so excited for this match. I'm putting my flag in the ground. Omega Osprey is the match of the year in 2023. Nothing, aside from your very good argument of the Revolution match, which does have a fatal 4 way, there have been some matches that have come close, but nothing has been as good as Omega Osprey 1 from wrestle Kingdom. When you do a sequel, if you're doing an Osprey sequel, if you're doing an Omega sequel, they like to up the ante.

I think they're going to pull out something incredible here.

I am so excited for this double shot main event. I think these are the two... This is the best double shot main event I've seen on a wrestling show, perhaps ever. What can you compare it to? I don't know what you could compare just Danielson and Okada to, let alone pairing that with Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega. But my word, I'm going to be so excited just to see how this match differs in terms of style from their wrestle kingdom match, because Kenny Omega is very much someone who tailors his style based on the promotion he's in. Kenny Omega and New Japan is a different wrestler compared to Kenny Omega and All E wrestling, and both are absolutely fantastic. But he knows how to work a North American crowd, and he knows how to work a Japan crowd, and they're very different, so the match styles are different. I'm going to be so excited to see what this looks like on a North American pay per view card compared to a big Tokyo Dome main event match. Do they top themselves?

Well, that's the thing. Are we going to do a third match in the.

Series as well? I think.

So as Wembley. We have got.

Wembley coming up. I think you do the third match at Wembley.

You want a big match for that? The only other big match I think you could do that would top doing Omega Osprey III is doing Omega Danielson II. That would be my only thing. But then I was like, We could do Danielson, Zack Saber Jr. I've said my piece on that, though. That's too much of a technical match for a 90,000 seat building or stadium.

Rather, because I'm not putting anything past Danielson.

I agree. But if you're up in the nosebleed, you ain't seeing any of the intricacies of that match. You are not going to get the enjoyment out of that match that you would if you were just sitting at home and watching it or on the ground level watching it. But yeah, those are the only two matches I could think that would be Wembley worthy. It would be Omega... I'm actually there's a whole bunch of matches you could do. But Omega Osprey 3 or Omega Danielson 2. But Omega Osprey 3, man, that would be like that. So yeah, do you do all of it now because this is it? Or do you do all of it now but save that little bit extra because you know there's that third.

Match coming? I think that's what we get here. I think Will wins the title back and I think you do the rubber match in Wembley and that would absolutely put the stamp on there's your Feud of the Year in the observer awards. Here's your trilogy of matches that they like to do all in one year and be like, 2023 is the year of Will Osprey and Kenny Omega matches. And everyone will remember it as such. And I think it's going to be fantastic. I think they're going to leave it all in the ring in this match. I think Will is going to win the title badge. I think you end this show with the Blackpool Combat Club beating the hell out of Kenny Omega and you're going to hear Kota Ebushi's music.

Because we got the Bucks hangman Pageer there. So you've got all of the elite there to do your big stare down angle at the end. Don Calles is effectively aligning himself with Will Osprey, or at least offering his services to Will Osprey. So I think he's going to be playing into the finish somewhat. I think this is going to be awesome.

As much as I was excited at the prospect of Double or Nothing ending with Kota Ibushi coming out and saving Kenny Omega, to have that at the end of this match, at the end of this pair of matches, at the end of this show, with everything that we've just said going into it, with all of the really heated angle that is the Blackpool Combat Club and the Elite with their match earlier in the night, I think that is a for sure, as if it wasn't already, but a for sure stamp on this show as show of.

The year. There's a lot here, man. There's a lot to unpack. I think there's going to be some really good talking points coming out of this match as well. I'm excited. I'm looking up and down this card and I'm excited. I think that trio's match is going to be fun. I think Mgft's Hanahashi is going to be great. Combat Club versus the Elite with E E in Kingston. I think the 4 way is going to be awesome. And then with all of that, Danielson and Caterpillar, which has the potential to be the best wrestling match ever, and Omega Osprey, too. What a show we are looking.

Forward to.

What a show. We're going to be doing live reactions to it. It's going to be Choper Pete Quesenel and the Professor Dan Layton, the truth, Dan Layton doing the live reactions here on the Restor podcast channel. Then on the Monday, no collision review this week because we're going to be reviewing Forbidden Door instead. It's going to be myself and Choper Pete Quesnel.

Missing out on Tauna Hoshi versus Swinger.

Well, I'm going to.

Watch it. I'm going.

To watch it. Yeah. We're just not going to be reviewing it on Monday because we're going to be very focused on Forbidden Door. But we're doing that review on Monday. We got a packed week because the week after that is Money in the Bank. So we got Money in the Bank predictions next week with the return of Jam in the Jar. So there's a hell of a lot coming up on the Restore podcast channel. So please do get your subscribe buttons in right now if you've made it this far. Give us a little thumbs up as well. Leave a comment down below. Tell what you think is going to happen on this show. I'm excited. I'm sure you're excited.

I'm so excited. One year of me here in the UK. That's right. What a celebration. Literally on the anniversary of me landing.

Yeah. So if anything, that's the reason to celebrate. Come join us on Monday and join us on Sunday for the reactions and the reviews. Until then, I've been Luke Owen, DAD. That has been Tempest. Jam That Jam.

Can.

Not.

Get out. Can not get out. Can not get out. You.