NJPW, AEW Confirm Top Two Matches For Forbidden Door 2

By Sai Mohan
Kazuchika Okada Addresses The Media At A Presser Etsuo Hara/Getty Images

The two marquee matches for Forbidden Door 2 are now confirmed. NJPW announced via a press conference on Tuesday that Kazuchika Okada will wrestle AEW's Bryan Danielson in one of the two main events at the NJPW x AEW crossover event. In the other main event, Kenny Omega will defend his IWGP United States Championship against Will Ospreay in a rematch of their bout from Wrestle Kingdom 17. 

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Subsequently, AEW confirmed via Twitter that the pair of matches will be headlining the June 25 event at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.  

While the Omega versus Ospreay match has a built-in storyline, Okada made it clear during his presser that the stakes for his match against Danielson were to determine "the real Best in the World" and not for any championship titles. Furthermore, the Omega versus Ospreay rematch was more-or-less confirmed when the latter earned the right to challenge for Omega's title with a victory over Lance Archer at the recent NJPW Dominion event.

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In the coming weeks, fans can expect AEW and NJPW to announce more matches for the second installment of their crossover event. Last year, nearly all the major titles across the two companies were defended as AEW and NJPW wrestlers came to blows in inter-promotional bouts. In the main event, Jon Moxley defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to capture the interim AEW World Championship after the incumbent champion, CM Punk, skipped the event due to an injury.

This Wednesday's "AEW Dynamite" could possibly set up AEW World Champion MJF's challenger for Forbidden Door 2. MJF made it clear at the Double or Nothing media scrum that he had no intention to wrestle at the crossover event, a year after he sat out of the inaugural show due to a reported contractual dispute. As such, fans believe that a top wrestler from NJPW — possibly IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Sanada — could confront MJF for actively disparaging NJPW via various interviews. Neither NJPW nor AEW has confirmed if the AEW World Championship will be defended at Forbidden Door 2.

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