Bully Ray & Tommy Dreamer Discuss AEW & The Forbidden Door

WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray feels that AEW and NJPW have given their annual collaborative pay-per-view Forbidden Door a misnomer.

"If there's a show that I think deserved the name/moniker 'Forbidden Door' it would've been the Madison Square Garden show with Ring of Honor and New Japan," Bully said on "Busted Open Radio" recently. "Because there's two companies, working together," Bully said, noting that NJPW and ROH had a long-standing relationship before the famous G1 Supercard event. 

He feels the true "forbidden door" wasn't between any two companies, but the literal door to Madison Square Garden, as no company had run there other than WWE for decades. "That screams 'Forbidden Door.'" The Hall of Famer doesn't feel that the term "Forbidden Door" is one that sticks with him in any real sense.

"I like my pro wrestling to make sense," Bully explained. "When AEW broke onto the scene and they first started doing business with New Japan, and everybody and their mother wanted to use the term 'Forbidden Door' to look smart, I was sitting here like, 'This has been done already' ... And it had been done by New Japan and Ring of Honor and they sold out Madison Square Garden." 

Bully Ray added that while the Madison Square Garden show was initially sold on the promise of AEW talent like Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega, and The Young Bucks, he didn't hear many complaints come showtime.

"I believe that the majority bought tickets to Madison Square Garden because there was going to be a show there, and everybody wanted to be a part of history," Bully explained. His co-host Tommy Dreamer believes that Bully is right in spirit, but ultimately the term "Forbidden Door," which was coined by Hiroshi Tanahashi to refer specifically to AEW, is outright owned by the company.

Bully fired back, stating that the AEW and NJPW relationship doesn't feel very forbidden at the moment, especially since NJPW has a long history of working with other promotions. The WWE Hall of Famer feels the only real "forbidden door" lies between competing companies.

"When it comes to the term 'Forbidden Door' there are only two examples I can give — if we saw an AEW talent show up on WWE programming and vice versa," Bully said. "How would you react if you saw a CMLL talent show up on AAA television or vice versa?"

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.