AEW Dynamite continues the road to AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door. Following AEW Double or Nothing this past May, AEW has begun building to its annual crossover event with New Japan Pro Wrestling. Past editions of AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door have featured inter-promotional dream matches and safe-bet championship defenses, but this year’s show is operating closer to a traditional pay-per-view. That’s because both the AEW World Championship and IWGP World Heavyweight Title matches are being contested between two AEW stars and two NJPW stars (as Jon Moxley is technically also a member of the New Japan roster), respectively. Tonight’s AEW Dynamite looks to give a clearer picture of the AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door card.
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Will Ospreay Defends International Title
The Aerial Assassin puts his gold up for grabs weeks before challenging for the AEW World Championship.
After winning a four-way contest last week, Rey Fenix is getting a chance to reclaim the AEW International Champion when he takes on current titleholder Will Ospreay. While logic would say Ospreay retains due to being just weeks into his reign, his upcoming AEW World Title match against Swerve Strickland raises questions.
Will AEW want its International Champion to take a loss without losing that title? Would AEW put two championships on Ospreay? The AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door main event becomes a lot more unpredictable if Ospreay walks in empty-handed. Fenix has been the go-to to pivot AEW International Title plans before, as he defeated Jon Moxley to win that very title last fall when Moxley called an audible after suffering an injury in their bout.
Mercedes Moné Puts TBS Title On The Line
The CEO is also a fighting television champion.
Mercedes Moné defends her AEW TBS Championship against CMLL star Zeuxis. This contest comes weeks before Moné battles Zeuxis’s tag team partner, NJPW STRONG Women’s Champion Stephanie Vaquer, at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door. The currently scheduled Moné vs. Vaquer bout is for all the gold, as both the AEW TBS and NJPW STRONG Women’s Championships will be on the line.
AEW Dynamite goes down at 8 PM ET on TBS. You can see the full card below…
- AEW International Championship: Will Ospreay (c) vs. Rey Fenix
- TV Time with Chris Jericho, The Learning Tree, and Private Party
- TBS Championship: Mercedes Mone (c) vs Zeuxis
- RUSH In action
- AEW TNT Title Qualifying Match: Dustin Rhodes vs. Jack Perry
- Orange Cassidy, Kyle O’Reilly & Mark Briscoe vs. Roderick Strong, Kyle Fletcher & Konosuke Takeshita
