AEW: Early Betting Odds Favorites Heading Into Forbidden Door
AEW's first crossover event with New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Forbidden Door, takes place this Sunday night at Chicago's United Center. Tony Khan confirmed this week that the show has already generated more than a million dollars in ticket revenue with more than 15,000 fans in attendance and the card is loaded with championship matches and stars from both companies. BetOnline released its first betting odds for the confirmed matches over the weekend, which you can see below.
The show's main event was originally intended to be CM Punk vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the AEW World Championship, but Punk suffered a surgery-requiring foot injury and had to be pulled from the show. Instead of stripping him of AEW's top prize, a championship series to crown an interim world champion was announced. Punk will face the winner in a unification match at a later date. It's unsurprising that Moxley is favored over Tanahashi as "The Ace" isn't under AEW contract and his involvement in the upcoming G1 Climax tournament would prevent him from appearing on AEW programming until late August at the earliest.
- Interim AEW World Championship: Jon Moxley (-350) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (+225)
- AEW All-Atlantic Championship: PAC (+400) vs. Miro (+125) vs. Tomohiro Ishii (+800) vs. Malakai Black (+125)
- IWGP United States Championship: Will Ospreay (-800) vs. Orange Cassidy (+400)
- AEW Women's World Championship: Thunder Rosa (-450) vs. Toni Storm (+275)
- ROH and IWGP Tag Team Championships: FTR (-180) vs. Jeff Cobb & Great-O-Khan (+325) vs. Roppongi Vice (+210)
- Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara & Minoru Suzuki (-180) vs. Eddie Kingston, Wheeler Yuta & Shota Umino (+140)
The other big match that has been teased but not confirmed is an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship defense. Hangman Page initially called out Kazuchika Okada to a title match, but "The Rainmaker" turned around and lost the title to Jay White in the main event of Dominion. White appeared on last week's Dynamite, attacked Page, then declared neither he nor Adam Cole (much to the latter's surprise given the bridge he's trying to build between the Bullet Club and Elite factions) would get a crack at the title.
Add in the speculation that a) Okada might not be able to make the show and b) Kenny Omega has been teased for a return on this week's Being The Elite and it's anyone's guess as to how New Japan's top championship will be used on the show.
Based on the odds above, do you see any upsets at Sunday's show? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments and stay tuned for live coverage of Forbidden Door!