Jon Moxley won the interim AEW World Championship at Sunday’s Forbidden Door pay-per-view, taking down Hiroshi Tanahashi in a bloody main event. The finale saw Moxley counter Tanahashi’s High Fly Flow into a Bully Choke, nearly choke him out with a rear-naked choke before planting him with a Paradigm Shift for the victory.
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The match was originally set to be CM Punk vs. Tanahashi for the AEW World Championship, but Punk suffered a leg injury that required surgery days after he won the gold at Double or Nothing. Tony Khan instead decided to let Punk keep the title and start a championship series to crown an interim champion.
“Based on what happens in real fights, in the world of fighting, this is what you do. You have a great champion, and if they are injured, you name an interim champion and set up an exciting unification fight. We have a great chance to set something exciting up,” Khan explained on Busted Open Radio earlier this month. “It is a setback, but we’re really excited to get CM Punk back,” he later added. “He’s going to have surgery here quickly and I’m very nervous, but pretty optimistic because he’s going to be seeing one of the top doctors in the entire world and someone really renowned in sports medicine. We were fortunate to get him in quickly. We’re excited to get him back.”
The pair were then attacked from behind by Chris Jericho and Daniel Garcia, prompting everyone else involved in Wednesday’s Blood and Guts Match to get involved. Claudio Castagnoli, who debuted earlier in the night, cleared the ring of the heels.
Check out the full results from Forbidden Door below! AEW returns to pay-per-view on Sept. 4 with the 2022 All Out event, which will once again be in Chicago.
- (Buy-In) Bishamon def. The Factory
- (Buy-In) Lance Archer def. Nick Comoroto
- (Buy-In) Swerve in Our Glory def. Suzuki-gun
- (Buy-In) Max Caster & Gunn Club def. NJPW LA Dojo
- Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara & Minoru Suzuki def. Eddie Kingston, Shota Umino & Wheeler Yuta (Blood and Guts Advantage Match)
- IWGP and ROH World Tag Team Championships: FTR def. Roppongi Vice, United Empire
- Sting, Darby Allin, Shingo Takagi def. The Young Bucks & El Phantasmo
- AEW Women’s World Championship: Thunder Rosa def. Toni Storm
- IWGP United States Championship: Will Ospreay def. Orange Cassidy
- Claudio Castagnoli def. Zack Sabre Jr.
- IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Jay White def. Adam Cole, Kazuchika Okda, Hangman Page
- Interim AEW World Championship: Jon Moxley def. Hiroshi Tanahashi
