AEW’s Jon Moxley To Defend IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Against New Japan Legend at Forbidden Door

New Japan Pro Wrestling and AEW are just three weeks away from their annual Forbidden Door pay-per-view event which brings all the stars from both companies together to create the ultimate dream match scenarios you won’t find anywhere else. This year provides an extra challenge due to several of NJPW’s stars going to both AEW and WWE, but it has opened a door for other promotions like STARDOM to join the fray. On AEW Collision last night another match was made official — TMDK’s Zack Sabre Jr. issued a challenge to one of AEW’s most beloved stars for a rematch. 

This morning, NJPW held its Dominion event which saw IWGP Heavyweight Champion Jon Moxley defeat EVIL in a singles match. Afterward, Moxley issued an open challenge of sorts for anyone in the locker room to face him at the pay-per-view. “A lot of guys throw out anytime, anywhere, anybody, but I mean any f—ing time, any f—ing where, any f—ing body,” Mox said into the mic. Tetsuya Naito — the man Moxley beat for the title in April — confronted him and asked for a rematch at Forbidden Door. Of course, Moxley never backs down for a challenge, so he accepted.

What Matches Are Part of Forbidden Door 3?

As previously mentioned, this year STARDOM will collaborate with AEW on their first pay-per-view to bring in Mina Shirakawa who will face off against Toni Storm for the AEW Women’s World Championship. Since Mina’s arrival in AEW, she’s rekindled her friendship with Mariah May. When May was part of STARDOM, Mina was the one that took her under her wing and mentored her in the Club Venus stable. Now Storm acts as that to May in AEW, so there’s definitely some jealousy between both women who are vying for the young star’s attention. 

Another women’s match taking place will likely be Mercedes Moné against Stephanie Vaquer, both champions in their respective companies. Moné is the TBS Champion in AEW while Vaquer holds the NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship — the same title that Moné was injured trying to win. Moné hasn’t had any involvement with Japan since her injury took her out of action, cutting her NJPW run short.

NJPW and AEW don’t only put on cross-promotional dream matches, they also do them inside their own promotions. This will be the case with AEW International Champion Will Ospreay against AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland. It’s hard to imagine that Swerve would lose the championship so soon after winning it at AEW Dynasty, but since Ospreay’s been a fully-fledged AEW roster member in March, he boasts and impressive record of 12-1, one of the best on the roster. Surprisingly, they’ve only faced each other three times in their careers, the latest being in 2017.

Stay tuned to Comicbook for updates on AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door.