Former WWE World Champion Attempted to Wrestle in New Japan Multiple Times Via The Forbidden Door

While it was once pad-locked between WWE and other promotions, the global leader in sports-entertainment has cracked open the forbidden door ajar in the past couple of months. It began in Summer 2022 when current AEW stars Bryan Danielson, Paul Wight and Chris Jericho sent in pre-recorded video messages for a Monday Night Raw celebration of John Cena's debut anniversary and continued with the signing of then-NEVER Openweight Champion Karl Anderson. Despite being on a WWE contract, Anderson was granted permission to finish his NJPW commitments, including wrestling at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17 this past January. Also in that month, WWE's Shinsuke Nakamura was given the green light to face The Great Muta in a Pro Wrestling NOAH ring.

All these situations have been circumstantial one-offs, but the desire to compete in other promotions while still being on WWE's books has been around for years. Speaking to Comedy Store Wrestling, NJPW's Rocky Romero revealed that he has spoken with former WWE Universal Champion Finn Balor about making a brief exodus back to the Far East.

"I've had a couple of fun conversations with him over the last couple of years of like him kind of fantasy booking, 'I'm going to talk to Triple H and see if there's an opportunity to come back,'" Romero said. "This was years ago. Just come back and do a couple of matches and re-heat himself up before going back to WWE."

It's unclear if this hypothetical scenario would have had Balor pursuing championships and engaging in fleshed out storylines or if he would strictly be competing in a series of exhibition matches. It's notable that Romero's verbiage indicates that this would have happened while Balor was still a member of the WWE roster rather than him leaving the company, working some New Japan dates, and then formerly return. This aligns with the concept of the "forbidden door," as the idea is only applicable to those who cross over to different promotions, not those who leave one company and sign with another.

"I definitely think there's a value in that for somebody at that level who has been there for a few years, just heat them up by sending them out of the country and doing something really cool," Romero continued.

New Japan was Balor's original home. Wrestling as Prince Devitt, Balor reigned as a three-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion and won the Best of the Super Juniors tournament on two occasions. Many consider Balor to be the greatest gaijin (foreign wrestler) in NJPW history. Outside of his accolades, Balor's NJPW legacy is left by Bullet Club, as he is the man responsible for creating the famous black-and-white stable back in the early 2010s. Balor was the group's original leader before those duties were passed to the likes of AJ Styles, Kenny Omega, and Jay White.