It's nearly time for the Forbidden Door to open once again, as AllElite Wrestling teams up with NJPW, CMLL, and STARDOM for the latest iteration of the crossover card. Ten matches have been announced at the time of this writing nine on the main card, one on the kickoff with a total of five championships on the line, in addition to the finals of the men's and women's Owen Hart Cup tournaments. There are also multiple interpromotional non-title matches, from the Young Bucks taking on teams from both NJPW and CMLL to Kenny Omega facing ZackSabre Jr., and a massive steel cage match with title implications of its own.But who will come out on top in all these matches? That's what we're here to find out. Our collective predictions came out absolutely perfect the last time AEW ran a PPV, and based on the percentages below, we feel like we have a pretty strong pulse on who's winning and losing in San Jose. In fact, we might even say this card looks a little predictable though TonyKhan could always throw us a curveball or two. How do we see Forbidden Door shaping up this year? Let's get to the picks!
Does the Wrestling Inc. staff believe that the 100+ day reign of Divine Dominion as women's world tag champs will come to an end on the Forbidden Door pre-show, against the thrown-together team of Thunder Rosa and CMLL's Olympia? It's safe to say we do not.There honestly isn't much more to say on the subject. If anyone had voted for Rosa and Olympia, I would have assumed their finger slipped on the keyboard and they put in the vote by accident. That's how dominant the champions have been since winning the women's tag belts back in March at AEW Revolution, and how unlikely it seems that they've been built up for the last 100 days to lose on the kickoff show to two wrestlers who have literally never teamed before. It's simply not happening, and there's no point in any one of us pretending it is.Written by Miles Schneiderman
If there's one thing that the build for AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2026 has been criticized for, it's the lack of inclusion from the other companies involved in the show. New Japan Pro Wrestling, STARDOM, and CMLL are also part of the event, but up until very recently, it seemed like another standard AEW pay-per-view. However, that has since been changed thanks to matches like this, a three-way tag team match featuring representation from three different companies.Representing AEW will be the "Founding Fathers" themselves, The Young Bucks. Flying the flag for CMLL will be two-thirds of El Sky Team, Mistico and Mascara Dorada, and fighting for the lion mark of NJPW will be Shingo Takagi and Titan (who is also contracted to CMLL) of Unbound Co.. Considering that Matt and Nick Jackson are the two names AEW fans are most familiar with, you would think that they would be a slam dunk pick for this match, but it's not that simple.Two nights before Forbidden Door takes place, Mistico and Mascara Dorada will challenge Sammy Guevara and The Beast Mortos of La Faccion Ingobrenable for the ROH World Tag Team Championships at the CMLL "Viernes Espectacular" event on June 25 inside Arena Mexico. If they were to win that match, Mistico and Dorada would be walking into this match as the only set of champions, and the likelihood of the new champions having their momentum carried on through Forbidden Door would rise dramatically, hence why the 36% that didn't vote for The Young Bucks went for El Sky Team. They could pin Titan to keep The Young Bucks strong, give CMLL a much needed victory on the card, and everyone wins.Having said all that, the story that is being told right now with the Jackson brothers is that they want their AEW World Tag Team Championships back, and they want to earn the spot of number one contenders by beating the best that the world, let alone AEW, has to offer. Having them lose at Forbidden Door, regardless of whether either Matt or Nick are pinned, doesn't fit with that story. It would give CMLL or NJPW a nice moment, but that nice moment would undermine an AEW story that is yet to be paid off.A bunch of matches on this show could be the match of the night, and this is no exception. It will be a sleeper hit for sure, and while we aren't sleeping on El Sky Team getting the win, we're putting our chips on the table and gambling on The Young Bucks walking away victorious. Sorry Titan and Shingo, you'll still do great.Written by Sam Palmer
Kenny Omega will encounter a face from his past and the world's best technical wrestler in Zack Sabre Jr. at Forbidden Door this weekend, the first bout between them in eight years.Long before Sabre Jr. grew into the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, he and Omega locked horns during the 2018 G1 Climax in NJPW, with Omega picking up the win. That was their second singles bout, having first faced one another one-on-one in 2013 in the UK. Omega also won that bout.The only success Sabre Jr. ever experienced over Omega came in tag team action, beating the Golden Lovers duo of Omega and Kota Ibushi, as well as Bullet Club's Chase Owens and Yujiro Takahashi in 2018.And, much in that vein, the Wrestling Inc. staff have almost unanimously agreed it will be Omega leaving with his hand raised. 91% voted for him to beat Sabre Jr. for the third time in singles action, perhaps as he looks to pursue the AEW World Championship held by MJF. He failed in a 38-minute title bout in April, but has since stayed undefeated in three bouts, including Stadium Stampede at Double or Nothing.Written by Max Everett
Despite Yota Tsuji's protestations, AEW is pretty good at playing the diplomacy game. They are not interested in blowing up another promotion's main event scene, or making waves for the sake of making waves. Tony Khan is simply enough of a wrestling nerd to remember how mad New Japan got at WCW for their handling of the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship.For that reason, not a single soul on the Wrestling Inc. Staff think that Shota Umino is losing the IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship on Sunday. I have even neglected to look up the opponent, since I already forgot, and there's no one on the AEW roster who could beat him right now. Umino just won the title, getting it back in the hands of a New Japan talent after a few months around Andrade's waist. If ever there was a "made man" on this card, it's Umino. Hell, his dad might even be the referee for the match.Ok, I looked it up, and he's facing PAC, so that just underlines things more. PAC is what is known as "enhancement talent to the stars," an age old role in wrestling; gatekeeper to the various title belts, but rarely a champion himself. He will put up a fight, but expect Umino.Written by Ross Berman
Adam Copeland and Christian Cage are putting their AEW World Tag Team Championships on the line against The Dogs' David Finlay and Clark Connors at Forbidden Door, but even with the threat of a recently returned Gabe Kidd looming, we don't think there's any way that Cope and Cage lose their titles. A full 100% of us believe the wrestling veterans will walk out of the Forbidden Door still champions.Finlay and Connors haven't exactly had the hottest start in AEW since joining the roster in March. They've recently racked up some victories and look a lot better, but it can't be forgotten The Dogs lost the AEW World Trios Championships within the span of just four days. Cope and Cage, on the other hand, have been hot since their return ahead of Dynasty, and their feud with FTR was solid, ending with them finally winning the gold in a fantastic "I Quit" match to open Double or Nothing last month.The teams have been brawling since Copeland and Cage tried to hit their "Five Second Pose" on the episode of "Dynamite" following their title victory, with The Dogs taking over the gimmick after laying out the older stars. They've fought in backstage segments, including the go-home show on Wednesday, none of which have yet to involve Kidd.Forbidden Door marks Copeland and Cage's first defense of the gold, which we think they'll win, despite the best efforts of The Dogs. There are many things they have left to do with the gold in the company, though some, including a big tables, ladders, and chairs match, whatever AEW may call that, could be on hold following FTR announcing their hiatus. Either way, they'll have a huge match at All In: London, so we all predict a Cope and Cage win.Written by DaisyRuth
When AEW can pull a match like this out of its rear-end without even thinking about it, you know that the roster is insanely deep. For the AEW Continental Championship, Jon Moxley will look to make another successful defense of his title as he takes on Bandido. Moxley has five defenses under his belt at the time of writing (technically it's only four since the first was a time limit draw with Konosuke Takeshita), but it must be said that this match with Bandido might be his toughest test yet.Bandido is coming up on one year as the ROH World Champion, he's held tag gold with Brody King in the past 12 months, he's even challenged MJF for the AEW World Championship as recently as January. Granted, he has been locked outside of the United States for the past few months due to visa issues, but he's been keeping up his stellar form in Mexico with CMLL, and now he's coming for his first piece of AEW singles gold."The Most Wanted" certainly looks like he is worthy of being the man to dethrone Moxley, primarily because he is so unpredictable. Moxley hasn't really faced anyone like Bandido in this sort of a setting for a while. Sure, he's wrestled Will Ospreay, but he had an injured neck. He's wrestled El Clon and Hechicero, but they were eliminator matches. This is a pay-per-view title match, the stakes are extremely high. But with that said, as you can probably tell from the percentage, this is likely not going to be the night Bandido gets his first AEW singles title.I personally still believe that Moxley is holding the AEW Continental Championship until the next Continental Classic tournament. Considering that will start at the end of November, we've still got five months of Moxley as champion before his title reign really comes under threat. The match this Sunday with Bandido is likely to be excellent, maybe even match of the night considering the quality of work these two guys have produced over the past year or so. However, it's going to be Moxley getting his hand raised.Written by Sam Palmer
The 2026 Men's Owen Hart Cup will culminate this weekend at Forbidden Door as Swerve Strickland and Will Ospreay clash in the final.A little less than a year ago Strickland and Ospreay were partners defeating the Young Bucks to depose them as EVPs, riding alongside one another and Hangman Page to take down the Death Riders, and agreeing to step aside for the world title as Page continued his pursuit.Now with Page unable to challenge for the title held by MJF, they will battle for the opportunity to challenge for the title at All In. And Ospreay has aligned with the Death Riders to do it.He has been unable to defeat Strickland in any of their past singles bouts, though, having lost a World Championship match at Forbidden Door 2024 and wrestling to a time limit draw last year. But that has done nothing to prevent the Wrestling Inc. staff unanimously voting that he will break that duck and head to Wembley as challenger. All In will return to London, England, in August and with a win he could establish the home field advantage, which we fully expect him to do.Written by Max Everett
There are quite a few matches on the Forbidden Door card that we're mostly in agreement on, and a few that every single one of us are predicting the same star to emerge victorious, and the final for the 2026 Women's Owen Hart Foundation tournament is one of those 100% predictions. We all believe that "The CEO" Mercedes Mone is going to defeat the "Cinderella story" of Maya World to go on to face the AEW Women's Champion at All In: London.The women's tournament has been chaotic, with both Toni Storm and Willow Nightingale previously set to win the entire thingand injuries to Nightingale and Sareee]. When Mone was revealed as the wild card opponent to take Nightingale's place, a lot of us figured she was going to win the entire tournament. She handily defeated Alex Windsor, then had a great match against Hazuki, to get to this point.Despite World's incredible story to get to the final, with wins over Skye Blue and even more impressively, ROH Women's World Champion Athena, we don't think she's defeating the "CEO," as cool as many of us believe that would be to see. World has gotten an opportunity to show what she can do, and there's no way she doesn't have an excellent match against Mone at Forbidden Door and look good even in loss.With the loss of the "Timeless" one for the rest of 2026, at least, there needs to be a major name to step up in the AEW women's division, and that person is Mone. Many of us who believe she's winning at Forbidden Door also believe she's winning at All In, no matter who holds the AEW Women's Championship, giving the division a boost for the second half of the year.Written by DaisyRuth
With the AEW Women's Owen Hart Cup wrapping up, Thekla doesn't have many legitimate contenders at the moment. It looks so likely that she'll take the AEW Women's World Title to Wembley that 100% of the WINC staff think she'll be triumphant at Forbidden Door.Maybe AEW will find some contenders for her on the road to All In, but Starlight Kid, much like a lot of outside talent on this show, feels like an afterthought. She could be any STARDOM wrestler; the point is Thekla putting the past behind her, and claiming herself better than her former promotion.You will see no complaints from this writer. Thekla has been a livewire champion, and a delight to watch every week, but the percentage really does speak to how little AEW has done to create some drama in this match. Maybe Starlight Kid eeks out the win, but it's not likely. This might as well be an exhibition match or a glorified "Collision" match. I'm sure it'll be good, but the drama is clearly lacking.Written by Ross Berman
Much like last year, it will be a multi-man Steel Cage match closing out the AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door card, only this time there are some championship implications involved.Mark Briscoe has gathered the team of Orange Cassidy, Roderick Strong, Kyle O'Reilly, Konosuke Takeshita, and Darby Allin to take on the team now known as "DCMJF." The current AEW World Champion MJF will team up with Kyle Fletcher, Kevin Knight, Kazuchika Okada, Jake Doyle, and Andrade El Idolo of The Don Callis Family, and he will be hoping his team picks up the win because if they don't, Briscoe will get a shot at MJF's beloved "Triple B."You can see what AEW is going for when it comes to this match given the company's recent track record. Look no further than Darby Allin getting a shot at the title after AEW Dynasty 2026, immediately taking his shot on the first episode of "AEW Dynamite" after the pay-per-view, and getting the upset victory. That story worked a treat for AEW as the Darby title reign became one of the big reasons why AEW Double or Nothing 2026 was such a huge success, so it's only right that the company would want lightning to strike twice.Now, that's not to say that Briscoe would win the world title itself. After all, there are bigger things at play in this show, and other shows to come. Just look at who we have winning the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament to see where things are heading. However, we do think Team Briscoe is getting the win at Forbidden Door. It will cap the show off with a big babyface victory to send the fans home happy, it gives Briscoe the title match that has been building for the past few weeks, and when that match does happen with MJF, the champion can finally get his win back after losing to Briscoe back at AEW All Out 2025 last September.Given the percentage, not all of us are unanimous as some believe the match MJF has promised to Kevin Knight, and the story he has going on with Andrade that's lingering in the background, will take center stage. However, all signs point to Briscoe and his team having their hands raised at the end of the night, and they will likely be smeared in the blood of the man Briscoe wants to dethrone as well.Written by Sam Palmer
