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AEW/Ricky Havlik
Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s live coverage for AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door on June 30, 2024, coming to you live from the UBS Arena in Elmont, New York!
The AEW World Championship will be on the line, as Swerve Strickland will be defending against reigning International Champion Will Ospreay. Tensions between Strickland and Ospreay have meteorically risen over the past few weeks, and while they were able to put their differences aside to defeat The Gates of Agony this past Wednesday on "AEW Dynamite", they had found themselves involved in a series of verbal exchanges and heated looks prior to then.
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Toni Storm will be putting the AEW Women's World Championship on the line for the first time since successfully retaining against Serena Deeb at AEW Double or Nothing as she collides with Mina Shirakawa. While Storm and Shirakawa have made their disdain for one another well known, their shared ally Mariah May has been torn between which one to side with and has tried to get the two women to be on the same page.
A new TNT Champion will be crowned tonight, as New Japan Pro-Wrestling star El Phantasmo collides with Lio Rush, Dante Martin, Ring of Honor World Champion Mark Briscoe, The Don Callis Family's Konosuke Takeshita, and Jack Perry of The Elite in a Six Man Ladder Match. The title has been vacant since May when former titleholder Adam Copeland was forced to relinquish it after suffering a leg injury.
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TBS Champion Mercedes Mone takes on NJPW STRONG Women's Champion Stephanie Vaquer in a huge Winner Takes All match. The issues between the pair have remained no secret, crossing paths with one another on a number of occasions and Mone even defending her TBS Championship against Vaquer's CMLL tag team partner Zeuxis on the June 12 episode of "Dynamite".
Jon Moxley dethroned Tetsya Naito as IWGP World Heavyweight Champion at NJPW's Windy City Riot event on April 12 to become the new titleholder. Tonight, Naito has the chance to seek his retribution as he challenges Moxley for the title he lost to him.
A quarterfinals match in the Men's Owen Hart Cup Tournament is set for tonight, as Bryan Danielson of Blackpool Combat Club squares off with Shingo Takagi. Not only have the pair encountered one another a handful of times over the course of the last few weeks, but the winner will go on to face Death Triangle's PAC in the semifinals of the tournament.
Two weeks ago, The Young Bucks faced The Acclaimed in an AEW World Tag Team Championship Eliminator Match with the latter duo ultimately coming out on top and earning themselves a future title shot. Ahead of such, however, the two teams will be meeting in a trios match tonight as Anthony Bowens and Max Caster join forces with NJPW President Hiroshi Tanahashi (collectively known as Scissor Ace) while Matthew Jackson and Nicholas Jackson team up with their Elite stablemate and AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada.
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Zack Sabre Jr. will be colliding with Orange Cassidy singles competition. The two met in an All Star Eight Man Tag Team match two weeks ago, with Cassidy's team ultimately being the ones to emerge victorious. They then met again this past Wednesday on "Dynamite" when Cassidy, Kyle O'Reilly, and Tomohiro Ishii encountered Sabre Jr. and his TMDK teammates Shane Haste and Robbie Eagles.
MJF will be competing in his first pay-per-view match since AEW Worlds End back in December of last year as he goes head-to-head with CMLL star Hechicero. The two men came face-to-face two weeks ago when Hechicero and his allies Cage of Agony appeared in a video directed at MJF. Later that night, the four men attacked Daniel Garcia and "Daddy Magic" Matt Menard, prompting MJF (and the aforementioned Ospreay) to come to the latter duo's aid.
Additionally, after coming face-to-face in a trios match this past Wednesday on "Dynamite", the aforementioned May will be taking on Saraya in a quarterfinals match for the Women's Owen Hart Cup Tournament on the Zero Hour Pre-Show. Speaking of the Zero Hour Pre-Show, Willow Nightingale and Kris Statlander will be joining forces with Tam Nakano and Momo Wantanabe respectively in tag team action ahead of their semifinals match in the Women's Owen Hart Cup Tournament this coming Wednesday. Penta El Zero Miedo and Rey Fenix will also be teaming up with Mistico to take on Los Ingobernables de Japón's Hiromu Takahashi, Titán, and Yota Tsuji.
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