Well, ladies and gentlemen it seems like attending AEW PPVs is a regular thing for me now, as I attended the 2024 edition of Forbidden Door. The following will discuss the in-person perspective along with my smooth and rough landings from the show.
In-Person Perspective & Noteworthy Items
I have attended every pro wrestling event at the UBS Arena since it opened in 2021, except for an edition of Raw, which took place before a December 2021 taping of AEW Dynamite and Rampage. Since then, there was a taping in May of 2022 and April of 2023. I went with friends in 2021, my wife in 2022, and my wife and daughters in 2023. When it was announced that UBS Arena would host Forbidden Door, the decision was a no-brainer. I again attended with my wife and daughters.
I’ve heard complaints about parking and access to the arena and I can understand those arguments. Parking has become expensive (I think I paid $50 … I mean, come on). The arena is located less than 10 miles from JFK Airport and about 15 miles from LaGuardia Airport. The Mets played a home game on the day of the show, plus you have people traveling to and from Manhattan. On a late Sunday evening, it could be a bear to get there, and for us it was. I can’t blame the arena for that. There’s sa ingle point access to multiple parking lots and I can understand the frustration with that. Once you park though, it’s no more than a five minute walk to the arena. There are plenty of doors open to go through security and the process takes no longer than a minute or two. Then, you scan your tickets are you’re on your way.
I’ve been on record with this over at PWTorch and I’ll say it here. The food and drink accommodations are plentiful at UBS Arena. The options include BBQ, various chicken sandwiches & tenders, pizza, burgers, fries, cheesesteak heroes (or hoagies as some of you folk might say), and I believe in the 300s there’s an Asian food option. There are also a few spots for ice cream, donuts, and cookies. They ran out of that in the main market area this time, but that’s an aberration for the arena. There are hardly any long lines (if you wait more than 5 minutes it’s a lot), and if you use AMEX, they give you a 10% discount. It is cashless, so no need to hit the ATM. It’s the opposite of Nassau Coliseum. There are not enough stands in that building and a lack of food choices along with a miserable staff make visiting there tough.
Now to the merchandise. There were two stands and limited choices. They had show-specific shirts which was cool, but nothing for individual wrestlers. They were selling figures for $100. I don’t care if those things are made with diamonds, I’m not buying a figure for $100. Are you nuts? Anyway, this continues to be a problem for AEW. At every event I’ve attended, the merchandise is limited. They would make a ton of money if they did better in this area.
As far as the arena itself there was a major issue. We were in section 215. The overhead tron blocks the entrance video board. For Zero Hour and most of the early part of the show, they did not replicate what was on the entrance board, nor did they play the matches live. They showed the Forbidden Door logo. It was frustrating because we couldn’t see and while we could see the match in the ring, you’d like to have the option of watching it overhead. There were several “we can’t see” and “turn on the tron” chants. They finally turned it on during the Danielson vs. Takagi match and it got a huge pop. This has happened before and I don’t understand how the problem keeps happening.
When all was said and done, I’d estimate the arena was about 65-70% full, which is not encouraging for AEW. Most of the upper bowl was empty and multiple pockets of empty seats were visible in the mid and lower bowls. Half of the suites (something which I need to look into next time) appeared empty and a lot of the premium seats on the lower bowl were empty. Everything is expensive nowadays, so there is something to that, but if a show feels must-watch people will spend the money.
I was surprised there was no appearance from Tony Khan right before the PPV went on the air, but in fairness, we could have missed it. We showed up in time for the Kyle Fletcher vs. Serpentico match on Zero Hour.
Smooth Landings
Bryan Danielson defeats Shingo Takagi in a round one Owen Hart Cup Tournament match. This was a fantastic match, but I sensed the crowd wasn’t too familiar or terribly invested in Takagi. Danielson made up for that in my opinion and the match didn’t suffer. It also helps that you likely have a lot of Islander fans in the building (seeing as the UBS Arena is home to the NHL’s New York Islanders), and the fans do the Yes! chants after goals. I can do without the “is Danielson ok” spots. We’re in Little Boy That Cried Wolf territory. At any rate, this was the second-best match of the night and a clear smooth landing.
Toni Storm (w/Luther) defeats Mina Shirakawa to retain the AEW Women’s World Championship. Mariah May present at ringside. Wade Keller from PWTorch.com was surprised when I texted him that the crowd was getting impatient. He said Frank, the match has only gone eleven minutes. I said I understand, but the problem is all anybody cared about was what was going to happen with the three women. They didn’t care about the match. I feel bad because I thought the two women worked hard, but nobody cared about the competition. Everyone in the building also knew Mina wasn’t winning. With all of that said, it’s still a smooth landing and I’m glad they didn’t pull shenanigans after the match.
Zack Sabre, Jr. defeats Orange Cassidy. This was a good match overall, but fell under the “exhibition” category. There wasn’t a ton of emotional investment on the part of the crowd. They enjoyed it, don’t get me wrong, but it was more “ok this is cool.” Zack’s style is not for everyone and perhaps they were thinking Orange can provide the entertainment value to add some excitement. It’s a smooth landing because it was a good match, but I wish there was more of a vested interest.
Jack Perry defeats Konosuke Takeshita, Dante Martin, El Phantasmo, Lio Rush, and Mark Briscoe in a Six-Way Ladder Match to win the vacant TNT Championship. I wanted to give this a rough landing, but that would be unfair. Let’s be honest, there was nobody winning this match outside of Jack Perry. Maybe somebody could have convinced themselves that Takeshita could have won, but they have a problem with him as the crowd cheered him like they did at Double or Nothing. It made having Mark Briscoe stop Takeshita from climbing the ladder feel awkward. Tony’s lucky he’s doing the G1 because he doesn’t have to deal with it for a couple of months. Nobody cared about El Phantasmo. Lio Rush got an ok reaction, but he’s bounced around a lot for anybody to care. Dante Martin has been very much defined down. There were decent spots in this, though, and everyone worked hard. Some spots were dangerous and I hope this doesn’t become a regular thing for AEW.
Mercedes Mone (TBS Champion) defeats Stephanie Vaquer to win the NJPW Strong Women’s Championship. This was a strong match that suffered thanks to the dude that stood up with a Celtics shirt. I have to credit Brandon LeClair over at the Torch for pointing that out because I missed it. I was texting him and it took me two seconds to find the guy. Anyway, everyone has lamented about that, so I won’t pile on. It’s a shame the crowd turned on Mercedes because of it, because she worked really hard in this match and I’m not the biggest Mercedes fan in the world. Now, I don’t know if this bothers everyone else, but it bothers me. Does she have to cry or appear to cry every time she wins a title? She’s been doing that for years going back to her Sasha Banks days and it drives me up the wall. Anyway, I hope Stephanie Vaquer makes her way state-side because she can be an incredible addition to any women’s division.
Britt Baker return. This popped the crowd big time and I’m kinda glad she didn’t say anything. That leaves something for television.
Swerve Strickland defeats Will Ospreay (AEW International Champion) to retain the AEW World Championship. This was far and away the best main event match I’ve seen in person. There comes a point with talent where you don’t even ask “are they main event” or “does this person belong.” The answers to those questions in this match were clearly yes and it’s nice to see. They can build around Swerve and Ospreay for the future. It can be a long-standing friendly rivalry. The crowd woke up as if to say thanks, you finally gave us something in which we could invest in. The crowd checked out on Will potentially using the screwdriver as it was an unnecessary distraction. Swerve could have beaten him without it but at least he ended up winning clean. I’m really getting tired of the idea of needing to protect wrestlers because you send a message that the winner can’t decisively win ever. Championship teams lose all the time. It happens. Great wrestlers can lose a match and you can tell a story about their ability to bounce back. All in, though, this was fantastic.
Rough Landings
MJF defeats Hechicero. I wanted to give this a smooth landing because the match was fine, but it wasn’t terribly noteworthy and there was very little crowd investment. The crowd cheered loudly for MJF as you would expect from a Long Island group of fans, but things tapered off after the initial introduction. As great of a wrestler as Hechicero is, the match suffered from a lack of investment. They just didn’t seem to care or even know about him. It had the feel, as a lot of matches did, of an exhibition match. There’s some nice wrestling, but why do I care? In addition to these issues, you couldn’t give MJF something bigger in his hometown? This just felt like an easy way out.
The Elite (AEW Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks and Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada) defeat Scissor Ace (The Acclaimed and Hiroshi Tanahashi). All anybody cared about, including me, was Okada vs. Tanahashi. We got that towards the end, but an understandable truncated version of it. The comedy spots with the Bucks, Okada, The Acclaimed, and Tana rang with a portion of the crowd, but the rest checked out including me. I mean yeah, I laughed at The Acclaimed and Tana doing Tana’s guitar spot, but I don’t care about the story between the two sides and most of the crowd was with me.
Samoa Joe & Hook & Katsuyori Shibata defeat Chris Jericho & Big Bill & Jeff Cobb. I didn’t watch the match as I did my husband and father duties of replenishing food & drink at this time. I was also getting the shirts we didn’t get earlier because the lines were a city block long. I’ll grade it a rough landing because a lot of people got up, which is an indictment on the build to this match and Jericho and The Learning Tree gimmick.
Tetsuya Naito defeats Jon Moxley to regain the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. I was worried about this match going in. First, because I know Naito’s better days are behind him. Second, I don’t know how many AEW fans care about the IWGP Championship. Third, I’ve lost interest in Jon Moxley. My fears were realized as you could hear a pin drop in the arena. Nobody was talking about the match around me and the crowd got restless.
Closing Thoughts
Tony needs to reconsider doing this PPV moving forward. NJPW is not in a good place right now. The stars that made it special the first two years all work for AEW now (Okada, Ospreay, White). Tanahashi is running on fumes and Naito is running out of gas. I like a lot of the talent they have now (Tsuji, Umino, Uemura, Narita), but they’re not in a place where I think people are saying “I want to see this one vs. that one” and so on. The CMLL people are great, but what’s the vested interest on the part of the AEW fans? I get some people watch a lot of these promotions and are more familiar than me. The thing is, being in the building, I heard what I heard, and I felt what I felt. In the end, this is All Elite Wrestling. I want All Elite Wrestling to be the best it can be, telling good wrestling stories amongst its talent and I want that talent to matter. That’s what I sense the fans wanted too. To wake up after 3 ½ hrs and be rabid for the main event tells you something.
On balance this was a good professional wrestling show, but I hope lessons were learned for Tony. It looks like a busy week for me here at Brass Ring Media as you’ll hear from me next weekend following Money in the Bank. Until then…cheers folks..
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