WINC Watchlist: WWE X AEW X AAA X NJPW X ROH Forbidden Summit Of The Worlds Collide!

Whenever there's a big show coming up, like AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door this weekend, it can be instructive (not to mention fun) to go back and watch some older, related matches in the lead-up to the event. There are as many different ways to watch wrestling as there are individual wrestling fans, but here at Wrestling Inc., we love to cut up and rearrange wrestling history in interesting and unique ways, selecting a variety of matches with some sort of through-line connecting them and placing them side-by-side. And this time around, we have chosen the wildest, craziest way we can imagine to get into the Forbidden Door spirit: matches from crossover shows throughout wrestling history.

Yes, we do have an actual Forbidden Door match on this Watchlist, right at the end, so we can transition smoothly into this Sunday's festivities. But before we get there, we're traveling the length and breadth of the modern wrestling industry, from the Tokyo Dome in the 1990s to that time in 2018 when Impact Wrestling battled Lucha Underground, five matches from five events that collectively involve 10 different promotions. The "forbidden door" opens again in London this weekend, but that phrase has existed for a long time, and that door has opened across many companies over the years and decades. As always, the WINC staff encourages you to pick out your own favorite matches from crossover shows throughout history, but here are ours!

Much ado is made about Hulk Hogan's matches with Antonio Inoki, with people asking in hushed, reverent tones, "Did you know that Hulk Hogan could actually wrestle?" The matches are good but have a flawed premise, since I have never wanted to watch Hulk Hogan "actually wrestle." I want to watch him throw hands and toss around a bad guy. That's kinda Hulk Hogan's whole deal, and Hulk Hogan's whole deal is defined by whomever he's facing in the ring. Hogan needs an opponent with enough size to pose a threat and a backbone as well. Someone crazy enough to think that they could defeat Hulk Hogan in those immortal days of the late-80s and early-90s.

In that way, Stan Hansen is probably one of the best opponents Hogan ever had. Much like Vader in WCW, Hansen was able to not just intimidate Hogan, but dominate him with his size, his strength, and most importantly, his outright craziness. There are certain points in their match at the Wrestling Summit, where it really feels like Hogan is fighting a wild animal. You know how every Hulk Hogan match is going to end, but the way they got there is a beautiful, messy little fight. It feels like an honest to god scrap. No clean enzuigiris or drop toe holds, like in Hogan's matches with Inoki, just the hamfisted, over-the-top battle of giants that Hogan did so well. It almost makes you wonder what kind of magic Hogan could've made with Bruiser Brody.

Written by Ross Berman

Long before "Grand Slam: Mexico City," long before WWE bought AAA, there was AAA When Worlds Collide. Taking place in Los Angeles on November 6, 1994, When Worlds Collide was a monumental event for two specific reasons. First, it was the first time a lucha libre promotion had aired a PPV in the United States, a crowning achievement for AAA, which had already made strong in-roads in the US. Second, it was among the first major lucha crossover events with a US promotion, as WCW lent a hand by helping AAA produce the show and securing a PPV platform.

Ultimately, one could argue WCW did more harm than good as they demanded numerous changes from AAA, including shortening the PPV by 40 minutes and forcing AAA to run one-fall matches instead of their traditional two-out-of-three falls. Only one match escaped major changes: El Hijo del Santo and Octagon vs. Eddy Guerrero and "Love Machine" Art Barr in a mask vs. hair match. In fairness, WCW attempted to mess with that match as well, asking AAA booker/promoter Antonio Pena to remove Octagon and Barr in favor of running Santo vs. Guerrero as a singles. Ultimately, WCW relented, and the match went as planned — and arguably even better.

Perhaps the biggest accomplishment of Santo and Octagon vs. Guerrero and Barr was that it offered the strongest counter-argument yet to those who felt lucha libre was all sizzle and no steak. There are, of course, some incredible feats of athleticism throughout the match, but it's very much an exercise of several stories. There was the element of the evil Americans battling the courageous Mexican heroes in front of a largely Hispanic audience. There was the story of Santo and Guerrero, who a year earlier looked to be following in the footsteps of their famous fathers (El Santo and Gory Guerrero) in becoming a famous tag team, before Barr convinced Guerrero he'd only be living in Santo's shadow. And there was Blue Panther, decades before Bryan Danielson turned him into a cult hero, interfering to Piledrive Barr, a callback to Panther and Barr's two-year, promotion-spanning rivalry. 

Ultimately, good triumphed when Santo pinned Guerrero in fall three to save his and Octagon's mask and take Guerrero and Barr's hair. It was a fitting end to a story that, tragically, culminated 17 days later when Barr was found dead in his home. Guerrero moved on to fame and fortune in the US, adopting Barr's Frog Splash in memory of his friend, while Santo and Octagon achieved further lucha libre glory. AAA itself trucked on, at least until the WWE purchase. But the passage of time has done little to soften the impact of the When Worlds Collide tag match, which endures as one of the greatest matches in lucha libre history, and, if you count WCW's involvement in this show, the first-ever truly great match to emerge from a "Forbidden Door."

Written by Eric Mutter

Ring of Honor had already gone through its golden age, and its first down period, by the time 2014 rolled around, but there was no denying how influential they had been in their 12 years of existence. One of their greatest exports, Bryan Danielson, had just won the WWE Championship in the main event of WrestleMania 30 less than six weeks before this event took place, "WWE NXT" was slowly but surely taking ROH's biggest names and style to create a brand that would keep hardcore wrestling fans interested in WWE, and with TNA/Impact Wrestling rapidly declining in popularity, ROH saw a chance to truly establish themselves as the number two promotion in the United States.

Then came their working relationship with New Japan Pro-Wrestling, a company that had emerged from the dark ages of the 2000s as a true force to be reckoned with both domestically and internationally in the 2010s, and you can put a lot of that international success down to the Bullet Club. Yes, the faction still exists today in various iterations, but it's hard to comprehend how popular Bullet Club were at this point in time, and because of the fact that they were based in NJPW, Ring of Honor was the primary place in the US where you could get your fix of telling people to "Suck It" while giving someone a "Too Sweet" like it was 1998 again.

Of the Bullet Club members in 2014, there were no two men more brash, arrogant, or in your face than The Young Bucks. Matt and Nick Jackson had the most punchable faces in the world at this point, but they were just so fun to watch in the ring that you couldn't help but cheer for them despite being heels, and this match with reDRagon at War of the Worlds is a perfect example of that. Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly were a no-nonsense, MMA-influenced style tag team who even had Tom Lawlor in their corner while he was still an active fighter in the UFC, making them perfect foils for the two men who were bringing "Superkick Parties" to every building they wrestled in at the time.

Having gone back and watched the entire event, this is undoubtedly the match of the night; in an age where we have seen the founding fathers of AEW wrestle 30-minute classics in their sleep, this match spans less than 13, but they do a lot in that time. reDRagon almost make The Young Bucks babyfaces despite Matt and Nick being the heels for how much they dominate the first half of the match, but once The Bucks get going, this match rapidly goes through the gears to the point where the final stretch of the match is big move after big move until the dramatic finish where reDRagon become the new ROH Tag Team Champions.

If you ever wanted a taster of what top tier party wrestling is, this is a fine example.

Written by Sam Palmer

In April 2018, the worlds of Impact Wrestling and Lucha Underground converged for a special card emanating from New Orleans, with the main event originally scheduled to pit Austin Aries and Rey Fenix against the team of Alberto El Patron and Pentagon Dark. El Patron no-showed the event, eventually culminating in his departure from Impact and prompting the main event to be changed, arguably for the better, to a three-way match between the other participants. 

Aries would also depart the company in a controversial manner later in the year, and while his wrestling career is largely marred by the shadow of the man behind it, it could never be said he wasn't a solid worker when he wanted to be between the bells. Two names that really helped to build Lucha Underground into what it was, this served as the eventual bridge for the Lucha Brothers to take their talent to Impact Wrestling, which of course lent to their eventual transitions to AEW and finally WWE, and with Penta taking the win on the night established them in a way that really made the best of a bad situation. 

For much of its time, Lucha Underground offered an entirely unique take on professional wrestling, crafting multi-faceted characters that made backstory-influenced decisions, and while much of that simply couldn't be translated through a card shared with Impact, it is always a cool moment unto itself to see two different worlds collide. Impact was and continues to be what it is, a good wrestling show that can suffer from trying to make waves in a crowded market, but Lucha Underground was a serial wrestling fantasy drama, albeit an ill-fated one. All the more reason to take a look at this when one has the chance, one of the rare times a forbidden door opened before it became a yearly fixture.

Written by Max Everett

The Winner Takes All Match at AEW x NJPW x CMLL Forbidden Door in 2024 pitting NJPW STRONG Women's Champion Stephanie Vaquer against TBS Champion Mercedes Mone can be considered a "Forbidden Door" match for more than one reason. Within a month of Vaquer competing in the match on the AEW pay-per-view, it was announced she had signed with WWE. 

Ahead of their bout, which was actually their second meeting in the ring, Mone was adamant that she'd win "what was rightfully hers" in the NJPW STRONG Women's Championship. Mone was meant to win the title at NJPW Resurgence in May 2023 in a match against Willow Nightingale, that Nightingale ended up winning due to Mone getting injured. Mone would be out of the ring for a full year until she made her in-ring AEW debut, where she won the TBS title, at Double or Nothing in 2024. The Forbidden Door match pitting these two women against each other was so good, hard-hitting, and so well paced, it's no wonder why WWE reached out to Vaquer.

It didn't look like Mone was going to survive Vaquer initially. "The Fallen Angel" went right after "The CEO" before the referee could even finish explaining the rules. Mone is agile throughout the match, but Vaquer really showed off, but also took Mone to the mat when she wasn't flying around the ring. Vaquer got the TBS Champion in a submission, almost like a kind of knee bar, then got her into what's now known as the Devil's Kiss. Mone attempted to battle back with a big DDT, and even bounced Vaquer off the ropes, but it wasn't enough. Vaquer countered a Mone Maker with a DDT of her own, and the women ended up taking each other out with clotheslines.

Mone hit back-to-back Backstabbers and Vaquer got her feet up to counter the frog splash, and followed it up with a Dragon Screw in the corner, followed by a meteora. It was a valiant effort, but Vaquer just couldn't get things done, and was hit with a Mone Maker. Mone got her in the crossface after and Vaquer tapped out, for Mone to capture the NJPW STRONG Women's title. She'd also meet her next challenger for the TBS title following the match, when a returning Britt Baker came out to stare her down from the stage.

Following the match, it was reported by various sources, including Fightful, that AEW would likely put protections in place going forward so talent who competed at Forbidden Door or other AEW x NJPW events couldn't immediately go sign with WWE. Vaquer would go on to become the first woman to hold the NXT Women's North American Championship and the NXT Women's title at the same time and she'd quickly make her way to the main roster. Mone, of course, was only beginning her run as a "Belt Collector" at the time of Forbidden Door and has gained numerous titles for her collection since the June 2024 match.

Vaquer and Mone may be unlikely to face each other again in the next few years, at least, which would make this bout must-see enough as it is. However, the pacing and in-ring quality is fantastic, and any fan of either star should go out of their way to watch this match at least one more time if they've seen it already.

Written by Daisy Ruth