AEW Forbidden Door 2025 Full & Final Card

Although representation from partner promotions is a little light this year, today marks the return of AEW's Forbidden Door pay-per-view. Nine matches have been announced as of writing this, which will likely be the extent of the main card. However, we won't be covering the Zero Hour pre-show, with no matches revealed ahead of the weekend.

The most star-studded bout on this year's Forbidden Door is undoubtedly the 10-man Lights Out Steel Cage match. In it, Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi, Darby Allin, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and an injured Will Ospreay will face Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Gabe Kidd, and the Young Bucks. It's a promising mix of established rivalries and fresh matchups, but with one side reportedly battered, it remains to be seen if the high-risk match can deliver on its equally high expectations.

The AEW World Championship (or Men's World Championship, according to "Hangman" Adam Page) will also be on the line tonight. Page will defend his title against MJF, marking the third time that the rivals will meet one-on-one in an AEW ring. Their record is split 1-1 heading into Forbidden Door, and the stakes are higher than ever. Unlike most title matches, MJF coerced Page to agree that the world championship can change hands through disqualification and count-out.

"Timeless" Toni Storm is set to defend the AEW Women's World Championship against Athena, though the challenger won't be putting the ROH Women's World Championship up for grabs. Storm is currently in her fourth reign with the AEW world title, and has cumulatively held the belt for more than 600 days over the last three years. However, that still pales in comparison to Athena's one and only ROH title run, which is nearing 1,000 days and counting. Despite that, Athena is still viewed as the underdog heading into tonight's show.

After unifying the Continental and International Championships at AEW All In earlier this summer, Kazuchika Okada will defend the AEW Unified Championship for the first time, with Swerve Strickland as his opponent. It was reported over the last several days that Strickland has been dealing with a torn meniscus for years and recently aggravated the injury. He's still cleared to compete, but it'll be a tall task for him to deliver Okada's first singles loss in 2025.

Following a time-limit draw to conclude the AEW World Tag Team Championship Eliminator tournament, tonight's show will include a three-way for that title. The Hurt Syndicate will defend against FTR and Brodido (Bandido and Brody King), and though it wasn't heavily pushed ahead of time, advertising for the PPV indicates that this will be an Eliminator match to fit the theme of the tournament.

Forbidden Door will also see Mercedes Moné defend the TBS Championship against fellow AEW star Alex Windsor, STARDOM's Bozilla, and Persephone of CMLL. This match was finalized relatively last-minute, though Moné and Windsor have been going after each other for the last several weeks on "Dynamite," and their feud could continue past tonight.

The only NJPW title being defended at Forbidden Door is the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, with Zack Sabre Jr. facing Nigel McGuinness. This will be McGuinness' first opportunity at the top belt in NJPW, with the U.K. technician having come out of retirement last year.

NJPW's Hiromu Takahashi will be on hand tonight to challenge Kyle Fletcher for his newly-won TNT Championship. This will be the first time Takahashi and Fletcher lock up in singles action, though the two have been on the opposite side of several tag team bouts over the last few years.

Finally, one of the only non-title matches on the Forbidden Door card features the reunion of Adam Copeland and Christian Cage. The childhood friends will team together for the first time since 2011 against Killswitch and Kip Sabian, two of Cage's former proteges.