AEW X NJPW Forbidden Door 2025: Where Do We Go From Here?

The fourth annual AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door has come to an end, and regardless of anyone's thoughts on the event itself, it's going to be very interesting to see how the company moves forward to close out 2025. For one thing, it seems like Tony Khan will be without two of his top babyfaces for the foreseeable future — Will Ospreay and Swerve Strickland are both rumored to be surgery-bound — and while reinforcements may be coming, that's still a significant loss as AEW prepares to navigate the NFL season. And while the lovingly-named Brodido surprisingly won the AEW tag titles in London, every other champion retained, leaving questions (and possibly even concerns) about the ongoing title reigns of Mercedes Mone, "Timeless" Toni Storm, and "Hangman" Adam Page.

The WINC staff will address these and other issues in the aftermath of the Lights Out Steel Cage Match and everything that preceded it. What about the cage match participants (if any) who aren't horrifically injured? Are Cope and Christian still going after FTR? And perhaps least importantly, how will the return of Wardlow shake up the Don Callis Family? The 2025 Forbidden Door is now closed — where do we go from here?

Forbidden Door was a landmark event for AEW's Mercedes Mone, as "The CEO" defended her TBS Championship for the 19th time in her first multi-woman match this reign. While AEW's Alex Windsor, CMLL's Persephone, and STARDOM's Bozilla all fought valiantly, Mone stole the victory by rolling up Persephone in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it ending to a chaotic match. With Forbidden Door now in the rear view mirror, what is next for Mone's most recent challengers as they lick their wounds? Who is Mone's next opponent? Is there anyone who can pump the brakes on the Mone train as the TBS Champion blazes forward in her 456 day reign?

Persephone and Bozilla stole the show Sunday with their incredible feats of strength, and represented CMLL and STARDOM proudly. While there are no reports regarding the length of their contracts, it'd be surprising if their performances at Forbidden Door didn't grab the attention of North America's mainstream promotions — mainly AEW and its main competitor, WWE. Where exactly each woman will end up — if they choose to wrestle in North America at all — is a toss-up, but the future is undoubtedly bright for the 24-year old Persephone and the 21-year old Bozilla.

Windsor has been making a strong impact on AEW programming since her debut, most notably taking on Athena and Billie Starkz alongside AEW Women's World Champion "Timeless" Toni Storm. Her performance at Forbidden Door, and her presence in the ring following Mone's flash pin, might foreshadow a solo feud between herself and Mone in the coming weeks. If Windsor is not due to face Mone again any time soon, however, she may continue to associate herself with Storm. Whether or not this will devolve into another Storm/Mariah May (now known as Blake Monroe) feud is unclear, as there are strong cases for keeping both Storm and Windsor as babyfaces. Regardless, there's no evidence to suggest a Windsor absence from AEW post-Forbidden Door.

Mone seems to have locked up with every women on the AEW roster during her 19 TBS title defenses. Mone has taken down some of AEW's household names, including Hikaru Shida, Nyla Rose, Skye Blue, and Willow Nightingale. With most of the women she hasn't faced occupied with a multi-woman's angle involving the Triangle of Madness and Queen Aminata's scrappy gang of babyfaces, however, there aren't many options for Mone. Now might be the time to bring over some less-utilized talent to square up against Mone, with Athena, Deonna Purrazzo, and Taya Valkyrie among the few women that Mone hasn't defended against. Kamille, Mone's former security personnel, has also been missing from AEW for quite some time. While Kamille is off working a television show while nursing injuries — reportedly adjacent to the recently-returned Wardlow's situation — she could return to stake her revenge on the treacherous Mone as the TBS Champion's lists of potential competitors whittles down.

As the TBS Title's future remains open-ended, fans will have to keep tuning in to "Dynamite" to see just where The Mone Train stops next.

Written by Angeline Phu

Christian Cage and Cope got the win in their first match together in 14 years, defeating Cage's former Patriarchy stable in the form of Killswitch and Kip Sabian; Nick Wayne being originally scheduled for the match, but replaced by the former Luchasaurus.

Rather handily it was Cage that outlined what is on the horizon for their reunion, which he maintained would be a short marriage of convenience so they could deal with the Patriarchy – mission complete – and FTR – mission still in progress. FTR failed in their bid at the AEW Tag titles at Forbidden Door, with Brodido pinning them to win the bout, and one would assume with All Out Toronto on way, that is the direction in which they are headed in the near future. 

FTR turned on Cope earlier this year and the direction always seemed to be for the two teams to face one another, but that of course required Cage to complete his break-away from the Patriarchy and to reunite with Cope. With all that seemingly behind them, except for the chance that Sabian and Killswitch pursue them further, then the stage is certainly set for a hometown showdown with their rivals. 

It stands to reason that beating FTR could potentially put them into the tag title conversation, so former champions the Hurt Syndicate – presumably occupied with Ricochet and the Gates of Agony – and new holders Bro-dido will surely also be on their radar.

Written by Max Everett

If you look hard enough on AEW's official website, you'll probably be able to find some sort of application where if you fill it out to a certain quality, you will become a member of The Don Callis Family. "The Invisible Hand" added yet another member to his extended family at Forbidden Door in the form of a returning Wardlow, the first time he's been seen in AEW since March of last year. Wardlow attacked Prince Nana as Swerve Strickland watched on helplessly due to being injured by Kazuchika Okada in their AEW Unified Championship match, and while he celebrated with his new family members, Konosuke Takeshita arrived to eye up his new "brother," or "cousin," or "half stepbrother twice-removed on the dad's side" (it's a family, I'm sure there is some relation).

There are a total of 11 wrestlers in the family now that Wardlow is involved, but the key to making the group feel like they have some sort of direction is without question Takeshita. Callis has been singing the praises of Kyle Fletcher for months, giving Hechicero his own personal introductions in what could only be described as "Tourist Spanish," and has been calling Kazuchika Okada the best big match wrestler in wrestling. However, Takeshita is the man who has been by the side of Callis the longest and has reached new heights as a singles star over the past year, with the G1 Climax victory last week being the pinnacle of his career.

With that said, Takeshita is almost an afterthought in his own group due to Callis having the attention span of a child with too many action figures. He sees a new shiny toy to play with and forgets about the man who he once put all his money on, which is all eventually building to that Takeshita face turn. There's only so much that Takeshita can hear Callis say before thinking to himself "Hang on, I'm a G1 Climax winner, a former AEW International Champion, what's changed?"

That begs the question of who the biggest money match will be between. At the moment, it looks like Wardlow is being positioned as the guy to take Takeshita's spot as "The Alpha" of the group, which is fine, if not a little underwhelming considering how far Takeshita has come since Wardlow last wrestled in AEW. However, the money match has to be either Takeshita vs. Okada, something that was teased around this time last year but was never executed, or Takeshita vs. Fletcher, a match I can personally see being an AEW World Championship match within the next few years.

Callis has assembled a murderer's row of talent when it comes to his family, but there's only so many guys he can add before one of them feels hard done by. Takeshita has the biggest upside when it comes to a face turn, it's down to Tony Khan to actually pull the trigger, something he's not been able to do over the past few years.

Written by Sam Palmer

From Chicago's Aragon Ballroom to London's O2, the curtain has drawn on the feud between "Timeless" Toni Storm and Casino Gauntlet match winner Athena. With Storm's AEW Women's World Championship (and title as AEW's only "balcony b****") securely around her waist post-Forbidden Door, the sky seems to be the limit for the record-setting four-time AEW Women's World Champion. Despite her loss, Athena still remains the longest-reigning ROH Women's Champion, and will be made fully available for new challengers now that her title ambitions against Storm are in the rear view window. What is next for both women's world champions? Is there anybody who can stop these two performers' reigns of complete and utter dominance?

With her top minion Billie Starkz by her side, Athena seems virtually unstoppable in Ring of Honor. To date, she has successfully defended her title against veterans and rising stars alike, from Hikaru Shida to Alex Windsor. As of writing, her reign clocks in at 989 days and counting, and she is virtually certain to reach 1000 days as ROH Women's World Champion. Aside from that, however, Athena's feud with Storm has proved largely successful in terms of fan reception, and we might be in for more Athena content on AEW's weekly episodic programming. Just what Athena and Starkz will get up to on both ROH and AEW programming is unclear, as ROH titles are typically not defended on AEW programming. Perhaps she'll head in to a feud with one of AEW's many scrappy, hungry competitors (any name can fit here: Deonna Purrazzo, Harley Cameron, Taya Valkyrie), but actually defend her title at a ROH event. With such her 1000-day milestone ahead of her, however, one could argue that Athena's next challenger should be a ghost from her past. Perhaps Mercedes Martinez, who Athena originally beat for the title, will make a comeback for gold?

Storm, while not on the eve of an 1000 day reign, is similarly dominant over in AEW. She is the immovable object to all of these unstoppable forces in AEW: she halted The Mone Train, she weathered the Megasus, she tapped out Athena Elite Wrestling. In this era of indisputable dominance, however, some may say that Storm is hitting a ceiling, with all of her options being less-than-believable choices for Storm's ultimate dethroner. If it's clear Storm is not losing the title soon, why not have a bit of fun with her reign with some new faces? There are no believable challengers on AEW's roster — nobody that could feasibly and logically best the AEW Women's World Championship — but there is a litany of available competitors, from AEW to CMLL to NJPW, who could have some fun one-off matches or mini-feuds with the AEW Women's World Champion. Showcase contests aside, AEW undoubtedly has some serious work to do in building a believable contender for Storm's title.

Written by Angeline Phu

"Hangman" Adam Page overcame MJF and all the aces up his sleeve at Forbidden Door, even if MJF managed to retain the contract for an opportunity at the World Championship in the future. MJF established his title match with Page at Forbidden Door after he had won the Casino Gauntlet match at All In Texas, declaring that he would be executing his World title contract, and then reneging on that and torturing Mark Briscoe to get the opportunity without using his contract. 

That contract would literally prove to be his downfall on Sunday, with Page hitting him across the face with it before landing Dead Eye and the Buckshot Lariat. And then Tony Khan threw a further spanner in the works for him after the event, confirming that from now the contract will have to be executed a week in advance; therefore dashing any hopes MJF had of procuring a shot and trying to cash it in when he wants. 

Nevertheless, he does still have a contract and is thus the only man in the company with a guaranteed shot at the title. Whether that happens in the build-up to All Out Toronto is yet to be seen, but then the question would extend to who else could step in challenge Page for the title. MVP had noted previously to MJF that should he win the title, that would put him in Bobby Lashley's cross hairs, and Lashley has since found himself free of a Tag title. The former champion, Jon Moxley, appears to be preoccupied with Darby Allin. Briscoe remains on the periphery of the picture, though he has been closely aligned with Page, but aside from that the field is relatively clear for anyone to step up to the plate.

Written by Max Everett

Despite the Lights Out Unsanctioned Steel Cage match at AEW and NJPW's Forbidden Door pay-per-view ending in a feel-good babyface victory, the show actually went off the air in grizzly fashion. As Will Ospreay looked to be saying goodbye to the AEW fans for the foreseeable future due to needing neck surgery, he was viciously attacked by the Death Riders in a way that wasn't too dissimilar to how Bryan Danielson got borderline killed last year at WrestleDream event.

The direction after Danielson's demise was very easy to map out; Jon Moxley was the AEW World Champion and the rest of the roster would try and rescue the title from Moxley, with the champion looking to bring the roster up to his level in the process. However, this attack on Ospreay was done more out of spite, and with no title for the babyfaces to chase after, it actually frees up Moxley and his band of brothers for more personal feuds driven more by hatred and less by the idea of saving AEW.

Naturally, the first direction that AEW could go in for Moxley in particular is have an actual feud with Darby Allin. Now that Allin is back from Mount Everest and seemingly in good enough physical condition to be featured weekly again, Tony Khan can finally book the feud that everyone thought would be over the AEW World Championship last year. Moxley and Allin is a pairing that has already proven to produce great matches, just look at their match from Grand Slam in 2024, but having murdered Danielson and Ospreay in front of the world in the span of 12 months, that feud could reach ungodly levels of violence that would make even the most jaded fans look for a bucket.

For the rest of the Death Riders, Gabe Kidd is likely heading back to NJPW on a full-time basis now that Forbidden Door is out of the way, with the NJPW roster already angry at the fact he was involved in this match but had to pull out of the G1 Climax. However, with PAC still injured, there is a chance he could stick around and try and help Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta retrieve the AEW World Trios Championships from The Opps, but that would be treading old ground, and both Claudio and Wheeler could probably benefit from a tag team run now that Brodido are the new babyface champions.

Then there's The Young Bucks. They're at their most entertaining right now with the whole "Broke Bucks" gimmick, but they are only going to get more violent as time goes on, and when they do eventually get some power again, there will be hell to pay for everyone. A match with The Golden Lovers might be out of the question due to Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi's limited schedule, so they could also go after Brodido as well to get their win back from the recent loss in the AEW Tag Team Championship Eliminator Tournament.

Written by Sam Palmer