NJPW Star Off Forbidden Door
One talent won't be walking through that Forbidden Door on Sunday, as a New Japan Pro-Wrestling star has been announced out with a fever. AEW revealed that Hiromu Takahashi will not be participating at AEW X NJPW Forbidden Door. Takahashi was one of two NJPW fighters joining up with Sting and Darby Allin to fight The Young Bucks and Bullet Club in an eight-man tag match, but due to his absence, a change has been made to the match. Instead of Hiku Leo partnering with the Young Bucks and Phantasmo, he will be in their corner for the fight as they face Sting, Allin, and Shingo Takagi.
Hiromu Takahashi (@TIMEBOMB1105) has a fever and can't travel to America to compete at Forbidden Door. The match will now be a trios match with #BulletClub (@youngbucks & @elpwrestling, with @Hiku_Leo in their corner) vs #DudesWithAttitudes (@Sting, @DarbyAllin & @Takagi__Shingo) pic.twitter.com/jFRUaofU3H
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) June 25, 2022
The match, which was originally made on the 6/22 episode of "AEW Dynamite," will see Matt and Nick Jackson rejoin the Bullet Club for one night only this Sunday. This is far from the first time Takahashi has been sidelined, as the then-IWGP Junior Heavyweight suffered a broken neck in a successful title defense against Dragon Lee in July 2018.
Takahashi joins a long list of stars that are off the Forbidden Door card due to illness or injury. Former IWGP Heavyweight Champion and AEW Champion Kenny Omega has been out for over 200 days with several ailments, the current AEW Champion in CM Punk is out of action with a broken foot, Bryan Danielson revealed this past week on "Dynamite" that he'd be off the card for this Sunday due to injury, and just recently, it was Tomohiro Ishii was forced to forfeit his spot in the four-way match for the new AEW All-Atlantic Championship. The current card for Forbidden Door now stands as follows:
INTERIM AEW WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jon Moxley
* IWGP WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Adam Cole vs. Hangman Page vs. Kazuchika Okada vs. Jay White (c)
* AEW WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
Toni Storm vs. Thunder Rosa (c)
* IWGP UNITED STATES CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
Orange Cassidy vs. Will Ospreay (c)
* AEW ALL-ATLANTIC CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
Clark Connors vs. Malakai Black vs. Miro vs. Pac
* WINNER TAKES ALL MATCH FOR IWGP & RING OF HONOR TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS
Jeff Cobb & Great-O-Khan (c) vs. FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) (c) vs. Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero & Trent Berreta)
* Zack Sabre Jr. vs. TBA Opponent hand-picked by Bryan Danielson
* Chris Jericho, Minoru Suzuki & Sammy Guevara vs. Eddie Kingston, Shota Umino & Wheeler Yuta Winner gets the one-man-advantage at AEW Blood & Guts
* AEW Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) and El Phantasmo (with Hikuleo) vs. Darby Allin, Sting, and Shingo Takagi
Buy-In Pre-Show:
* Max Caster & Gunn Club (Billy Gunn, Austin Gunn & Colten Gunn) vs. LA Dojo (Yuya Uemura, Alex Coughlin, Kevin Knight & The DKC)
* YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto vs. Aaron Solo and QT Marshall
* Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru and El Desperado