FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024 is just two days away, and after a raucous DYNAMITE this past Wednesday night, AEW has a wild RAMPAGE in store for the AEW faithful as well! The final qualifier for the TNT Championship Ladder Match goes down when El Phantasmo takes on AR Fox, the unique team of Roderick Strong and NJPW STRONG Openweight Champion Gabe Kidd take on The Infantry, and Orange Cassidy is set to take on both Outrunners by himself! Plus we will see Shingo Takagi fight former ROH World Champion Dalton Castle while former training partners Skye Blue and Queen Aminata go one-on-one!
The action begins at 10pm ET/9pm CT on TNT, with the COUNTDOWN TO FORBIDDEN DOOR airing at 8pm ET/7pm CT, so before either hits the airwaves, be sure to visit the official AEW YouTube channel to catch up on all the highlights from DYNAMITE, as well as previous editions of RAMPAGE and COLLISION, not to mention content like CLOSE-UP WITH RENEE PAQUETTE and HEY(EW) WITH RJ CITY!
Then it's COLLISION on Saturday at 8pm ET/7pm CT on TNT, and then we reach the UBS Arena and the end of the road we've been following for the last month! It's FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024 live on pay-per-view featuring the top athletes from AEW, NJPW, and CMLL, multiple championships on the line, as well as some of the wildest match-ups a fan could dream up, and it all goes down on Long Island this Sunday night!
TNT Championship Ladder Match Qualifier...
AR Fox vs. El Phantasmo
Five men have qualified for the TNT Championship Ladder match going down at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024, leaving one spot left to fill and the man who will take that sixth spot will be determined tonight on RAMPAGE! Last week on RAMPAGE, AR Fox made his return to AEW after seven months away to take on Shingo Takagi and though that fight certainly did not go in Fox's favor, he is still fighting for a prominent position on the AEW platform! Stepping up into the TNT Championship Ladder Match would be a huge boost to Fox's nearly twenty-year career, while winning it would be life changing.
Unfortunately AR Fox has a tough challenge in front of him in the form of former 2-Time NJPW STRONG Openweight Tag Champion, as well as former BULLET CLUB member, El Phantasmo! We last saw Phantasmo in AEW when he defeated Stu Grayson during FORBIDDEN DOOR 2023: ZERO HOUR, and his career has been a wild ride over the last year. After being ousted from BULLET CLUB shortly before last years FD event, ELP joined other former BC members in the Guerrillas of Destiny, and, alongside Hikuleo, captured the NJPW STRONG Openweight Tag Titles twice as well as the IWGP World Tag Titles. With that alliance recently coming to an end, ELP now finds himself a man fighting solo once again, and just in time to come through the Forbidden Door to earn his way into the TNT Championship Ladder Match!
It's a huge opportunity for both men tonight on RAMPAGE; which one will take the next step toward joining men like Adam Copeland, Samoa Joe, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Darby Allin in the annals of TNT Championship history?
Tag Team Bout...
NJPW STRONG Openweight Champion Gabe Kidd & Roderick Strong vs.
The Infantry (Carlie Bravo & Shawn Dean)
It was quite an interesting situation that unfolded Wednesday night around the battle between Zack Sabre Jr. and Kyle O'Reilly. Not only did Orange Cassidy join the commentary team to watch his FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024 opponent go to work, we also had The Undisputed Kingdom watching at ringside with NJPW STRONG Openweight Champion Gabe Kidd accompanying them. Perhaps we were witnessing the beginning of a bond between The UK and the BULLET CLUB War Dogs, stranger things have happened and FORBIDDEN DOOR season is certainly the time for such affiliations to be born, but commentary noted several times that Strong and Kidd didn't seem to be in agreement the entire time. Perhaps they had different views on how to handle the situation before them, after all Roddy and The UK are still aiming to get Kyle O'Reilly on their side, while Gabe Kidd is one of the more uncontrollable forces in NJPW. Just ask Eddie Kingston, after all Gabe Kidd is the man who dethroned him as NJPW STRONG Openweight Champion, gave Eddie the injury he's currently treating, and made him vulnerable to that Elite attack.
So the combination of Strong and Kidd, no doubt flanked by Matt Taven and Mike Bennett, make for quite the formidable challenge for The Infantry to try and overcome tonight on RAMPAGE. Given their lack of experience as a team, Strong and Kidd are at a disadvantage in that sense, but they are two of the most imposing forces in modern professional wrestling while The Infantry are still coming together to reach their full potential.
Is this the beginning of a beautiful friendship between The United Kingdom and BULLET CLUB War Dogs, or just a matter of two men who like to beat people up finding that common ground for one night only?
TWO-ON-ONE...
“Freshly Squeezed” Orange Cassidy vs. The Outrunners (Truth Magnum & Turbo Floyd)
Sure, whatever, it's not like Orange Cassidy isn't fighting one of the greatest technical wrestlers of his generation on Sunday night. It's not like he didn't just have a confrontation with Zack Sabre Jr. and his TMDK running buddies Shane Haste and Robbie Eagles only to have Tomohiro Ishii show up and stand by his side. Yet despite his date with destiny at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024, despite this looming threat from the rest of TMDK, despite knowing he at least has one friend left in Ishii, the 2-Time International Champion is still coming to RAMPAGE tonight to pick a fight.
Maybe OC just needs to blow off some steam, hard to tell with that one, perhaps he just wants to keep his body ready for the fight coming Sunday, but whatever his motivations may be, Cassidy now has to fight two men thanks to both Outrunners answering his open challenge! Truth Magnum and Turbo Floyd have no problem running their mouths, flexing their muscles, strutting around the ring, but they've also got the in-ring skill to back up their braggadocios nature, and they could very well hand OC a tough loss just before his tussle with ZSJ. Is taking on any match tonight, much less a 2-on-1 bout, a wise move by “Freshly Squeezed”?
FORBIDDEN DOOR PREPARATION...
Shingo Takagi vs. Dalton Castle
“The Rampage Dragon” Shingo Takagi has a date with “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson this Sunday night at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024 with a spot in the Semifinals of the Owen Hart Tournament at stake. It's a rematch fourteen years in the making, but that's Sunday night; tonight on RAMPAGE Shingo is preparing for that epic rematch by taking on one of the toughest individuals to ever come through a place Takagi called home early in his career: Ring of Honor. Dalton Castle is a former World Champion, a former TV Champion, and a multi-time World Six-Man Champion whose been in the ring with plenty of NJPW competitors over the course of his career. He's battled Tanahashi, Jushin “Thunder” Liger, as well as several of Shingo's LIJ associates, and held his own with all of them, but this may just be a different animal tonight. Shingo Takagi seems to be on a mission to decimate Bryan Danielson in his home promotion, he's shown Bryan little respect, and certainly treated AR Fox without any in their match.
This isn't a Takagi looking to make allies, or even make a positive impression, this is a Shingo who only cares about leaving an impression on Bryan Danielson's skull on Sunday night, then going on to trounce whoever else is in his path to Wembley Stadium. Shingo has already promised to cancel his scheduled Trios match for Korakuen Hall next Wednesday night so he can fight PAC at DYNAMITE: BEACH BREAK 2024 in Chicago, but perhaps “The Rampage Dragon” needs to take it one step at a time, and worry about Dalton Castle first before a bout of overconfidence costs him this match tonight...
SINGLES MATCH...
Queen Aminata vs. Skye Blue
Queen Aminata and Skye Blue have their share of history, once working as training partners, the two woman competed in a handful of DARK and DARK: ELEVATION matches in 2022 and 2023, but it wasn't until 3/28/23 and DARK #189 that they had their first singles match in All Elite Wrestling. That night it would be Skye Blue who scored the victory, as it would be in their rematch ten months later, but now seven months since that last battle, each woman finds themselves in a far different position than when they first formed a relationship.
Skye Blue has transformed into a darkened, sadistic version of the jubilant woman who first came to All Elite Wrestling as a result of her exposure to Julia Hart's black mist while Queen Aminata has really come into her own on ROH programming, fighting in pursuit of the ROH Women's World TV Championship held by Billie Starkz, and through it all her confidence has grown exponentially. The Queen knows she is good, great even, and feels she is capable of beating anyone across the ring from her, but will that be the case tonight on RAMPAGE against a woman who's already beaten her twice in All Elite Wrestling?
The COUNTDOWN TO FORBIDDEN DOOR comes your way starting at 8pm ET/7pm CT, with RAMPAGE getting underway at 10pm ET/9pm CT on TNT, so make a point to drop by AEW's official YouTube channel to see highlights from DYNAMITE, plus previous episodes of RAMPAGE and COLLISION, as well as content like CLOSE-UP WITH RENEE PAQUETTE featuring Nyla Rose and HEY(EW) WITH RJ CITY and Queen Aminata!
Then join us Saturday night at 8pm ET/7pm CT for the last stop before FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024, it's a stacked COLLISION with Deonna Purrazzo versus Hikaru Shida in the Owen Hart Tournament, Daniel Garcia versus The Butcher, and plenty more for your wrestling needs! After that it is time for AEW to head to Long Island and the UBS Arena where we present FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024 live on pay-per-view in conjunction with New Japan Pro Wrestling, and featuring competitors from AEW, NJPW, and CMLL in action! FORBIDDEN DOOR season is always one of the most unpredictable periods in AEW's calendar year, and that comes to a head this Sunday night!