Several highly praised bouts were on tap for Sunday’s AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door pay-per-view event at the UBS Arena in Elmont, NY.
This year’s event featured AEW World Heavyweight Champion Swerve Strickland vs. Will Ospreay in the main event, with Strickland going over to retain. Another notable match was AEW TBS Champion Mercedes Mone vs. NJPW Strong Women’s Champion Stephanie Vaquer in a title-for-title bout.
Mone went over with the Money Maker and a crossface for the win. After the bout, Britt Baker made her return, walked out to the stage, and had a staredown with Mone before leaving.
PWInsider.com reports there was a lot of praise internally for the bout within AEW, specifically for Vaquer getting over so strongly with the live crow. They were told that Mone went into the bout with the goal of “making” Vaquer.
Vaquer didn’t get into town late, as she didn’t arrive until the afternoon of the PPV. The feeling was that they hit the goal. Mone will have a double-title celebration on tonight’s episode of AEW.
