Fantasy Booking Forbidden Door 2025

What’s up everyone, hope we all are enjoying this lovely week of wrestling. We have two big events this weekend; NXT’s Heatwave and AEW x NJPW’s Forbidden Door. My Heatwave fantasy booking is up on the site, check it out - but let’s focus here on Forbidden Door! I am writing this on August 19th, before both Dynamite and Collision episodes leading into the event, so if you read this after those episodes and something happens that makes these booking / pitches impossible, just ignore that! Here are fantasy booking pitches for three matches at Forbidden door:

Niguel McGuinness (w/ Daniel Garcia) vs Zack Sabre Jr (For the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship)

Diving straight in, here is how I would book this match - McGuinness vs Zack Sabre Jr is a display of technical wrestling at the highest level. No surprise, both men create creative offense and defense against each other in a match that delivers on the “dream match” promise (that isn’t a fantasy booking, it’s a spoiler!). In the closing stretch of the match, we see Zack Sabre Jr do something heelish (“and somehow Palepatine returned” ahh booking, okay I get it leave me alone. I honestly don’t follow Sabre’s career, so I’m not sure if he is a heel that would cheat or a heel in the same vein as Gunther. Whatever heelish thing Zack would do, he does it okay? Cut me some slack maaaaan) - to which Garcia jumps onto the ring apron to alert the ref. The ref comes over and they have a classic miscommunication conversation where Garcia is trying to say “look at what’s happening” and the ref is saying “get down off the ring apron, you can’t be involved in the match”. 

Surprisingly, McGuinness is actually able to reverse Sabre’s attempt, hits him with a lariat and pins him for what would have been a three count if the ref wasn’t distracted. McGuinness breaks the pin and rushes to gain the attention of the ref, and as he is doing so, Sabre grabs him from behind and quickly gets a submission locked in. McGuinness tries to fight it off but to no avail - he taps out and Zack Sabre Jr retains his championship.

After the match, Garcia rolls into the ring to apologize for the mishap during the match. McGuinness looks irate, but eventually he extends his hand for a handshake. Garcia accepts the handshake - which was a trap. As Garcia goes to pull away, McGuinness pulls him in to get hit by a lariat. McGuinness beats down Garcia, targeting and brutalizing the arms and legs, in an effort to weaken the “technical” power of the man. 

On the following episode of Dynamite, Niguel McGuinness explains that asking Daniel Garcia to be in his corner for this match came from a place of respect and he was looking forward to being a mentor for Garcia on how to be a true great technical wrestler but maybe the best way to teach Daniel, is to show Daniel. He says he wants to face Garcia in a match, which sets up a feud that leads to All Out. For the fallout, McGuinness puts over the younger talent, with Garcia moving into a feud with Kyle Fletcher for the TNT Championship. 

“Timeless” Toni Storm vs Athena (for the AEW Women’s World Championship) 

Both the men’s and women’s casino gauntlet contracts are being used on this PPV, and there is absolutely no way MJF is successful in his attempt. So with that being said, Athena should get the win here. Not only does it validate the casino gauntlet match, Athena absolutely deserves it. Let’s not forget that originally she wasn’t even on the All In card that featured the Casino Gauntlet match - but the fans demanded Athena. The fan support not only got her on the card, in her home state of Texas, but the win also solidified the trust fans have with AEW booking. Athena has been such a dominant ROH Women’s World Champion, this feels like a great step to keep it all fresh.

“Timeless” Toni Storm is such a great character, it almost transcends the championship. I think it would be very beneficial for her to work with women who normally wouldn’t be in the title picture. She is a vet by this point and the mid to lower card could use a strong coach, even if it only lasts for a storyline or two. Athena has more than proved that she can lead the women’s division as the top dog. This also doubles as a plus for Ring of Honor, with the top women’s belt being shown on AEW programming. Quick bonus booking, Mercedes Mone retains her TNT Championship. I would have Mercedes and Athena battle in a belts war. Maybe the ROH title is on the line for one match, and Mercedes wins; then a second match with one of Mercedes' many titles is on the line, to which Athena wins. This is an opportunity to use Mercedes dominance to build someone else right up to her level. 

Kazuchika Okada vs Swerve Strickland (for the AEW Unified Championship) 

Let’s talk about the Unified Championship for a moment… So it’s the unification of the AEW Continental and International Championships but both those titles are still independently active. The Continental Championship will still be on the line during the Continental Classic. This is beyond confusing to me. If you lose the Continental Championship, do you also lose the Unified Championship? The International Championship is still “active” but is it really if it’s just attached to another belt anyways? The unification match should have been loser has their belt retired, winner vacates their belt in exchange for the bigger championship. So simple. And very easily they could have just brought the International Championship back in two or three years the way WWE brought back the Intercontinental Championship after getting rid of it (crazy decision to have ZERO midcard titles, what were WWE thinking lol anyways, I digress). It needs to be cleaned up and this match could be the key to doing that, or at least going in the right direction. 

The purpose of this title was to be equal to the AEW World Championship and there is no better candidate than Swerve Strickland. After winning, I would have him vacate BOTH the Continental and International Championships. Let’s just sort this out immediately. Swerve can take the babyface stance of wanting to give the roster more chances. The Continental Championship goes back to being a symbol of winning the Continental Classic and the International Championship becomes the defending midcard title on whatever show the TNT Championship isn’t on. Is the Unified Championship still unified if it’s not attached to the two belts anymore? I don’t know, is the WWE Undisputed Championship really undisputed if there are two world titles on their programming? Questions, questions, questions, who really knows. I would love to see it rebranded as AEW Heavyweight Championship, but is that too close to WWE’s setup? Maybe AEW Global Championship. Regardless of the name, Swerve Strickland without a doubt could carry Collision and any feud with new challengers to the main title picture scene. 

And boom goes the dynamite

That wraps up my Forbidden Door 2025 fantasy booking! This show has so much potential to create dream matches, elevate new stars, and clean up some of AEW’s championship clutter while still delivering the kind of cross-promotion magic that makes Forbidden Door special every year. 

Thanks for reading - keep it beachy, baby!