AEW & NJPW Forbidden Door 2 Draws Impressive Pay-Per-View Numbers

AEW & NJPW presented another Forbidden Door event on July 25th, and the pro wrestling world was watching. It turns out that this year’s event did a bit better than their last outing as well.

Click here for our complete coverage of AEW & NJPW Forbidden Door.

The second edition of the AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door pay-per-view event received widespread acclaim, primarily due to a series of outstanding matches. Notably, Will Ospreay emerged victorious over Kenny Omega to capture the IWGP United States Title, and Bryan Danielson secured a triumph against Kazuchika Okada in the main event. The pay-per-view numbers were also nothing to look down at.

During a discussion on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer remarked that the show’s viewership is trending higher compared to the Double or Nothing pay-per-view in 2022. The positive reception and increased interest demonstrate the event’s success and growing popularity.

“As far as TV viewers, TV pay-per-view, which is the only number that I have right now. It was 12% higher than the previous two shows were on the same day, which is the Wednesday after the show. If it grows like the other two shows did, then it’ll be a big number. And it also, you know, is going to do you know, besides how it does in the United States, It’s also going to do much bigger in Japan than the other pay-per-views because of the new Japan guys. What is that? That’s, you know, five to eight, somewhere between five and 10,000 more buys, you know, plus the normal, whatever this number’s gonna be. Whether it’s 150, 155, maybe a little lower, I don’t know. That’s not including the Japan buys. I expect it to end up as the biggest, at least since Double or Nothing last year.

AEW & NJPW have no plan to stop this annual event. Only time will tell if they book a show in Japan next time around, but they must be happy about how things turned out on Toronto.

We will have to see how AEW and NJPW’s relationship continues from this point on. Some NJPW stars were still around for AEW Dynamite this week, but they will likely get back to Japan soon so they can continue working for their home promotion.

AEW & NJPW Forbidden Door was a big event, and a historic one at that. Which match stole the show for you? Sound off in the comments!