Sunday night’s 4 hour AEW Forbidden Door live from Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena, not only featured a red hot crowd, but some of the best wrestling matches we have seen in a long time as the biggest stars from AEW faced off, and with, many of the biggest stars of New Japan Pro-Wrestling.

While this was the second year of Forbidden Door, this one far exceeded last year’s version.  In fact, it turned out to be: AEW’S biggest live gate, the third largest ever in Canada and in North America for a non-WWE premium live event.  Reports estimate the gate was over 1.2 million. U.S. dollars.

In terms of key matches, what went down and pure excitement, here is what stood out among the rest.   At the top of our list was the epic battle between Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega for the IGWP US Championship. Going in to the match, Omega held the title that he won from Ospreay back in January at the Tokyo Dome.

Photo: AEW

For sheer storytelling, and the agony and ecstacy of it all, this match had it in spades including: Ospreay hating on Canada and defiling their flag, paying back Omega for busting him open in the Tokyo Dome and doing the same to him  The entire match rivaled a three-act play.

In the end, it was hDon Callis armed with a screwdriver who put the screws to his ex-protege, Omega. In a sneaky move, he gets the screwdriver to Ospreay who uses it on Omega’s head. Will’s signature moves, The Hidden Blade and a Storm Breaker finally ended the night and the title reign for Omega.  Oh, and by the way, check out the openings before Omega and Ospreay came to the ring  … the best of the night.

“Jungle Boy” Jack Perry ( the son of the late 90210 star, Luke Perry) is finally leaving the jungles behind.  After being defeated by IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, Sanada, in a solid match, the change that had been rumored to be upon us us, did.

After being helped up the ramp by his tag-team partner, Hook, Perry clotheslined him and as the crowd boo’d, but then he egged then up making fun of his own ‘Jungle Boy’ theme music.  Perry had promised himself he would be a champion this year and thus far all his attempts at numerous title shots have failed.  Now that Jack has turned heel, what will be his new look? New attitude? Stay tuned.

Photo: AEW

MJF retained his AEW World Championship in the first bout of the night against Hiroshi Tanahashi. While it wasn’t the most fluid match, all of MJF’s antics and charisma made up for it.  Not only did he sent out a time tweet on his Twitter account right before the match, his ring robe had written on the back, “New Japan is an Indie”.  After hitting Tanahashi with his diamond ring and securing the pin, MJF made it known he was hightailing it out of Toronto, so much so we see him later at the airport.

Photo: AEW

In the actual final match of the night, Bryan Danielson entered the ring to his old theme music from Ring of Honor that of Final Countdown. AEW CEO, Tony Khan admitted in a post-media scrum that to license the song for the night cost a pretty penny, but they were thrilled to get to use it for this special match and maybe could use one other time in the future.  Danielson was facing Kuzuchika Okada.  It was was a match of move and countermoves showing the sheer technical excellence of each man.

Courtesy/AEW

However, during the match, fans could see Danielson holding one arm closer to his side. It was later revealed in the same post-media scrum that Danielson had fractured his right forearm and would be out of commission for 6 t0 8 weeks.  In the end, Danielson got the win in a shocking tap out by Okada.

Courtesy/AEW

CM Punk made his return to single’s competition after being shelved for nine months recovering from a triceps tear surgery.  On this night, he was the first quarterfinal match in the 2023 Owen Hart Foundation Cup Tournament.  Punk faced off with Satoshi Kojima.  Throughout the match, Punk looked like he was getting a lot of his groove back in the ring.  While he was booed loudly by the Canadian crowd, there were also some “CM Punk” chanter faithfuls in the arena, too.  In the end it was Punk for the win, who will go on to meet the winner of his arch-rival Samoa Joe vs. Roderick Strong.

Honorable mentions have to go to Orange Cassidy and the incredible fatal four-way match with Zach Sabre Jr., Daniel Garcia and Katsuyori Shibata to retain the AEW International championship.

Photo: Steve Arginatru

And what happened to the potential split between Sammy Guevara and Jericho Appreciation Society leader, Chris Jericho? It never materialized in their trios match with Minoru Suzuki against Darby Allin, Sting and Netsuya Naito vs. Chris Jericho.

Immediately following Forbidden Door, Michael Fairman and pro wrestling reporter, Luis Ruiz recapped the entire event and more on their You Tube series, What’s Up? Wrestling.  You can check that out below.

So, what did you think of AEW Forbidden Door 2023? What were your favorite matches? How would you grade it? We give it an “A”.  Share your thoughts in the comment section.