Jon Moxley

Jon Moxley defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi at the AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door pay-per-view Sunday to become the interim AEW world champion.

A bloodied Moxley took out Tanahashi with the Death Rider.

By virtue of his victory, Mox will go on to face CM Punk when the latter is medically cleared to determine the undisputed AEW world champion.

Sunday's contest was made necessary by Punk announcing just days after he beat "Hangman" Adam Page for the AEW World Championship at Double or Nothing that he suffered an injury that required surgery.

There was some thought that Punk would relinquish the AEW title, but instead the decision was made to hold a series of matches to determine an interim champ and eventual opponent for Punk.

AEW President Tony Khan announced that on the following episode of Dynamite, the winner of a Battle Royal would face Moxley in the main event. The winner of that match would then face the winner of the New Japan Pro-Wrestling Dominion contest between Tanahashi and Hirooki Goto.

Kyle O'Reilly won the Battle Royal and faced Mox later in the night, but the former AEW world champion prevailed. That was followed by an eight-time IWGP world heavyweight champion in Tanahashi beating Goto at Dominion.

Those results set the stage for arguably the biggest match of the night at Forbidden Door with Moxley and Tanahashi battling for the right to eventually challenge Punk.

Sunday marked the first ever one-on-one match between Moxley and Tanahashi, though they did work together once before as part of a four-way match for the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship at Capital Collision in Washington, D.C., last month.

The match also included Juice Robinson and Will Ospreay, and Robinson won the bout to take the title from Tanahashi.

Originally, Punk was going to face Tanahashi at Forbidden Door, meaning there was some belief Tanahashi could beat Moxley despite not being an AEW wrestler.

Even so, Mox came out on top at Forbidden Door, setting the stage for an eventual, highly anticipated meeting with Punk.

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For the first time ever, All Elite Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling are putting on a joint pay-per-view event this weekend in the form of AEWxNJPW Forbidden Door.

The show is slated to feature five championship matches involving titles from both AEW and NJPW, and most of the matches will feature some crossover with wrestlers from both promotions duking it out.

While big names such as CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Kenny Omega, Tetsuya Naito and Kota Ibushi are missing from the card because of injuries and other factors, there is still plenty of star power and many never-before-seen matches on tap.

Ahead of Forbidden Door, here is a full rundown of the card and all the information you need for when and how to watch the event.

Where: United Center in Chicago

When: Sunday, June 26, at 8 p.m. ET (Buy-In pre-show starts at 7 p.m. ET)

Watch: B/R Live

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Forbidden Door Match Card

• Interim AEW World Championship: Jon Moxley vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
• IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Jay White (c) vs. "Hangman" Adam Page vs. Adam Cole vs. Kazuchika Okada
• AEW Women's World Championship: Thunder Rosa (c) vs. Toni Storm
• AEW All-Atlantic Championship: Miro vs. Pac vs. Malakai Black vs. Tomohiro Ishii
• Winner Take All ROH & IWGP Tag Team Championships: FTR (c) vs. Jeff Cobb & Great-O-Khan (c) vs. Roppongi Vice
• Will Ospreay vs. Orange Cassidy
• Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Mystery Opponent of Bryan Danielson's Choosing
• Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara & Minoru Suzuki vs. Eddie Kingston, Wheeler Yuta & Shota Umino
• The Young Bucks, El Phantasmo & Hikuleo vs. Sting, Darby Allin, Shingo Takagi & Hiromu Takahashi
• Buy-In Match: Max Caster, Billy Gunn, Austin Gunn & Colten Gunn vs. Alex Coughlin, Yuya Uemura, The DKC & Kevin Knight
  

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Top Forbidden Door Matches to Watch

Jon Moxley vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

With Punk out for an undetermined amount of time because of injury, an interim AEW world champion will be crowned at Forbidden Door.

Punk had seemingly been slated to defend the AEW world title against Hiroshi Tanahashi at Forbidden Door before having to bow out, but now a former AEW world champ in Jon Moxley is taking his place.

Moxley defeated battle royal winner Kyle O'Reilly on a recent episode of Dynamite to earn his spot in the match, while Tanahashi beat Hirooki Goto at NJPW's Dominion event.

While Moxley and Tanahashi did face each other in a four-way match recently and teamed together against Chris Jericho and Lance Archer on Wednesday's episode of Dynamite, Sunday marks their first singles match against each other.

Mox is favored since he is part of the AEW roster and will be around when Punk returns for a match to determine the undisputed champion, but a Tanahashi win could be a fun way of throwing a wrench into things.

Punk vs. Tanahashi was already penciled in as match at Forbidden Door, so it isn't outside the realm of possibility that the eight-time IWGP heavyweight champion will beat Moxley and set the stage for that dream match in the future.

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Jay White vs. Hangman Adam Page vs. Adam Cole vs. Kazuchika Okada

Despite some uncertainty leading up to Forbidden Door regarding the defense of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, the title is set to be involved in one of the most highly anticipated bouts on the show.

In the weeks prior to Forbidden Door, both "Hangman" Adam Page and Adam Cole made it clear that they wanted to challenge Jay White for the title after White won it from Kazuchika Okada at Dominion.

It seemed to be headed toward a three-way match, but that changed on Wednesday's episode of Dynamite when Okada made a surprise appearance and helped Page fight off White and Cole.

With that, a four-way match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship was booked featuring four of the biggest stars in AEW and New Japan.

Both Page and Cole have extensive experience wrestling in Japan, adding even greater meaning to their involvement against the best NJPW has to offer.

It would be a surprise if either Page or Cole wins, but a title change isn't out of the question, especially since Okada just had the title until recently.

Since it is possible the title change from Okada to White was simply done to add more intrigue to Forbidden Door, a Rainmaker victory could be in the cards.

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Thunder Rosa vs. Toni Storm

The only women's match on the Forbidden Door card is a big one, as Thunder Rosa will defend the AEW Women's World Championship against Toni Storm.

While it can be argued that Rosa's title reign has been somewhat disappointing because of a lack of consistent television time, she almost always delivers in the ring, and that should be true again at Forbidden Door against an opponent the caliber of Storm.

Despite having only been with AEW for about three months, Storm has quickly established herself as one of the top stars in the AEW women's division, mixing it up with the likes of Britt Baker, Jamie Hayter and The Bunny, among others.

Meanwhile, Rosa won the title off Baker in March, and since then she has successfully defended it against Nyla Rose, Serena Deeb and Marina Shafir.

Establishing other stars in the women's division aside from just Baker and Jade Cargill is of the utmost importance for AEW, and a great match between Rosa and Storm could help immensely in that regard.

It seems early to end Rosa's title reign, but a Storm victory is very much in play, and it could get people talking about the AEW women's division in a positive way.

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