Dynasty Trio Solidified
Dynasty Trio Solidified
Match: Swerve Strickland (スワーブ・ストリックランド) © vs Will Ospreay (ウィル・オスプレイ) (27:06)
Company: All Elite Wrestling & New Japan Pro-Wrestling
Year: 2024
Prize: AEW World Championship (AEW世界選手権)
Event: AEW X NJPW Forbidden Door III
Rambling Time
Okay. I have to redo this intro after the original one had gathered so many negative thoughts in my mind, so I deleted every word to restart this intro.
Hello. It’s your favourite drug addict. Welcome back to my terrible diary entry. Today… we are focusing on AEW. I know you might be thinking, “I beg your pardon”. Yes, we are actually focusing on All Elite Wrestling. I’ll say this one more time, ALL. ELITE. WRESTLING. Well, not solely AEW as it is also affiliated with New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Not even affiliated, this is literally from a co-promoted show. So anyway, All Elite Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling came together to present the third iteration of Forbidden Door in the UBS Arena from Elmont, New York. The show itself was fun, but it was a really strange event. This felt more like an AEW show instead of a crossover with NJPW. This type of vibe would continue at this year’s Forbidden Door in London. At least they had Hiroshi Tanahashi get the win for his team in the Steel Cage bout.
This whole partnership in general between AEW and NJPW is a divisive one to say the very least. Creating debate between AEW and NJPW online who have opinions about it. The most recent argument was when KONOSUKE TAKESHITA (NJPW uses his name in all caps) won the 35th annual G1 CLIMAX Tournament. Which sparked a lot of anger from the Japanese Fans to the point when searching that post on X, I couldn’t find it. So it was probably deleted. Now look, my stance is that Konosuke Takeshita shouldn’t have won the G1. Not because of “AEW vs NJPW” or whatever, it’s simply that he didn’t need it. He could’ve challenged Zack Sabre Jr. regardless at King Of Pro-Wrestling. It’s NJPW at the end of the day. That is also a completely different article for a complete day.
Back to our regularly scheduled programming, Forbidden Door III (2024) was different to the last two iterations of the crossovers. This show featured Bryan Danielson and Shingo Takagi in the Owen Hart Cup which I detailed in my Shingo Takagi article on his Mini AEW Run. On the pre-show, now retired wrestler Tam Nakano made her first and only AEW appearance as she teamed with Willow Nightingale to defeat Kris Statlander and H.A.T.E.'s Momo Watanabe. Los Ingobernables de Japón (Yota Tsuji, Titán & Hiromu Takahashi) and Místico & Lucha Brothers (Penta El Zero Miedo & Rey Fenix) had a really good trios match. Not everything was fun as we had Samoa Joe, Katsuyori Shibata and HOOK facing “The Learning Tree” Chris Jericho, “The Redwood” Big Bill and NJPW World TV Champion Jeff Cobb. And then there was Mercedes Moné vs Stephanie Vaquer for both the AEW TBS Championship and NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship. I hate this match. No seriously, I HATE THIS MATCH so much that you can say that I will probably not be doing any Mercedes Moné or Stephanie Vaquer matches.
(Zero Thoughts: Both women are great wrestlers and I’m glad for their success. I’m just not a fan of their Forbidden Door at all from what I just stated.)
The Match Of The Article
On this Forbidden Door show, there was a match in particular I love since I saw it last year. That fight in particular was Swerve Strickland vs Will Ospreay for the AEW World Championship. And I decided to detail this for your reading entertainment. Will Ospreay earned this opportunity at the AEW World Championship by winning the Forbidden Door Casino Gauntlet which featured names like Shota Umino from NJPW and Místico from CMLL. Let’s take a journey down memory lane for this one.
With that being said, from the UBS Arena in front of 10,620 fans. In the main event, it’s Swerve Strickland defending the AEW World Championship against AEW International Champion Will Ospreay. Let’s roll with it.
We start off this contest by staring at each other. We all know in professional wrestling if you both stare at each other, it’s super duper serious. To be fair, given the build to this fight, it was definitely serious. Both men were able to break the staring trance and actually do a collar and elbow tie up. As they were trying to push each other, Swerve succeeded as he pushed Ospreay to the ropes. Ospreay just decided to forearm strike him even though he was trapped. Apparently, Swerve decided to invite Will in the centre like it’s an episode of the Bro Code and with one brain cell, they strike each other. Ospreay kicks him in the gut and applies a side headlock. It’s great practice for when he becomes a postman.
Swerve moved back to the nearest rope as he was able to push him off to the opposite side of the ropes. Ospreay tried a shoulder tackle and that failed. Swerve goes for a quick jab, but Ospreay ducks and hits a forearm strike. He pushes him (Swerve Strickland) back to the nearest rope to boost for an Irish whip. Swerve reverses an Irish whip and sends Ospreay to the ropes. As Ospreay rebounds, he ducks under a back elbow and ducks underneath the clothesline. Ospreay rebounds back again with a Tierras this time. That didn’t work as Swerve front flipped out of it and went for his own Tierras. Ospreay cartwheeled out of it, ducks a roundhouse kick to try a possible Dragon Suplex. Swerve had an opening to do a back elbow, and Ospreay blocked it by raising his arms to his face. With a bit of a gap, Will went for his trademark high side superkick and despite the small room for error, Swerve blocked it with his right hand or right wrist if you want to be specific about it as both men backed away from each other. It might be a lot to keep up with, but the crowd cheers this like it’s the battle of the universe. It’s quite unreal. Even though we just started.
As there are teases of Test Of Strength, Swerve just kicks him in the gut and aims for Ospreay’s neck. Aka, Big Brother Shit. Ospreay quickly switches to place him in the corner as he chops and strikes him. Swerve escapes another chop and chops Ospreay like it’s a bit of a gunshot. This really is a juxtaposition. Swerve throws him to the corner, he uppercuts him and rolls him down to do another uppercut from the middle rope. Ospreay knew this so he kips up and looks at Swerve like he is Rodrigo Borgia. Swerve moves down like he is a child being caught doing something. Both men have the same idea to kick each other, obviously they put their feet down. No pun intended. Swerve kicked him in the jaw and went for an Irish whip. Will catches himself on the ropes to stop the rebound, moves so Swerve tumbles on the apron and kicks him off the apron.
Ospreay builds up momentum and wipes out Swerve with a High Body Press to the outside. Will keeps striking him as they move around and places him back into the ring to keep striking him. After a Dry Bye, they both start doing strikes with Swerve’s being a bit weaker due to the damage. From the corner, Swerve reverses the Irish whip and sends Ospreay to the other side. Okay, so what comes next will depend on how you remember the match. So, Ospreay hops over a changing Swerve to chop him in the corner. Ospreay moves Swerve away from the corner to jump on the middle rope. Swerve sweeps his legs and the neck of Ospreay on the top turnbuckle. Swerve rolls him in a Snapmare, hops to the middle rope to hit a flying uppercut on the back of the Billy Goat’s neck and does The Griddy afterwards.
To focus on the neck, Swerve hit neckbreakers (pun intended) on Ospreay, even one with him hanging on the ropes. Swerve kept focusing on the neck with an extended chin lock. As Ospreay was trying to break out, Swerve switched to go for a neckbreaker. Ospreay back elbows his way out before anything could happen and starts striking. Swerve pops him with a closed fist to the mouth and made Ospreay think that he had a scar of Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Swerve Irish whip him into the ropes which fails as Ospreay rebounds back with a Handspring Enzigiri. As he noticed Swerve is on the outside, Ospreay goes for the High Body Press again, but only for Swerve to move out of the way. Swerve kicks him in the gut and Irish whips him towards Barry Barricade. Ospreay jumps over and blocks a charging Swerve. Then he tries to springboard and Swerve just sweeps his legs again. As they were both standing on the barricade, Will struggled and was able to get out of the Piledriver position. He would jump and hit a Hurricanrana off the barricade. Will continues his momentum as he throws Swerve into the ring, springboards from the apron to hit Pip Pip Cheerio (Springboard Forearm Smash) for the first pin attempt in this match.
Ospreay tries to lift him up for a Powerbomb, and Swerve reverses with a back body drop. Ospreay pops up immediately and chops him. Ospreay successfully Irish whip to the ropes and flapjacks him to the ropes so he can charge up for his big boot. Not only Swerve caught it, but he also slid under and lifted him up into a backbreaker. When he picked him up, Will immediately went for the chop, but Swerve ducked and pushed the Assassin back to the ropes. As he rebounded back, Swerve hit a Sit Out Hip Toss to transition into a Short Arm-Scissor Armbar. I want you to keep those arms in your mind. Swerve just realised that Will was in NJPW, so he started antagonising him. Like I said before, big brother shit. When Will got up, both men once again did a strike exchange.
Then this turned into a game of wrestling pinball as Swerve uppercuts him to block the rope rebound. Before he was going to do the same, Swerve did a Lil Bro move and pat Will’s head. Will blocked a full rope rebound attack with a Flash Kick flip to go for an Enzigiri. Swerve ducked that and went for the House Call. Will dodged that and went for the Hidden Blade. Swerve narrowly ducked and pop up to connect with an uppercut. Swerve Irish whips him to the ropes, so he can do Franksteiner from the rebound. Will countered that with Powerbomb and followed up with a Styles Clash for a 2 count. As Will was doing his kicks, the camera was cutting to Daniel Garcia watching from the Press Box. If I remember correctly, after Forbidden Door was the Beach Break TV Special on Dynamite where Daniel Garcia challenged for the AEW International Championship against the champion, Will Ospreay.
What happened next will make you think about your life. When Ospreay was going for the OsCutter, unbeknownst to him, Swerve was on a different side of the ropes from him. So when Will did the springboard for the OsCutter, Swerve jumped at the same time and hit a double foot stomp on Ospreay in mid air. It looks as nuts as my description here. Swerve kicks him onto the apron and it was a way for him to do that Front Flip he always does to the outside. It looks cool especially since here, it looked like he was going for a Blockbuster. Well that fun didn’t last long since Will just kicked him from the apron and went to the nearest turnbuckle for the Sky Twister Press. Swerve intercepted that very quickly and decided to hit an Olympic Slam from the top turnbuckle, back into the ring. The height of that has to be very scary. Swerve managed to get an arm over him for a pin attempt. Will rolled out of it as a way to kick out so he can be on the apron. He also clutched his arm as he rolled out.
That didn’t stop Swerve from following him out onto the apron as he tried to pick him up for a potential Piledriver. Ospreay resisted by using his full body weight to prevent that from happening. So Swerve tried to go for a potential Brainbuster, but Ospreay went over him only to get tangled in the ropes a bit. So he held in a Rear Naked Choke till he was on the apron again. Then Ospreay let go to clock Swerve with a side superkick which I will call the Aminus Shot… for obvious reasons. Much like in New Japan, Ospreay went for the OsCutter on the apron. Swerve moved out of the way which meant that Will landed on his back. Now look, I’m not a wrestler, but that has to suck. Swerve went up to the turnbuckle to do a Swerve Stomp to Ospreay on the apron. Will just rolled off the apron to avoid that, but forgot about how crazy Swerve. Because when he was leaning on the Spanish announce table for support, Swerve jumped off the top turnbuckle to Swerve Stomp him on the announce table.
It was a lot crazier the first time I watched it, and since that table didn’t budge, it must’ve sucked. That wasn’t the end as Swerve rolled him back into the ring, he decided to pull him out which technically restarted the count. He placed him on Barry Barricade and unlike what he tried to do earlier, this time, Swerve drilled Will’s skull with a Snap Piledriver on the barricade. I swear, this fight has been a bit much longer to write about than intended. Back in the ring, Swerve hit the Glamourous Driver MINA for a two count and when that didn’t work, he scaled up the top turnbuckle. Will disrupt the balance by shaking the top rope and looking for the Spanish Fly. Swerve got him off to the apron to properly stand on the top turnbuckle. Will would do a springboard and hit an OsCutter Fyre from the top rope in the centre of the ring. He followed up with an OsCutter for a 2 count.
Will went back to the drawing board, so he went for the Hidden Blade. Swerve got his forearms up to block it, and ducked when Ospreay went for a Hidden Blade from a standing position. Swerve had an opportunity to hit the Big Pressure, but Ospreay got out and hit the Animus Shot. Will blocked off a punch and hit another Animus Shot. He went for the OsCutter, only for Swerve to reverse it and tried to snap his arm off. Ospreay got out by using a pin attempt and moved out of the way of a kick to hit the OsCutter that left them both glued to the mat. Ospreay decided to pull out his ultimate weapon, the Storm Breaker (Double underhook overhead gutwrench transitioned into a modified corkscrew neckbreaker) and it actually failed. Even more shocking since it was the first time that someone kicked out of that move in AEW.
The camera panned to backstage as MJF was watching from a monitor as he was feuding with Will Ospreay which involved a Daniel Garcia who I mentioned earlier. Back to the action, Ospreay tried to do the Storm Driver ‘93 (Tiger Driver ‘91), but Swerve was trying to get out. Ospreay did a SHOOT headbutt which I don’t even remember him doing. Ospreay called for the Storm Driver ‘93 and lifted up Swerve for it, only for Swerve to slap his face to get out of it (which is a really good and logical detail in my opinion). Swerve rolled through into the Most Devastating Move in All Of Sports Entertainment, the Surprise Rollup for the 2 count. He followed up by hitting Will with his own Hidden Blade and the crowd exploded for it. Swerve nearly collided with referee Paul Turner after Will moved out of the way of a Swerve Stomp. Will came up from behind with a Hidden Blade. Swerve ducked, but Paul Turner didn’t, so he got hit instead.
What I did like was that there was no run-in to attack anyone before the Death Riders arrived. So as Ospreay was sympathetic or guilty for Paul Turner, Swerve came up from behind and hit a Poisonrana, only for Will to answer back with a Hidden Blade. Will went for the cover, but Turner was still knocked out. Don Callis appeared and at first I was like, “Wait. Why are you here?” Then I realised in a few seconds why he was here. At this time, Will was still part of the Don Callis Family as an OG member when he joined in 2023 while he was still in NJPW as IWGP United States (United Kingdom) Heavyweight, also at this time, Will had the official US and custom made UK version of the belt before BULLET CLUB War Dogs Leader David Finlay destroyed them both in November of 2023. This isn’t the same Don Callis Family we know today which is bloated when it comes to numbers. The members at the time of this were Konosuke Takeshita, Will Ospreay, Kyle Fletcher and… Powerhouse Hobbs as well as the first alumni in Sammy Guevara. You would be forgiven if you had forgotten the last two men were in the group, given there have been so many people added since then.
Back to regularly scheduled programming, Don Callis pulled out a screwdriver which is the primary weapon of Don Callis and his group as a whole which hasn’t changed since then. Very consistent I can say. This was also the time when Will Ospreay was having inner conflict of trying to be good or be tempted in the darkside which was fantastic. Will hesitated to even grab the screwdriver as Prince Nana had enough and tried to put a stop to this. Don Callis started pushing him away and forced Will to take it. Nana isn’t here for disrespect, so he pushed Don back which is justified, but it did flick a switch in Ospreay. Because he grabbed Nana and looked like he was going to stab him with a screwdriver until he realised what was doing and slowly backed away as well as dropping the item. He even signalled a scared Nana to move so he doesn’t get hurt. This is great stuff!
When Will slid back in the ring, Swerve gave him a warm welcome with a House Call to the face. He followed up with a Swerve Stomp as referee Aubrey Edwards slid into the ring and Ospreay kicked. Swerve went into Sicko mode as he stomped on Ospreay’s arm and hit the House Call while Will was holding his arm and in so much pain. You would think that was the end of it, but it wasn’t as Ospreay kicked out again. The crowd erupted in shock and Swerve looked like his soul came out of his body from that. Ospreay was groggily trying to keep himself up while taking off his elbow pad for the Hidden Blade. So Swerve stood up slowly with more of a nonchalant expression.
He was just standing there as the Hidden Blade connected, but didn’t affect him at all as Will had no energy. None. Swerve held him in his arms as he just patted his head like he is a proud big brother. Okay, I’ll stop that. Then he lets him fall to the mat. Swerve walked to the vantage point behind Ospreay, lifting up his knee pad to the right position. He hit the House Call and followed up with Big Pressure to get the 1, 2, 3. Swerve Strickland is still your All Elite Wrestling World Champion.
In the post match, Ospreay realised that he lost and looked devastated. Swerve could’ve walked away, but he actually comforted Will. It was wholesome even though we watched a bunch of carnage.
It was a huge shock that Swerve Strickland did retain. It was actually the best thing for both parties. This did not only establish Swerve as a great World Champion, but also cemented his spot as an AEW Main Event Player.
Post Ramble
Man. What a match to write about. I’ll be honest when I say that I didn’t intend for this to be its own article. It sorta became its own entity after realising how long it took for me to write about. The original plan was to make this alongside another Ema Maishima and Kikyo Furusawa article until I changed my plans. This match was great and one of my favourites from AEW even though this was kind of a pain in the ass to do, but I chose to do it.
I have been self-critical lately and that level of self-deprecation continued to this one. But the SickosClub really has been supportive and I would like to thank them for giving me the opportunity to write articles like this. Despite how mild or unhinged it can get like the last one. And shoutout to independent wrestler, Airica Demia for saying that my last article was amazing when I posted it on my X feed. So it was a fun bright spot to my day.
If you want to read articles by other authors, go to The ClubHouse and don’t worry, we won’t bite. If you want to check more SickosClub content, you can subscribe to the official SickosClub YouTube Channel by searching YouTube.com/@Sickos-Club with many videos & shorts on there. Hope you have a happy day and I love you all consensually. I’ll see you whenever I pop up.