See who won on the Forbidden Door pre-show with live Zero Hour results.
Before one can step through the Forbidden Door, one must prepare for Zero Hour. Or something like that.
Scotiabank Arena in Toronto is preparing for the second AEW x NJPW supershow, which once again is so stuffed with action featuring the stars of both companies that some of it needs to happen on the pre-show.\
A total of four matches will air live for free on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. One is an all-New Japan affair between United Empire and Los Ingobernables De Japon, while two are crossover bouts. There’s also a first round match in the Women’s Owen Hart Cup Tournament that pits ROH Women’s World Champion Athena against rising star Billie Starkz.
We’ll update this post live in real time as the matches unfold.
Forbidden Door 2023 Zero Hour results:
Mogul Embassy (Swerve Strickland, Toa Liona, Brian Cage and Bishop Kaun) def. Chaos (Rocky Romero, Chuck Taylor and Trent Beretta) and El Desperado when Strickland pins Romero
Athena def. Billie Starkz by pinfall in a Women’s Owen Hart Cup Tournament first round match
El Phantasmo def. Stu Grayson by pinfall
Los Ingobernables De Japon (Bushi, Hiromu Takahashi and Shingo Takagi) def. United Empire (Jeff Cobb, Kyle Fletcher and TJP) by pinfall when Takagi pins TJP
AEW Rampage also featured a first round match in the Women’s Owen Hart Cup Tournament.
If you’ve never watched New Japan Pro-Wrestling before, that’s OK. But it would probably be a good idea to watch this episode of AEW Rampage before Forbidden Door this Sunday night.
That’s because there’s a whole bunch of NJPW talent on tonight’s show, which is fitting since they will also be a big part of the second annual supershow in Toronto. Also, MJF will be on tonight’s show, a first for the AEW World Champion.
So even though Rampage has slipped to third in the pecking order of AEW shows, this should be one hour that’s worth watching. Let’s see what we’ve got.
AEW Rampage results:
United Empire (Jeff Cobb, Kyle Fletcher and Will Ospreay) and Swerve Strickland def. Chaos (Best Friends, Rocky Romero and Yoh) by pinfall
Toni Storm says only her title is on the line when she faces Willow Nightingale at Forbidden Door because Willow would lose her title if it was on the line
Adam Cole goes to the ring but is quickly interrupted by MJF, who says he has talked to Tony Khan and got him to book Cole in a match at Forbidden Door against Tom Lawlor; Lawlor and Royce Isaacs attack Cole while MJF mockingly acts like he’s on the way to save his tag team partner, then wishes Cole good luck this weekend
The Acclaimed and Daddy Ass def. Local Talent in a very short match; afterward, Harley Cameron tells the group they should work together on music as a distraction for QTV to debut new member Johnny TV, who lays out Daddy Ass
Prince Nana and Swerve deliver a warning to Hiroshi Tanahashi, who Strickland will face on Collision
Skye Blue def. Anna Jay by pinfall in a Women’s Owen Hart Cup Tournament first round match
“Jungle Boy” Jack Perry def. Douki by submission by using Sanada’s Skull End hold, in a match that saw much of the crowd cheering for Douki …
… but Sanada comes out and walks to the ring for a staredown to end the show
The league is more fun when the Patriots are evil and good. They can maintain that by saying bye to Tom Brady trading for Cam Newton.
There is going to be a ton of speculation in the coming weeks about the future of Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. The future Hall of Fame quarterback didn’t look like himself this season, and head coach Bill Belichick has never been one for sentimentality. (That’s an understatement, but, you know.)
With Brady turning 43 this summer, it wouldn’t surprise anyone if New England moved on.
Brady will have plenty of options if he and the Pats break up, one would assume. John Elway and the Broncos probably have a contract lined up and ready to go. The Colts could make a play. There are plenty of teams which would be delighted to see what a fired-up Brady has left in the tank, were the split to occur.
That’s all well and good. But here’s where things could get really fun: If the Patriots traded for Cam Newton.
This needs to happen. Partly for the football, but mostly for the chaos.
AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes
Newton is on the outs in Carolina, where the franchise has apparently talked itself into Kyle Allen. Good on you, Panthers. This is laughable and wild, but more power to you.
Newton, one of the most gifted quarterbacks alive when healthy, would get to be plugged in to a Patriots team that just needs him to be solid to compete. With their defense, their coach, a healthy offensive line and a re-tooling at the skill positions, Newton could win 10 games just by playing decently.
If he plays well, the Patriots are immediately in the discussion of Super Bowl favorites.
Patriots fans would be miffed for about 45 seconds, then watch two minutes of Newton highlights and start talking about the second coming of the dynasty. There’d be some crabs who will argue he doesn’t play the game the right way, or whatever, but all it would take is one deep throw to Mohamed Sanu and they’d get over it.
Newton deserves a fresh start. The Patriots deserve a dynamic quarterback. The league deserves the villains to remain villains.
This is the key point here: Just imagine the banter. Just imagine Twitter if the Patriots traded for Newton.
If only for that, the Patriots need to do this. Chaos is fun. The world is going to hell and we need distractions, and Cam Newton on the Patriots will give us that. Oh man, will it give us that. I don’t want to spend my offseason debating, like, if the Rams are going to get out from under some contracts or if the Jets linebacker corps will be improved this season or whatever. I need people loudly screaming about Cam Newton and Bill Belichick all summer.
The league is more fun when the Patriots are evil and good. If Tom Brady sticks around for another season tossing ducks in a nine-win season, the schadenfreude will only last so long. Eventually people will get bored, or worse — they”ll start to feel bad for New England.
No one wants that. New England doesn’t want that.
We as NFL fans need evil. We need chaotic evil. The Patriots need to trade for Cam Newton.
