Not having IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Jay White on the Forbidden Door card would be pretty strange, but just four days out from the joint AEW/NJPW event, that was the case. Fortunately, the June 22 episode of AEW Dynamite looks set to rectify that situation.
Two of AEW’s press releases this week have promoted the idea that White would defend his title against a “TBD” opponent. Tony Khan confirmed that this week’s Dynamite would hold the answer during his appearance today on SiriusXM’s Busted Open Radio (h/t to Fightful for the transcription).
It’s going to start the IWGP Champion Jay White coming in tonight and we’re going to find out who he is going to wrestle. We’re going to announce more matches tonight on Dynamite for this big event. … Some of the top stars in new Japan have not been here yet. Tonight on Dynamite, you will see more wrestlers and more involvement from New Japan than we’ve seen so far.
White has been part of the build toward Forbidden Door from the start, crashing the official announcement of the event on the April 20 episode of Dynamite. More recently, he addressed challenges to a match from both Hangman Adam Page and Adam Cole after defeating Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship at Dominion, but appeared to turn both of them down. A popular theory is that White may face both of the AEW Adams in a three-way dance, or a four-way with another NJPW challenger in the mix as well.
Having White and NJPW’s top title on the show is even more important given that AEW’s top champion, CM Punk, is missing the event due to injury. Instead, Jon Moxley and Hiroshi Tanahashi will square off for the Interim AEW World Championship, with the victor expected to face Punk somewhere down the road.
As for other matches, a showdown between Bryan Danielson and Zack Sabre Jr. to determine who is the better technical wrestler has been heavily hinted at, but may have been waiting until Danielson’s health status was cleared up as he’s also been battling injuries. A few more bouts would also be welcome since the card as of June 21 had just six matches.
However many matches it ends up with, Forbidden Door is set for the United Center in Chicago this Sunday, live on PPV.