Forbidden Door: ZSJ vs Mystery Opponent could steal the show

The much anticipated AEW x NJPW event, Forbidden Door,  is taking place on Sunday, June 26. To kick things off, there is a big eight-man match featuring The Gunn Club and Max Caster vs. NJPW’s LA Dojo (Yuya Uemura, The DKC, Kevin Knight, and Alex Coughlin). The main card features nine matches.

It would be easy to pick Jay White vs. Kazuchika Okada vs. Hangman Adam Page vs. Adam Cole for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship or Jon Moxley vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the AEW World Championship as the match that steals the show.

Even without knowing who Zack Sabre, Jr.’s opponent is, picking this match makes sense. ZSJ is one of the best technical wrestlers in the world. He had hoped to prove that he was even better than Bryan Danielson. After NJPW Dominion, ZSJ said that Danielson was busy playing golf with the Blackpool Country Club.

On AEW Rampage, William Regal addressed those comments, but a match wasn’t made. This raised concerns about Danielson’s health. Dynamite opened with Danielson talking to the fans. He announced the bad news first; he is off the card for both Forbidden Door and Blood and Guts. However, he will return in the future (no time table was given).

Danielson handpicks his replacement

In light of not being able to compete, Danielson handpicked his replacement. The “American Dragon” wouldn’t reveal this person to fans or to Sabre. He promised something “amazing”. Danielson said he “found someone I trust to take my place at Forbidden Door, the one person I trust to take my place at Blood and Guts, the one person I know in the entire world who will take it to Zack Sabre, Jr. from a technical level and then go and kick Chris Jericho’s head in at Blood and Guts. I have found that one person and you’re all going to be astounded by what he does in AEW.”

One person who fits the description of taking it to ZSJ on a “technical level” is the Ring of Honor World Champion, Jonathan Gresham. The last sentence suggests someone new to AEW.

Johnny Gargano was one that many fans guessed. He will be in Chicago this weekend, after all. However, he seems to have squashed that by tweeting the card show he’s scheduled to be at has been planned for months. He pointed out that he knows “only like 5% of you are going to believe that I’m actually telling the truth.”

One of the hints may lie in a statement where he said Eddie Kingston called him a “judgmental p—k.” Clauido Castagnoli (fka Cesaro) is a wrestler that many fans have wanted to come to AEW since his WWE contract expired. He and Danielson go way back to their time in CHIKARA as Team Uppercut with David Taylor. Kingston and Castagnoli have a lot of history and a long-term rivalry from their CHIKARA days. There have been stories for years that the two legitimately do not like each other. Thus, Danielson specifically mentioning the “Mad King” seems to point to the “Swiss Superman.”

Any one of these men would put on an incredible match with the “Dangerous Tekker”. ZSJ being in the ring with any of them is bound to not only be show stealer, but potentially a Match of the Year candidate. Even if it’s not one of these three men, ZSJ will excel and bring whomever it is to his level to wrestle his match.

Find out who his opponent is this Sunday at 8 PM ET. Stay tuned to Daily DDT for the latest on all things Forbidden Door.