ROH: NJPW wrestlers invade ROH after Forbidden Door

With talent coming over from NJPW for Forbidden Door II, it opened the door to ROH. They invaded Dynamite, Rampage, and Collision, so they might as well invade ROH while they’re at it.

Last year, Shingo Takagi formed Dudes With Attitudes with Sting and Darby Allin. Hiromu Takahashi was supposed to be on the card, but was sick prior to traveling.

On the Forbidden Door II pre-show, Zero Hour, BUSHI joined Takagi and Takahashi faced members of United Empire (Jeff Cobb, TJP, and Kyle Fletcher). This was technically an all New Japan match since both factions are huge NJPW factions. LIJ was victorious.

On ROH, the three members of Los Ingobernobles de Japon faced The Embassy (Brian Cage and Gates of Agony) for their ROH Six-Man Tag Team Championships. Both Takagi and Takahashi took out Gates of Agony throughout the match. There was an insane feat of strength from Cage when he had Takagi and Takahashi simultaneously.

BUSHI used his black mist, but it wasn’t enough to defeat the champions.

El Desperado faced Willie Mack in a match I didn’t know I wanted until it was announced. Mack has been an ROH mainstay and always has great matches. This one was no different. Mack is very agile and kept up with Despe’s speed. Mack tossed his opponent in the air and connected with a forearm on the way down. A relentless El Desperado picked up the win ahead of his Final Death match against Jon Moxley next week in Japan.

ROH fans had to suffer through a House of Torture match when two-thirds of the faction (Yujiro Takahashi and SHO) faced Roppongi Vice. Rocky Romero and Trent Beretta are very much still on the same page although they don’t team up very often these days. The story of this match was teacher (Romero) versus former student (SHO).

SHO couldn’t overcome his teacher and after the match continued to beat him up. This didn’t sit well with Orange Cassidy, who came to the ring to make the save and pose with his friends.

United Empire is one of NJPW’s strongest faction and they were ready for Christopher Daniels, Action Andretti, and Darius Martin. Andretti and Martin have become a formidable team in ROH as of late. The ROH team was easily able to keep up with United Empire and seemed to surprise them with how well they meshed. Daniels is not who usually joins them, but his veteran presence guided them to a victory.

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It’s always fun when NJPW wrestlers can mix it up with AEW and ROH talent. Getting to see fresh matchups freshens up the weekly show.