AEW: Forbidden Door 2 Date, More on MJF Promo on Dynamite, Swerve Strickland on Creative Freedom

Feb 23, 2023

AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2 Scheduled for This June

The currently unannounced next Forbidden Door co-promoted event by AEW and New Japan Pro Wrestling is currently expected to take place this June.

Cable television provider Spectrum Cable recently updated their pay-per-view schedule for this year which currently lists AEW and NJPW holding their second Forbidden Door event on June 24th. This event was also listed to be priced at $49.99 for purchase.

Spectrum cable lists AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2 for June 24, 2023. pic.twitter.com/owzYSRVjll
— Wrestling News (@WrestlingNewsCo) February 23, 2023

This would be the second Forbidden Door event to be held, following last year’s inaugural event which took place on June 26, 2022.

More on MJF Promo Segment on Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite Show

Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show in Phoenix, Arizona featured a promo segment between Bryan Danielson and MJF as part of the build for the AEW World Championship Iron Man match at next month’s AEW Revolution 2023 event. During the segment, MJF taunted and berated Danielson claiming that he knows who Danielson really is and who MJF really is. MJF also mentioned that he has been absconded by all of those he had once considered to be his friends, including his girlfriend.

Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp reported on Twitter that MJF’s line about his girlfriend recently leaving him is actually true and not as part of a lie that most of MJF’s promo stories usually contain.

The MJF promo had a lot of truth to it. Normally wouldn't cover that type of thing, but he and his fiancee did have a split as was referenced on tonight's AEW Dynamite
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) February 23, 2023

Swerve Strickland on Creative Freedom Given to Him by Triple H & Tony Khan

A recent episode of Fightful’s The Wrestling Perspective Podcast featured Swerve Strickland as the guest. One of the topics discussed included his thoughts on if there is a difference in the level of creative freedom given to him in AEW compared to his time in WWE’s NXT brand under Paul “Triple H” Levesque.

“No, there’s still a lot of creative freedom, because nobody could talk like us, nobody could write our material, so they kind of gave us like guidelines. When we kind of put our own little spin on it. However, the time would fit even doing small short promos with the New Day. We just came up with that right then and there, or doing something with Sami Zayn. We just came up with it with those guys there.
What I figured out is that I was trying to create something that nobody else can tell you how to do it. Because it’s your’s and that’s where if you’re confident with it, people believe in it. That’s where a lot of my confidence came from. I know this will work, I believe in it because I am the one that can pull this off. I’m the only one who knows and sees three steps ahead how this can form and flow into what the culmination will be.
What I figured out is that I was trying to create something that nobody else can tell you how to do it. Because it’s your’s and that’s where if you’re confident with it, people believe in it. That’s where a lot of my confidence came from. I know this will work, I believe in it because I’m the one that can pull this off. I’m the only one who knows and sees three steps ahead how this can form and flow into what the culmination will be.”

Strickland also gave his thoughts about how his confidence in his own career in WWE helped led to Levesque’s own confidence towards him.

“So you can’t take this and put it with them, you can take this and put it with her, and I have to do it. I’m confident, I know I can do it, and being able to stand up to Triple H and say, “I know I can do this, I need you to believe in me.” You can’t help but be confident in yourself, and I think he and I knew he felt that, and therefore he put it out there for me. He just was like, “alright go, because you believe in it, I believe in it.” Now, Tony Khan is the same way with all of 2022, like even me taking pliers to Billy Gunn’s hands. I believe in this, and then he believed in me. He believed this would work, even bringing Kevin Gates and Rick Ross, all these things they do work. Because I believed in it and I have to be confident with it.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com