Background in
Toronto, Ontario,
Canada, marking
All Elite Wrestling's first
pay-per-view (PPV)
event held outside of the United States, and
New Japan Pro-Wrestling's first traditional PPV held in Canada. In February 2021, the American
professional wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) started a partnership with the Japanese promotion,
New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). After a year of AEW and NJPW wrestlers appearing on each other's shows, the two companies co-promoted a
pay-per-view (PPV) event titled
Forbidden Door in June 2022. The event took its name from the same term often used by AEW when referring to working with other professional wrestling promotions. On March 15, 2023, a second Forbidden Door event between AEW and NJPW was scheduled to be held on June 25, 2023, at the
Scotiabank Arena in
Toronto, Ontario,
Canada, thus establishing
Forbidden Door as an annual event between the two companies. Tickets went on sale on March 24. This marked AEW's first PPV held outside of the United States and also kicked off a month-long tour of Canada for AEW, which included their weekly television programs and
house shows. Forbidden Door was also the first Canadian event co-promoted by NJPW to air on traditional PPV outlets. Prior to its acquisition by Tony Khan, sibling promotion
Ring of Honor co-promoted two
Global Wars events with NJPW in
2014 and
2015; both of which were held in Toronto and aired live on internet pay-per-view (iPPV). This event also marked the first non-
WWE pay-per-view event to be held in Toronto since November 21, 1999, when
Mayhem, produced by the former
World Championship Wrestling (WCW), took place at what was then called the Air Canada Centre.
Storylines Forbidden Door featured
professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and
storylines. On the April 26 episode of
Dynamite, AEW president
Tony Khan announced that tournament matches for the second annual
Owen Hart Cup would occur at Forbidden Door. On the June 21 episode, the brackets were revealed, with two matches to be held during the PPV:
ROH Women's World Champion Athena facing
Billie Starkz in the women's tournament during the pre-show and
CM Punk facing
Satoshi Kojima in the men's tournament, marking Punk's first appearance on an AEW PPV since
All Out, where he main evented before being involved in the legitimate backstage fight. At NJPW's
Wrestle Kingdom 17,
Kenny Omega defeated
Will Ospreay to win the
IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship. In April, NJPW announced a tournament to determine the new Number 1 contender to Omega's championship, featuring Ospreay,
Lance Archer,
Juice Robinson, and
Hiroshi Tanahashi. However, on April 16 at NJPW's
Capital Collision, Robinson was (
kayfabe) suspended from NJPW after attacking both
Fred Rosser and a referee during a match against Rosser, which ended in a
no contest. Soon after, it was announced that Rosser would replace Robinson in the tournament. On April 16 at Capital Collision, Archer defeated Rosser. On May 21 at NJPW's
Resurgence, Ospreay defeated Tanahashi to set up the tournament final, which took place on June 4 at NJPW's
Dominion 6.4 in Osaka-jo Hall, where Ospreay defeated Archer to become the number one contender for the US title. On June 6, NJPW held a press conference where the match was made official for Forbidden Door. At Dominion 6.4 in Osaka-jo Hall,
Blackpool Combat Club's (BCC)
Jon Moxley and
Claudio Castagnoli teamed with Moxley's protege
Shota Umino to face
Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and
Tomohiro Ishii for the
NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship, but failed to win the titles. The rumours were proven true on the June 14 episode of
Dynamite, where Sanada appeared via a video message issuing an open challenge for his title at the PPV. Later on the show, the offer was accepted by
"Jungle Boy" Jack Perry, who asked for his tag team partner
Hook to be in his corner for the match. Soon after, the match was made official for Forbidden Door. On the June 23 episode of
AEW Rampage, Perry defeated Sanada's
Just 5 Guys teammate Douki, using Sanada's finisher to win the match, leading to Sanada confronting Perry in the ring, after the match. On the June 14 episode of
Dynamite, NJPW's Hiroshi Tanahashi challenged
AEW World Champion MJF to a title match at Forbidden Door via a video message. The match was made official for the PPV, however, MJF claimed to have no interest in defending the belt against Tanahashi, claiming NJPW to be an inferior company, whilst also hinting no-showing the PPV. In the post-show press conference, Cassidy was asked who he would like to defend the title against in the future, which he answered by expressing the desire to face
NJPW World Television Champion Zack Sabre Jr. Meanwhile, on the June 2 episode of
Rampage, Cassidy's ally,
Katsuyori Shibata, successfully defeated
Lee Moriarty to retain his
ROH Pure Championship, although he was confronted by
Daniel Garcia, who sought a future title shot. On the June 14 episode of
Dynamite, Sabre Jr. confronted Cassidy backstage, looking to arrange a future match, however, they were interrupted by Garcia, who asked Cassidy about Shibata's whereabouts. Cassidy suggested that he and Shibata would team against Garcia and Sabre Jr. the following week, in a tag team match. On the June 14 episode of
Dynamite,
AEW Women's World Champion,
Toni Storm successfully defended her title against
Skye Blue. After the match, Storm and teammate
Ruby Soho attacked Blue, only for her to be saved by
NJPW Strong Women's Champion,
Willow Nightingale. Soon after, it was announced that Storm would defend her AEW Women's World Championship against Nightingale at Forbidden Door. On the June 21 episode of
Dynamite, it was revealed that rivals MJF and Adam Cole would team up in the Blind Eliminator Tournament in order to determine the number one contender for the
AEW World Tag Team Championship, much to both men's dismay. The match was moved to
dark match for Lawlor against
Serpentico before the pre-show. During the post-event media scrum, Tony Khan said Cole's illness appeared to be the flu. ==Event==