Montreal gets the Forbidden Door treatment and the internet is losing its mind
AEW is heading to the Bell Centre for Forbidden Door 2026, and depending on which side of the Twitter glass you’re looking through, it’s either the wrestling event of the millennium or a booked disaster waiting to happen. The announcement of the card has triggered a nuclear war in the comments sections, with every self-proclaimed booker having a very specific opinion on why their favorite New Japan Pro-Wrestling star is being buried or overbooked.
The enthusiasts are loud, mostly because they’ve been waiting for a true dream match between top-tier AEW talent and the NJPW heavyweights since the last show in New York. They argue that the sheer physical toll mentioned in recent PWInsider reports on AEW Forbidden Door 2026 is exactly what the fans crave. If you want to see guys stiffing each other with strikes until someone goes down, this show is going to be your personal playground.
The skeptics are drawing lines in the sand
The skeptics, on the other hand, are absolutely convinced that the Montreal crowd is going to be a graveyard for booking. You’ve got people screaming that the reliance on cross-promotion matches is stalling the momentum of current AEW storylines. They’re tired of seeing guys win titles in foreign promotions only to disappear for six months.
One common sentiment floating around the subreddits is that the match density is problematic. If you cram six or seven marquee matches onto one card, you’re basically signaling that the undercard matches are just bathroom breaks. The concern about long-term health is also front and center. Fans are terrified that a botched transition or a poorly timed bump in the main event will end a wrestler's career three months into a push.
Why the math doesn't always work for the fans
The contrarians are the funniest group here. They don’t care about the wrestling quality; they care about the business viability of a show that requires casual viewers to have a subscription to two distinct streaming services just to understand why a guy from Tokyo is holding a chair. They’re pointing out that in the current climate, nobody has the time to watch ten hours of tape study before a pay-per-view.
My take? The skeptics have the stronger argument here. Wrestling fans are burning out. You can only demand loyalty to multiple companies for so long before the average viewer decides to just check the highlights on social media the next morning. The card looks impressive on paper, sure, but a roster that can’t sustain its own internal narrative for six consecutive weeks shouldn't be gambling on high-stakes dream matches.
The booking reality check
Let’s talk about the specific match layouts. We’re hearing noise about a potential multi-man scramble that supposedly puts 12 wrestlers in the ring at the same time. If you think that sounds like a chaotic mess, you’re not alone. The last time a major promotion tried that, it ended with a concussed performer and a lot of confused fans wondering who actually took the pin.
There’s also the nagging issue of recent history. If the booking team can’t manage a clean finish on a standard Wednesday night, what exactly gives them the confidence they can pull off a technical masterpiece without the referee looking like a total clown for 30 minutes? It isn't just about the athleticism; it’s about the logical flow of the match.
The best wrestling shows offer a balance of high-speed technical spots and genuine stakes. If the only hook for Montreal is that these guys have never wrestled each other before, that won’t carry the show for three hours. We need characters, not just a compilation of clips for a highlight reel. If the promo work in the lead-up to the June 27 event doesn’t improve, that Bell Centre crowd might be sitting on their hands for the mid-card segments.
Ultimately, Forbidden Door is a gimmick that is slowly losing its shine. When every cross-over feels like a massive deal, the spectacle is unmatched. When it happens every year with the same rotating cast of characters, it starts to feel like a procedural crime drama where you already know who dies in the first act. I’ll watch for the work rate, but I’m keeping my expectations grounded in reality.
