The main event of this past Sunday’s AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door event saw reigning AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland defend his title against International Champion “The Aerial Assassin” Will Ospreay, with Strickland coming out of the match as the winner.
Fightful Select reports that Ospreay was unhappy with the idea that Strickland’s World Title reign was only done as a setup for him to win at All In. It was also noted on the report that Ospreay made the decision to lose to Strickland at Forbidden Door after winning the International Championship at Double or Nothing from Roderick Strong to show that even top stars should lose to the World Champion sometimes.
People close to the International Champion told Sean Ross Sapp that Ospreay talked to AEW executives and he told them he wanted to help Swerve look good in his current title reign. Ospreay has big plans coming up this year, and he didn’t mind losing to Strickland at Forbidden Door as he wanted to show that teamwork is important for AEW’s success. Some in AEW felt Ospreay did this to prove a point, and many expected The Aerial Assassin and Stickland to face each other at All In this August. Sources say that this was never the plan, and both have different matches scheduled.
