After much hype and even more speculation, the reveals of the “forbidden door” took place on last night’s edition of Dynamite, which proved to be an episode that could be an indication of the direction of the promotion ahead of next month’s pay-per-view. However, it also makes you wonder was the promotional push from Tony Khan a wise strategy and more specifically, did it live up to the hype?
First, I don’t want to be too negative about what was a very good episode of Dynamite, but the fact that Tony Khan announced a “surprise” ahead of time more or less takes the actual element of surprise out of the equation. Granted, everyone enjoys a good surprise in pro wrestling, but again those moments aren’t usually advertised prior to the show. That being said, I have to be honest, I really don’t agree with this promotional tactic because regardless of what materializes, there’s almost always unrealistic expectations from the fans or sometimes the organization overestimates its acquisition. How many times did TNA promote something that was supposed to “change the wrestling world” during its existence? Granted, Tony Khan is a promoter so by definition he wants to “sell” his show to the audience, but sometimes it’s better for the audience to be pleasantly surprised instead of mildly content.
Perhaps, the biggest takeaway from all of this is that the term “forbidden door” is completely overused in pro wrestling and has become this era’s “this is awesome” chant. Just because it was really cool when Hiroshi Tanahashi said it a few years ago that doesn’t mean that every yokel with a Twitter account has to mangle it’s definition. In truth, the “forbidden door” hasn’t existed since All Elite and New Japan started working together during the pandemic. Kenta, Minoru Suzuki, Ishii, Yuji Nagata, and others have appeared for AEW so is it necessarily a major political jump if someone from the Japanese league shows up on TBS?
Interestingly, after Dynamite went off the air, Tony Khan tweeted that he made a blunder with his definition of forbidden door last week and didn’t get confirmation on Jay White’s appearance until just a few days ago. This can be looked at one of two ways, either Khan wants to be as transparent with the fans as possible, which is a good PR move or it reveals that he didn’t have all of his ducks in a row for a national television product. I’m not sure either perspective is overly positive because best case scenario, he accidentally misrepresented his product or looked for anyone associated with New Japan to get the situation covered. If Jay White was only confirmed a few days ago, are the fans supposed to believe there are big plans for him in AEW?
I didn’t secure @JayWhiteNZ until Sunday. I realized after the fact that Friday night I butchered my own definition of Forbidden Door in hyping tonight. I heard the fans’ feedback, & wanted to ensure that tonight was a special #AEWDynamite for all. Thank you everyone who watched!
— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) February 10, 2022
Speaking of Jay White, an an athlete and an in-ring performer, he’s a top-notch talent that will theoretically be a major addition for the organization, but as with everything else, it depends of how White is utilized under the All Elite banner. His involvement on the show was rather minimal with a cameo backstage so it’s very possible this is only for a one-off match instead of an actual stint in the company. Again, if White was only signed to cover for the “forbidden door” tweet, how much does his involvement translate to in the grand scheme of things? If all the hype for the forbidden door only yields a six man tag on Dynamite, was it worth it? I’m not trying to be too harsh, but throwing around buzz words just to get fans to take notice on Twitter has to lead to more than essentially a guest spot on TBS or it becomes much more difficult to build buzz in the future.
The other side of the coin is that if Jay White is even a semi-regular on the All Elite roster, they just landed a major player with main event potential for the promotion. Jay White could have several potentially great bouts on pay-per-view with some of the talent already signed to AEW, and as we’ve discussed before, selling a traditional pay-per-view in the modern era is much more difficult so quality bouts are important for those events. The bottom line is, Jay White, assuming there aren’t conflicts with the New Japan schedule, brings a lot more depth to the AEW roster.
The other reveal was for the qualifying match for the ladder match at Revolution and it was Keith Lee. I have to say, strictly based on the hype, this one was somewhat of a letdown, which wasn’t a reflection on Lee’s ability as an athlete, but rather his current standing among the sports entertainment landscape. Granted, the big man that can fly isn’t nearly as unique now as it was years ago, but Keith Lee is still a very good performer that undoubtedly deserved better than the mostly dismal run he had toward the conclusion of his WWE tenure. As I wrote when he was released, WWE brass never truly knew what to do with Keith Lee and he didn’t have much of a chance on the main roster. Lee had a successful two-year stint in NXT, but as we know, most of that is disregarded when a talent is moved to the main roster. As far as the biggest exposure of his career on the main roster, he only had a few months on Raw before COVID contributed to some serious health problems that put him on the shelf for several months. When he returned, he competed for a relatively brief run as “Bear Cat” Lee, which saw the office present him as a generic big man instead of the agile athlete that he is in the ring. The gimmick flopped and he was released in November.
Again, don’t get me wrong, Keith Lee is a very good talent, but he spent the vast majority of the past year either completely off television or with an underwhelming gimmick so currently, the signing of Keith Lee just doesn’t have the amount of star power that would usually be associated with the type of hype that Tony Khan announced on social media. Instead of a major signing, the debut of Keith Lee seems to be more of a debut with a lot of potential, which isn’t necessarily the same thing because Lee doesn’t have much momentum since he was on the sidelines for an extended period of time.
Overall, I don’t think the cameo of Jay White or the signing of Keith Lee are anything earth-shattering, which isn’t meant as a jab at Tony Khan, but rather to point out that an announcement of a surprise isn’t always the best promotional tool. Jay White could be a major asset for AEW, but as far as a the signing itself, he’s a niche talent for American fans, especially for a show on TBS. Similar to that, Keith Lee has the potential to have a very good run in All Elite, but the majority of the television audience had only previously saw him as an undistinguished mid-carder on Raw. The problem with all of this is that the speculation based on the announcement had names like Jeff Hardy and Bray Wyatt mentioned, which are two much bigger stars than White or Lee.
Keep in mind, it’s better to allow for the actual surprise than to announce it in advance because it’s better for the audience to be pleasantly surprised than mildly content.
Finally, the main event was tremendous and it was exactly what was needed to really cement Adam Page as AEW world champion. In the promo last week, Page mentioned he was the champion for nearly three months, but had only defended the title twice, which doesn’t add to his credibility as the blue collar champion. On the flip side, the fact that Page was willing to bleed buckets to defend the belt establishes him as a fighting champion, which was really the missing piece of the puzzle for his run as champion.
What do you think? Comment below with your thoughts, opinions, feedback and anything else that was raised.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
E mail [email protected] | You can follow me on Twitter @jimlamotta
