During an appearance on the Wrestling Perspectives podcast, AEW star Matt Hardy talked about the “forbidden door” possibly being opened in WWE with Impact Wrestling’s Mickie James being part of the 2022 women’s Royal Rumble match:
“I feel like Vince [McMahon] was pushed to do this because now he has to continue to keep up with AEW and how they are unpredictable and how you never know who is going to show up. I feel if there’s no AEW, if there’s no forbidden door, Vince doesn’t do that and doesn’t bring outside talent into the Royal Rumble. It’s great for the business in general because it has pushed Vince to change. I feel most people would agree with me on this. Vince and WWE became stagnant over all those years where there was no competition and he wasn’t pushed.”
