The Forbidden Door pay-per-view will feature the AEW Tag Team Titles in a three-way elimination match. While some reports suggested this match happened after some backstage resistance, that doesn’t appear to be the case at all.
According to Fightful Select, it was noted that talks about adding a third team to the Hurt Syndicate story have been going on for about a month, so the idea of a three-team match has been discussed for some time. While Hurt Syndicate and Speedball made jokes about rumors of MVP not liking Speedball, there were never any plans for JetSpeed to defeat Hurt Syndicate.
MVP had suggested that if they were to lose, they’d rather drop the titles to GOA, Private Party, or the Outrunners. However, this shouldn’t be confused with creative control, which is a contractual clause. It was never said that they refused to lose to anyone. Since today’s match is an elimination match, if Hurt Syndicate loses the titles, they will still have to be beaten by someone.
“Regarding the Hurt Syndicate story recently, and a third team being added, it was hinted to us about a month ago that a three team match could happen, so this has been discussed for quite a while. While Hurt Syndicate and Speedball poked fun at the rumors of MVP not liking Speedball, we were never told of any plans that would have seen JetSpeed beating Hurt Syndicate. MVP had intimated that they’d prefer to lose to GOA, Private Party or Outrunners. For those that confuse this with creative control (it’s not, that’s a clause in a contract and free will), we’ve not heard that they outright rejected to lose to anyone. Today’s match is an elimination match, so they’ll have to lose to someone if they’re dropping the titles.”
This comes after Dave Meltzer claimed in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the AEW Tag Team Title match at Forbidden Door was made an elimination match with Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin vs. FTR vs. Bandido & Brody King.
Meltzer claimed that AEW wanted FTR to win the belts so they could face Adam Copeland and Christian Cage at All Out on September 20. The problem was that Lashley and Benjamin didn’t want to lose directly to FTR.
Because of this, AEW thought about two options: turning the match into a three-way so FTR could still win without pinning them, or writing an injury storyline for Benjamin to move the titles. The elimination stipulation was never said on TV, but AEW listed it that way on social media.
“Bobby Lashley & Shelton Benjamin vs. FTR vs. Bandido & Brody King in an elimination match for the AEW tag titles. So the real story is this. It was known some time back that they wanted the titles on FTR to do a program with Adam Copeland & Christian, starting on 9/20. Lashley & Benjamin weren’t up for losing to FTR. Two ideas that floated around in recent weeks were to either do a three-way to get around that and get the belts to FTR, or have Benjamin do an injury angle and FTR would get the belts that way. The elimination match aspect was not mentioned on television at all but they did list it as such in social media.”
So it’s clear that AEW had planned for the AEW Tag Team Title match to be an elimination affair for a long time and there was no truth to the Hurt Syndicate refusing to lose to FTR directly. Regardless, we’ll have to see who will walk out as the champions at Forbidden Door.
Do you think AEW made the right call in booking the elimination stipulation for the Tag Team Titles at Forbidden Door? Sound off in the comments.
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