AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door joint PPV set for June 26

The Forbidden Door is wide open.

A joint AEW-NJPW pay-per-view is set for Sunday, June 26 at the United Center in Chicago.

The announcement of AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door was made during tonight’s AEW Dynamite episode after being hyped for the past week on AEW programming.

AEW president Tony Khan and NJPW president Takami Ohbari appeared together on Dynamite to announce the PPV on Dynamite, but were interrupted by AEW’s Adam Cole and NJPW’s Jay White. Cole and White delivered the details of the event, with Cole adding that he will face Tomohiro Ishii on this week’s AEW Rampage.

No talent or match announcements have been made for Forbidden Door, but Khan told Sports Illustrated that the PPV will feature matches with AEW talent facing off against NJPW talent.

Tickets for the show ill go on sale Friday, May 6 at 11 a.m. Eastern time. The event will air on traditional pay-per-view and on the Bleacher Report app in the United States, and on FITE TV for international customers.

The event is set to take place during what is typically a lull in NJPW’s schedule, between Dominion on June 12 and the G1 Climax tournament which typically takes place later in the summer. The June 26 date means that top NJPW talent like Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Tetsuya Naito will likely be available to work the show.

Okada, Tanahashi and Naito did not work last week’s NJPW event in Chicago. Tanahashi is advertised for NJPW dates in Washington D.C. and Philadelphia next month, while Okada is advertised only for Washington.

AEW and NJPW’s relationship got off to a rocky start under previous NJPW president Harold Meij after The Young Bucks, Hangman Page, and Cody Rhodes announced AEW’s founding in an episode of Being The Elite shot in front of the Tokyo Dome. After Meij’s departure, the relationship between the companies thawed. Numerous NJPW talents including Minoru Suzuki, Tomohiro Ishii, Yuji Nagata, KENTA, Satoshi Kojima, and Rocky Romero have since wrestled on AEW programming.

“We started working closely together last year,” Khan told Sports Illustrated. “The more we’ve collaborated, the better the relationship has become and the more trust we’ve built.