The IWGP United States Heavyweight Title will be defended at the upcoming AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door pay-per-view.
This week’s Road Rager edition of AEW Dynamite saw IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay defeat AAA & ROH World Tag Team Champion Dax Harwood in singles action. Ospreay, who is also the RevPro British Heavyweight Champion and the Warrior Wrestling Champion, finished Harwood off with the Hidden Blade after a very strong back & forth bout.
After the match, United Empire members Jeff Cobb, Great-O-Khan and Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher, Mark Davis) joined Ospreay in the ring for a beatdown on Harwood. Cash Wheeler, Trent Beretta and Rocky Romero made the save as a big brawl broke out. Orange Cassidy’s music then hit to a pop as he made his return to Dynamite, facing off with Ospreay in the middle of the ring. The United Empire re-grouped at ringside as Cassidy, Trent, Romero and FTR stood tall together in the ring to end the segment.
AEW then announced Cassidy vs. Ospreay for Forbidden Door with the IWGP United States Heavyweight Title on the line.
While Cassidy made a few brief appearances on Dark and Rampage in March, April and May, he has not wrestled since suffering a shoulder injury in the Face of The Revolution Ladder Match at AEW Revolution on March 6. The injury occurred when Cassidy was launched out of the ring by Keith Lee, onto Christian Cage and FTW Champion Ricky Starks. It was reported then that Cassidy’s injury was significant, and while he did not need surgery, he would be out of the ring for a while.
This will be Ospreay’s first title defense of the IWGP United States Heavyweight Title. He won the vacant title back on June 12 at NJPW Dominion, by defeating Sanada. The title had vacated due to Juice Robinson being unable to travel to Japan for the Triple Threat title defense because he was recovering from appendicitis.
The inaugural AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door pay-per-view is scheduled for Sunday, June 26 from the United Center in Chicago, IL. Below is the current card, along with related photos and clips from Dynamite:
Interim AEW World Title Match
Jon Moxley vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
Winner faces injured AEW World Champion CM Punk at a later date.
Fatal 4 Way for the Inaugural AEW All-Atlantic Title
Miro vs. PAC vs. Malakai Black or Penta Oscuro vs. Tomoaki Honma or Clark Connors or Tomohiro Ishii or Yoshinobu Kanemaru
AEW Women’s World Title Match
Toni Storm vs. Thunder Rosa (c)
IWGP United States Heavyweight Title Match
Orange Cassidy vs. Will Ospreay (c)
Chris Jericho, Minoru Suzuki and Sammy Guevara vs. Eddie Kingston, Shota Umino and ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta
IWGP World Heavyweight Title Match
Adam Cole and/or Adam Page vs. Jay White (c)
Rumored and teased but unconfirmed.
Stay tuned to WrestlingHeadlines.com for more.
Follow Marc on Twitter at @this_is_marc. Send any news, tips or corrections to us by clicking here.