The AEW World Trios Championships aren’t going anywhere.
The Opps (Samoa Joe, Katsuyori Shibata and Powerhouse Hobbs) retained the promotion’s trios titles on Sunday night, overcoming Bullet Club War Dogs members Clark Connors, Drilla Moloney, and Robbie X.
The matchup closed out the “Zero Hour” pre-show portion of AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door at The O2 in London, England.
A 10-minute sprint-paced tag match saw the War Dogs near a finish at points, but never achieved a win over the defending champs. As Shibata applied a sleeper to Connors and Hobbs put away Moloney with a series of ground and pound shots, Joe gave Robbie X a Muscle Buster to win the match via pinfall.
The Opps have held the AEW World Trios Championships since April, when they dethroned the Death Riders. They have since defended the titles twice, previously also prevailing at All In: Texas last month.
Here are the results from three other Zero Hour matchups:
Megan Bayne won alongside The Triangle of Madness (Thekla, Skye Blue and Julia Hart) against Willow Nightingale, Kris Statlander, Queen Aminata and Harley Cameron. After Statlander inadvertently struck Nightingale, further stirring troubles between the former friends, Bayne scored a Liger Bomb onto Cameron for the pinfall victory.
RevPro stand-out Michael Oku was the main spotlight of a six-man tag match, where he lost alongside Kevin Knight and Mike Bailey against Ricochet and the Gates of Agony. After taking a few nasty bumps, including a pounce to the outside of the ring, which caused him to land on the top of his head, Oku started to inch towards putting away Ricochet.
But a referee distraction allowed Ricochet to escape a half crab by gouging Oku’s eyes. This allowed the Gates of Agony to land their Open The Gates double-team chokeslam onto Oku, then set up for a Sprit Gun from Ricochet for a finish in just under 10 minutes.
The opening contest of the night saw NJPW’s Yuya Uemura and El Desperado team with Paragon’s Kyle O’Reilly and Roderick Strong to overcome Action Andretti, Lio Rush, Hechicero, and Josh Alexander. The fast-paced tag came to an end after Uemura scored a Deadbolt suplex to Rush, earning him a pinfall win in 12 minutes.
Salty due to their loss, the Don Callis Family initiated a post-match brawl. This led to a run-in from Tomohiro Ishii, who came into the ring and delivered a suplex to Lance Archer. Ishii notably got the cold shoulder from Strong, who he has previously worked alongside in The Conglomeration.
In a backstage segment, The Young Bucks told an AEW production staffer to find the most dangerous weapons around the city of London and put them into a bag for their Lights Out Steel Cage match tonight.
Zero Hour results
- Yuya Uemura, El Desperado, Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong def. Action Andretti, Lio Rush, Hechicero & Josh Alexander (12:13)
- Ricochet, Bishop Kaun & Toa Liona def. Michael Oku, Mike Bailey & Kevin Knight (9:56)
- Megan Bayne, Julia Hart, Skye Blue & Thekla def. Harley Cameron, Kris Statlander, Queen Aminata & Willow Nightingale (11:15)
- Samoa Joe, Katsuyori Shibata & Powerhouse Hobbs def. Clark Connors, Drilla Moloney & Robbie X (AEW World Trios Championships) (10:00)
Forbidden Door Main Card results
- Adam Copeland & Christian Cage def. Killswitch & Kip Sabian (13:46)
- Kyle Fletcher def. Hiromu Takahashi (TNT Championship) (15:27)
- Mercedes Moné def. Persephone, Alex Windsor & Bozilla (TBS Championship) (Four-Way) (15:30)
- Zack Sabre Jr. def. Nigel McGuinness (IWGP World Heavyweight Championship) (17:00)
- Bandido & Brody King def. Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood, Bobby Lashley & Shelton Benjamin (AEW World Tag Team Championships) (Three-Way) (16:04)
- Kazuchika Okada def. Swerve Strickland (AEW Unified Championship) (16:38)
- Toni Storm def. Athena (AEW Women’s World Championship) (15:15)
- Hangman Adam Page def. MJF (AEW World Championship) (31:38)
- Hiroshi Tanahashi, Will Ospreay, Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi & Darby Allin def. Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Gabe Kidd, Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson (Lights Out Steel Cage Match) (32:26)
