After a hectic 30-minute war inside a cage, Mark Briscoe earned himself a shot at the AEW World Championship.
Team Briscoe prevailed in a six-on-six cage match on Sunday night, a wild co-main event for Forbidden Door. Per the stipulations of the match, a win for Team Briscoe means the ROH vet now has a future title opportunity against MJF.
The closing moments of the match included a huge reveal, as Andrade El Idolo sabotaged MJF’s team and seemingly left the Don Callis Family.
MJF, who had been at odds with an often overlooked Andrade in the build to the cage match, insisted in the closing minutes of the bout that he would help him with the finishing sequence.
Per MJF’s orders, Andrade held up Briscoe, helping the champ strike him in the head with the Dynamite Diamond Ring. But, as MJF was about to land the shot, Andrade intentionally threw Briscoe out of the way and instead dropped the champ with a spinning back elbow. Andrade then revealed a shirt which said: “F*** Don [Callis] F*** MJF.”
The exchange led to Team Briscoe earning the pinfall victory.
The cage match was full of plunder and interesting moments.
Weapons involved in the match included O’Reilly’s Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Allin’s skateboard, Briscoe’s thumbtacks, MJF’s broomstick, and a ziplock bag of orange slices from Cassidy (packed by Willow Nightingale).
A hockey bag brought into the match by The Conglomeration was later revealed to have “Blackheart” Lio Rush in it. Rush went after Team DCMJF, but was eventually forced back into the hockey bag by the squad.
Knight scaled the cage late in the bout, but a booby-trapped bag from Allin he grabbed exploded, causing him to fall and go crashing through four tables set up at ringside. Allin, who followed Knight to the top of the cage, delivered a gigantic Coffin Drop to a group of wrestlers at ringside.
MJF enlisted help from the Don Callis Family on Sunday night. The AEW World Champion fought alongside Andrade El Idolo, Jake Doyle, Kazuchika Okada, Kevin Knight, and Kyle Fletcher.
Briscoe leaned on support from his Conglomeration friends, including Kyle O’Reilly, Orange Cassidy, and Roderick Strong. Also pitching in for help were former world champ Darby Allin, as well as Konosuke Takeshita, who was recently ousted from the Don Callis Family.
The six-on-six cage match was made to determine whether Briscoe would get his long-awaited title opportunity against MJF. Shortly after the win on Sunday, Briscoe said in a backstage promo that he plans to cash in his championship opportunity against MJF on this Wednesday’s Dynamite.
Sunday marked the second consecutive year that a multi-man cage match took place as part of Forbidden Door. Last year, a “Lights Out” steel cage match saw Allin, the Golden Lovers, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Will Ospreay take on the Death Riders and Young Bucks.
AEW debuted a new circular cage for Sunday’s match. The roofless cage’s dimensions allowed for more room at ringside to brawl, similar to what WWE’s Hell in a Cell setup permits.
