Midcarders, according to the esteemed and definitely-not-biased Dave Meltzer, who we can always trust to tell us what’s good and what’s bad, early estimates suggest that Forbidden Door is on pace to be AEW’s lowest-selling pay-per-view of 2026. Final numbers aren’t in yet, but the preliminary figures have it trailing every other AEW PPV this year.

Uncle Dave believes the biggest issue was the lack of an AEW World Championship match. Instead of defending the title, MJF worked a 12-man tag to build toward a future title program. Previous Forbidden Door events also featured an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match, which was also absent this year.

Personally, I think we can all agree it’s much bigger than that.

Forbidden Door has always been a show aimed at the hardcore audience, but that audience is shrinking and already watches AEW every week. The crossover novelty isn’t there like it was in 2022. On top of that, AEW has damaged NJPW and several of its partner promotions to the point that they now feel more like feeder promotions than equal partners, with many of them struggling in their own markets.

What do you think was the biggest reason, r/midcarder?

AEW Forbidden Door may have done the lowest PPV buys of the year. Why do you think it underperformed?