AEW will have to drop the Mexican stars again at ‘Forbidden Door II’

– Dave Meltzer reports in the latest issue of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Tony Khan may have to ditch his Mexicans for the AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door II PPV. It is currently thought that Bandido, Rush, Commander, El Hijo del Vikingo, Penta El Zero Mido, Ray Fenix, Andrade and Dralistico will not be allowed to appear on the show. This is due to a collaboration between New Japan Pro Wrestling and the Mexican promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. For example, CMLL prohibits its own stars from appearing on shows where AAA wrestlers are on the card. The wrestlers mentioned above are also considered AAA stars, and accordingly New Japan is loyal to CMLL and does not use AAA stars in their own shows. That’s why AEW had to do without some Mexicans in the first edition of “Forbidden Door” last year.

– Adam Cole & Britt Baker vs. Another announcement from Tony Khan regarding the Chris Jericho & Saraya match, a promo by Don Callis & Konosuke Takeshita and the introduction of AEW Collision is confirmed for today’s AEW Dynamite. Below is the current order:

All Elite Wrestling “Dynamite #191”
Venue: Viejas Arena in San Diego, California, USA
Date: May 31, 2023

Mixed Tag Team Match
Adam Cole & Britt Baker vs. Chris Jericho & Saraya

Also announced for the show:
* Dan Callis & Konosuke Takeshita commentate against The Elite.
* Tony Khan with another announcement about the introduction of “AEW Clash”.

– The 17 May 2023 edition of AEW Dynamite premiered in the UK on 19 May 2023 (from 9pm UK time) on ITV4, watched by 105,000 viewers. Compared to the previous week (108,000 viewers from 9 p.m.), the number of viewers decreased slightly.

On TSN3 in Canada, the same “Dynamite” edition on May 17, 2023 drew only 50,000 viewers, 31,000 of whom were in the key Canadian target group P25-54 (90,000 viewers the previous week, including 57,000 in P25-54). However, the show also ran against a Toronto Blue Jays game in the NHL playoffs (1.152 million viewers).

By comparison: The May 15, 2023 edition of “RAW” was seen by 243,100 viewers in Canada, including 112,100 in Canada’s core audience P25-54. The May 16 edition of NXT was watched by 41,000 viewers, including 13,000 in the Canadian core audience P25-54. On May 19, 2023, “SmackDown” was tuned in by 120,000 viewers, including 42,000 in P25-54.

– The “DMAX Wrestling DE” channel has meanwhile made last week’s edition of “AEW Rampage #94” available on YouTube. So, if you haven’t had a chance to watch the show yet, you can watch it for free here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwZTdcf1mgg

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