Swerve Strickland hands Will Ospreay first promotional loss at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door

Image: JJ Williams

AEW is still Swerve Strickland’s house after the reigning World Champion successfully defended his title against Will Ospreay at Sunday’s AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door.

The win is the first promotional loss for Ospreay since officially starting with the company earlier this year. His AEW International title was not on the line.

The end came when a severely weakened Ospreay was staggering around the ring and attempted a weak Hidden Blade but Strickland caught him. He paced the ring and then hit a House Call kick followed by his Big Pressure (JML Driver) for the pin and win.

What preceded that was a wild few minutes with a bevy of big moves and near falls galore.

Following a vicious looking Swerve stop from the top rope onto a prone Ospreay on the announcers’ table followed by a piledriver on top of the ringside barricade and a falcon arrow back inside the ring for a near fall, Ospreay rallied with a series of Os Cutters and back heel kicks. He attempted a Hidden Blade but Strickland got his forearms up to slightly block the attack. Strickland countered an Os Cutter and went for his arm snapper, but Ospreay rallied and teased a Tiger Driver ’91 only to hit a Storm Breaker for a near fall.

Strickland later countered another Tiger Driver ’91 attempt to continue the storyline of Ospreay not wanting to use it and hit his own Hidden Blade. But he missed a Swerve Stomp and Ospreay then nailed referee Paul Turner with his Hidden Blade accidentally. Strickland immediately hit a reverse rana which Ospreay then followed with a Hidden Blade to get a visual pinfall.

Don Callis then appeared and handed Ospreay a screwdriver to use on Strickland. Ospreay was reluctant and then Prince Nana confronted Callis, shoving him down. Ospreay then threatened to strike Nana with the screwdriver but thought better of it. He went back in the ring and Strickland hit a Drive-By and hit a Swerve Stomp for another close nearfall after new referee Aubrey Edwards appeared to make the count.

Strickland wasted no time and immediately pulled off his arm snapper and hit another Drive-By, but Ospreay kicked out at the last second to the surprise of the Long Island, New York, fans. Ospreay was sporting a big red mark under his right eye by this point.

That led into the aforementioned finish, giving Strickland his fourth successful title defense in his two-plus month run as World Champion.

Ospreay now moves on to defend the International title this Wednesday against Daniel Garcia on Dynamite while Strickland awaits his next challenger and program which is assumed to be against the winner of the Owen Hart Foundation tournament which wraps up in a few weeks. Both Garcia and MJF were shown watching the match at different spots.

Ospreay honored Hayabusa with his ring entrance, donning a mask on the way to the ring in addition to wearing a sash and hand wrap during the bout. Strickland also had different gear on that resembled boxing trunks as opposed to wrestling trunks.