Incredible Statistic Regarding Recent AEW Match

AEW

An incredible statistic has been revealed by Dave Meltzer in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter regarding a recent AEW match at Forbidden Door 2023.

Amongst a truly stacked card the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match was surprisingly not pushed as one of the top matches from this year’s Forbidden Door, despite NJPW’s top prize being on the line.

IWGP Champion SANADA took on Jack Perry in singles action, with SANADA defeating the young challenger in relatively swift fashion, a result that came as little surprise to many.

What was a surprise though is just how swiftly SANADA dispatched Perry, with the match time clocking in at just 10 minutes 42 seconds.

According to Meltzer, the match became the shortest for the IWGP Heavyweight Title in nearly two decades, writing:

The match went 10:42, making it the shortest IWGP title match since the March 19, 2006 match at Sumo Hall where Brock Lesnar defended against Akebono, which was in many ways the total polar opposite of this match.

According to Cagematch.net, the Lesnar vs Akebono match clocked in at 10 minutes 35 seconds, making the difference extremely minuscule between the two contests.

However, as Meltzer states given the stylistic differences between Lesnar and Akebono, two massive heavyweights, and SANADA and Perry, many would be surprised to see the latter run so short.

SANADA stated in an interview prior to June 25’s event, that he had “no knowledge” of who Perry even was ahead of his match with the 25-year-old.

More than anything it seems as if the match was booked in order to fuel Perry’s heel turn which took place afterwards, as Perry attacked his former JungleHOOK tag team partner HOOK at the top of the entrance ramp.

Perry doubled down on his turn with a character revamp on this week’s Dynamite, seemingly ditching his ‘Jungle Boy’ persona for good.

An AEW star has responded to controversial comments made by Perry in his first heel promo on Dynamite, click here to read more.

Another notable occurrence from Forbidden Door was the injury sustained by Bryan Danielson during his main event match with Kazuchika Okada.

A new update has revealed the scrapped creative plans for Bryan had he not been ruled out of action, click here to find out the full details.

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• Forbidden Door
• jack perry
• SANADA
• AEW

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