AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door is trending to be AEW’s lowest-performing pay-per-view of 2026 in terms of buys, per Dave Meltzer in the July 6 Wrestling Observer Newsletter. HBO Max numbers are described as comparable to Dynasty, which did around 145,000 buys, suggesting Forbidden Door could land slightly below that figure.
Meltzer identified the absence of an AEW World Championship match as the primary reason. “My gut is the lack of an AEW world title match is the main culprit as MJF would have meant more in a main event title match. It felt on paper like a super show, but didn’t have the world title match which most AEW shows are sold based on,” he wrote. He also noted that previous Forbidden Door events always featured an IWGP Championship match, which this year’s show lacked.
Meltzer contextualized the numbers by noting that 2026 has been a strong year for AEW overall, making the lower figure “less bad than it might sound.”