Swerve Strickland Retains AEW World Championship Against Will Ospreay at Forbidden Door

It's still Swerve's House.

The main event of AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door saw the clash of two titans in AEW that are both currently champions. Will Ospreay and Swerve Strickland has been a match for the ages since Ospreay signed with AEW earlier this year. The two have faced off against one another a few times in their careers, but it's hard to argue that they're both at their peak currently. With Ospreay holding the International Championship, it laid the groundwork for the first AEW World Champion and International Champion simultaneously if one of them dethroned the other. Fortunately, the reign of Swerve isn't over just yet.

The match produced several moments that would make it a match of the year contender, including Ospreay giving the champion a hurricanrana off the barricade. Ospreay hits the Styles Clash but it's not enough to put away Swerve who hits him with a Swerve Stomp. Again, not enough. They go back and forth with several near falls until Swerve hits the Swerve Stomp onto the announce desk.

As the match progresses, Don Callis attempts to get Ospreay to use dirty tactics to put him away. Much like the Kenny Omega match, he hands Ospreay a screwdriver but Ospreay refuses to use it. Swerve uses the distraction to hit another Swerve Stomp which Ospreay kicks out of! Swerve lands the House Call followed by a JML Driver for the win to retain the AEW World Championship.

Swerve is now on the road to AEW All In London where, if he remains champion, he will face the winner of the Owen Hart Cup Tournament in a world title match. Bryan Danielson advanced earlier in the night where he will go on to face PAC on AEW Dynamite. The other side of the bracket includes Jay White and Rey Fenix as well as Jeff Jarrett and the Wild Card, presumed to be Hangman Adam Page. Hangman makes the most sense given their historic blood feud and a new vignette focusing so much on Swerve, but there's a case to be made for Jay White and Danielson as well. Additionally, during the match, MJF was watching from backstage so it would appear that their storyline is going to be revisited sooner than later now that he's back in AEW.

Stay tuned to Comicbook for updates on AEW.