Will Ospreay‘s Forbidden Door opponent looks to have been set on AEW Rampage. In the main event of the show, Will Ospreay tagged with his United Empire teammates Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davies) against the AEW trio of FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) and Best Friends star Trent Barretta.
In a shocking twist, Ospreay was defeated in his AEW debut. His team went down in defeat as Trent Barretta hit Kyle Fletcher with a Strong Zero piledriver and pinned him for the victory.
This result came as a huge shock. While FTR are the top tag team in AEW, Trent Barretta hasn’t had any big wins in AEW in the last few months and has been a “jobber to the stars” of sorts. He has recent singles losses to names like Adam Cole, Jay White and Samoa Joe without picking up many wins on TV at all.
With this victory on Rampage, Will Ospreay’s opponent for Forbidden Door looks to be Trent Barretta, with the pair likely to battle at the PPV on June 26th 2022. Trent was previously in NJPW as a part of the CHAOS faction (which Ospreay was a part of before defecting to launch United Empire as the leader).
Will Ospreay vs Trent Barretta
Will Ospreay looks to be facing Trent Barretta at Forbidden Door, in a match that is rather anticlimactic to some of the theorised matches for the Aerial Assassin. NJPW and AEW fans wanted him to face a top star in AEW, with names like Jon Moxley, CM Punk and a returning Kenny Omega all being teased by Ospreay himself.
However, this match could be a chance for Trent to prove himself. It’s clear that Tony Khan sees him as a potential top star and this could be the way for him to solidify himself as such with a great performance, even in defeat.
There is no chance that Trent beats his opponent at Forbidden Door, but if he takes Will Ospreay as far as he can and impresses then he will get many fans on his side. I see a potential TNT Championship, or move to ROH to win the ROH Championship, some time in his future if he can capitalise on his push.
Best Friends future
One thing missing from this whole Trent Barretta push is his long time partner and Best Friend, Chuck Taylor. Taylor has not been seen in weeks on AEW Dynamite and with Trent busy at Forbidden Door he seems ruled out of that show aswell.
In recent weeks, Barrett has teamed with former partner Rocky Romero as the pair have rekindle the classic NJPW tag team Roppongi Vice. This has left Taylor in a lurch and left him with little to do, with Kris Statlander and Wheeler Yuta leaving the Best Friends and Orange Cassidy being out injured.
This has led fans to worry about Chuck Taylor leaving AEW in the near future. This would be a big loss and one of the first big AEW originals after Cody Rhodes to leave the company.
Hopefully he is just dealing with a knock and will be back to team with his best friend soon and finally win the AEW Tag Team Championships they seemed destined to win during the pandemic era of wrestling.