FTR take home two titles in winner take all three way
Forbidden Door’s Winner Take All ROH & IWGP Tag Team Championship Match saw ROH Champions FTR took on both the IWGP Champions Jeff Cobb & Great-O-Khan and the reunited Roppongi Vice, Rocky Romero & Trent Beretta. Beretta and Harwood faced off as the bell rang in an evenly matched display of holds and takedowns. Immediately demonstrating the dangers of this three-way tag match, Cobb made a blind tag on Beretta’s back to become the legal man. Romero, the king of sneaky style, returned the favor, tagging himself in on Cobb’s back, only to be taken down by Harwood. FTR worked like a well-oiled machine as they isolated Romero with a series of quick tags. It seemed like it might be a quick match for the experienced tag team until Harwood injured his shoulder when he hit an elbow drop on the downed Romero. Harwood had to exit ringside to be attended to by doctors, leaving Wheeler to fend for himself.
Smelling blood in the water and a chance to not only retain their IWGP Championship but also add the ROH Championship to their accolades, the United Empire went in for the kill. They isolated Wheeler, working him over on the outside before tossing him back into the ring for a cover by the legal O-Khan. Wheeler was able to kick out but knew he must make a tag to give himself time to recover or risk losing everything. With Harwood still absent from ringside, Wheeler was forced to make the tag to Beretta on the opposing team. Coming in hot, Beretta hit a swinging DDT out of the corner that flung O-Khan from the ring. Cobb rushed in illegally to intervein and was able to counter Beretta’s second DDT attempt. Cobb beat down Beretta until the wild action spilled onto the floor.
Once the action found the ring again, Romero and Beretta showcased flashes of vintage Roppongi Vice action when they isolated the legal O-Khan. It seemed like they had the match in the bag, but after O-Khan managed to stay alive despite their teamwork, Wheeler was able to get the tag on Romero and tried to earn the victory for his team. Cobb and O-Khan quickly regained control of the match and just when it looked like Wheeler’s efforts were going to be in vain, Harwood reemerged from the back to an uproar of cheers from the crowd. His shoulder was bandaged, but his heart was ready to fight. When a foggy Cobb found himself on the top turnbuckle, he tried to fight off Harwood’s superplex attempt, but Beretta capitalized on the chance to take out the fierce competitor and jumped in for the assist. Stealing a page out of Romero’s sneaky style playbook, Wheeler tagged himself in and tried to earn the win with a quick splash on the downed Cobb, but the big man somehow managed to kick out.
The three teams battled, each making quick tags until Romero and Cobb found themselves the legal men in the ring. Baretta jumped in and hit the Strong Zero with Romero and the crowd counted to three, sure that was a Roppongi Vice victory. A diving Wheeler halted the referee’s count to break up the pin just in time. Harwood tagged himself in for the stunned Cobb and after Romero tried to employ more sneaky style tactics with some quick rollups, Harwood and Wheeler caught him with the Big Rig for the win, capturing both the ROH and IWGP World Tag Team Championships.
