A special Championship Friday edition of AEW Rampage on June 2 would see three title bouts with NJPW involvement, the Forbidden Door season kicking off in force.

The first of the New span triple header would see Zack Sabre Jr defending the NJPW World TV Championship for the second time in just over 24 hours against Action Andretti. Sabre was quick to bring the bout to the canvas, and though his challenger kept up on the May to an extent, Sabre’s mastery was certainly evident.

Fighting his way out of a front chancerie, Andretti landed a suplex and started to build some acrobatic offense. A top rope Frankensteiner got two for the challenger, who showed his strength as he muscled Sabre up for a Torture Rack, before a shotgun dropkick and split legged Moonsault got another two. As Andretti set for a springboard though, he was caught in Clarky Cat and forced to verbally submit.

NJPW STRONG Women’s Champion Willow Nightingale put her title on the line for the first time against veteran challenger Emi Sakura. Sakura started the match trying to bring the larger Nightingale to the canvas, but would be dropped by the champion instead. After early control, Willow got ambitious in trying to suplex Sakura over the ropes to the floor, but instead was met with a low cross body to the outside, Sakura following with a second charge into the guardrails.

Nightingale mounted a comeback with a missile dropkick from the second rope, but her challenger had continued success assaulting the midsection. A double undercook facebuster scored a near two, but Willow fought back with a huge Pounce, a big lariat and Babe With The Powerbomb for three.

The main event of the broadcast saw Katsuyori Shibata, fresh off a prior night’s defence of the ROH Pure Championship against Alex Coughlin, put the title on the line again against Lee Moriarty. As he did with Coughlin, Shibata forced Moriarty quickly to his first rope break, and maintained control of his challenger until a back elbow, forearm and basement dropkick. Shibata’s figure four forced Moriarty to a second rope break, but the challenger intercepted a stalling dropkick and landed a half hatch for a near fall.

Moriarty wanted a brainbuster to follow but Shibata put the brakes on before burying a knee on a kitchen sink. The Wrestler followed with his soaring corner dropkick; Moriarty used his last break on a sleeper and found a Crossface, but only a momentary one as the PK scored for the win.

Post match, Shibata was confronted by Daniel Garcia, the former champion making it clear he wants pure gold back. Zack Sabre Jr will defend his TV title for a third time this week Sunday night at Dominion.