Report: Forbidden Door II Expected To Be Biggest AEW PPV Since Double Or Nothing 2022

AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2023 is expected to be All Elite Wrestling's biggest pay-per-view for buys since Double or Nothing 2022. 

Dave Meltzer reported on Wrestling Observer Radio:

"As far as TV viewers, TV pay-per-view, which is the only number that I have right now, It was 12 percent higher than the previous two shows were on the same day, which is the Wednesday after the show. If it grows like the other two shows did, then it'll be a big number. And it also, you know, is going to do besides how it does in the United States, It's also going to do much bigger in Japan than the other pay-per-views because of the New Japan guys. What is that? That's, you know, five to eight, somewhere between five and 10,000 more buys plus the normal whatever this number's gonna be. Whether it's 150, 155, maybe a little lower, I don't know. That's not including the Japan buys. I expect it to end up as the biggest, at least since Double or Nothing last year," Meltzer said. 

"And there's a shot if the late buys are big, that it could...that it might be able to approach that Double or Nothing from 2022, I think. If they have really big late buys, they can do it. Late buys are usually, you know, based on word of mouth of the show being great. And I think that everything that people have said, and everything that's been talked about is that like, this was a great show with perhaps the greatest match in AEW history, perhaps the greatest match ever in North America. I mean, things like that have been said. And so I think, you know, based on that, it might do well on late buys. It might do very well on late buys. The numbers are, from what I've seen, the numbers are encouraging. The movie theatre numbers were up from the last show and the last show's movie theatre numbers were very good. The Double or Nothing. So, overall the news is good there."

AEW Double or Nothing 2022 had a buyrate of 165,000. AEW's pay-per-views since then have hovered around 140,000 buys. 

AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door also set a live gate record for AEW of $1.2 million. Estimates have suggested the pay-per-view has brought in a net revenue of around $4.9 million for AEW and NJPW. 

H/T to WrestlingNews.co