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Most Likely Heel or Face Turns at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2022

Donald Wood

The build to All Elite Wrestling and NJPW’s Forbidden Door 2022 pay-per-view is over, and wrestling fans are now looking over the card and trying to see which performers are likely to turn heel or face at the event.

From Thunder Rosa possibly going heel to Minoru Suzuki turning his back on a makeshift team he has no allegiance to, the June show in Chicago is shaping up to redefine how fans view AEW moving into the summer.

Here are the wrestlers most likely to undergo a character change on Sunday.

Thunder Rosa

After a confusing sandbagging story and lackluster overall booking of her reign as champion, AEW fans may be souring on Thunder Rosa ahead of her battle with the popular babyface Toni Storm.

At Forbidden Door, Rosa should turn heel and brutally attack Storm after the match.

Rosa is a likable person off-screen and a good representative of Latin culture, but the fan support has waned since she won gold. Whether that’s because of less-than-stellar booking or a lack of memorable matches, a character change may be exactly what the soon-to-be 36-year-old needs.

With a unique chance to shine a spotlight on women’s wrestling at the Forbidden Door show, Rosa and Storm can create an unforgettable match. As the two women celebrate their accomplishment, the champion should attack Storm from behind and set the stage for an extended blood feud.

Minoru Suzuki

One of the most sadistic men in all of wrestling is New Japan’s Minoru Suzuki, and it should come as a surprise to no one that he could turn on his teammates Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara on Sunday.

The three men are scheduled to take on Eddie Kingston, Wheeler Yuta and Shota Umino, but Suzuki doesn’t have much beef with his challengers or teammates. While he will gladly beat anyone and everyone up, he has nothing to gain or lose from the battle.

With that in mind, Suzuki will pulverize Kingston, Yuta and Umino throughout the match, but eventually, Jericho and Guevara will cross a line and disrespect the veteran with too hard of a tag or ignore his pleas to get into the action.

Suzuki’s mean steak knows no bounds, so expect him to slap the taste out of Jericho’s mouth before destroying Guevara and leaving his teammates to fend for themselves as he walks up the ramp and out of the match.

Jay White

One of the most anticipated bouts on the card is the four-way match for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship between Jay White, Kazuchika Okada, Adam Page and Adam Cole.

While the match may be every man for himself, there is little doubt that the shoddy alliance between White and Cole will crumble as the two men constantly try to undermine each other throughout the bout.

White is one of the most dastardly heels in all of New Japan, but this would be the perfect place for Okada to win the title by pinning someone else. The moment would be even more impactful if the reason Okada walked out with the gold was that White attacks Cole and accidentally sets the stage for the title to change hands.

With Okada pinning Cole after White knocks him out, the current IWGP champion would have a reasonable excuse to call for a rematch at the next major event. With the G1 set to take over the summer, letting the world title change hands in the United States would invigorate a new excitement in the product at the most important time.

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