Sanada Defeats Jungle Boy, Retains IWGP World Title at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2023

Sanada defeated "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door on Sunday to retain the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.

After the match, Jungle Boy turned heel for the first time by attacking Hook, who he had been teaming with in recent tag matches.

For the second year in a row, the best wrestlers from All Elite Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling clashed at Forbidden Door, meaning the promoters of both companies had to find a way to get the IWGP world title on the card.

A few weeks ago, Sanada laid down an open challenge for the title at the pay-per-view, and it wasn't long before Jungle Boy answered and established himself as his opponent.

Perry, who has been teaming with Hook recently, said he had been feeling "naked" without a title while watching his friend carry the FTW Championship and that he wanted to cure it by beating Sanada for NJPW's top crown.

Sanada has long been one of NJPW's biggest stars, holding the IWGP Tag Team Championships and NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship three times each, as well as the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship once.

In March, the 35-year-old ran through the New Japan Cup, defeating David Finlay in the final to set up a match against Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.

Sanada beat Okada at Sakura Genesis on April 8 to become world champion for the first time, and he held the title for over two months entering Forbidden Door.

Jungle Boy once held the AEW World Tag Team Championships with Luchasaurus, but singles championship gold has eluded him with the promotion.

At Double or Nothing in May, the 26-year-old was part of a four-way match for the AEW World Championship against MJF, Darby Allin and Sammy Guevara, but MJF won to retain the title.

While Sunday was, arguably, the biggest match of Jungle Boy's career to date, he fell just short against Sanada, who remains at the top of the mountain in NJPW.

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