Tony Khan Credits Mike Mansury as the Creative Mind Behind AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door’s Death’s Door Steel Cage Match

The sprawling 12-man steel cage match that headlined AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door had its origins in a single person’s creative pitch — and that person was Mike Mansury. Tony Khan has shared that it was Mansury’s idea to build the event around the concept dubbed the “Death’s Door” Steel Cage, a structure that framed one of the more ambitious multi-man bouts AEW has staged in recent memory.

Inside the cage, the team of Mark Briscoe, Orange Cassidy, Roderick Strong, Kyle O’Reilly, Konosuke Takeshita, and Darby Allin came out on top against a squad led by AEW World Champion MJF, alongside Kevin Knight, Kyle Fletcher, Jake Doyle, Kazuchika Okada, and Andrade. The sheer scale of the match — 12 men, a steel cage, and a cross-promotional backdrop — made it one of the more talked-about moments from the Forbidden Door card.

Mansury’s fingerprints on a signature match concept are worth noting given his prominent role in AEW’s creative structure. Having the idea for a distinctive stipulation tied to a marquee co-promotional event speaks to the kind of influence he carries in shaping AEW’s big-show presentation.

Forbidden Door continues to serve as one of the more creatively fertile events on AEW’s calendar, with the NJPW partnership enabling roster combinations and match concepts that wouldn’t be possible on a standard Dynamite or pay-per-view. The Death’s Door Steel Cage is now another chapter in that tradition, and apparently, it all started with one phone call — or pitch — from Mansury.