AEW star Jon Moxley picked up a victory against another Japanese legend, defeating Satoshi Kojima in a classic puroreso match, but was then laid out by another NJPW star Minoru Suzuki to set up another must-see match. Moxley arrived at the match wearing a GCW hoodie, a reference to his most recent championship victory. The match between Moxley and Kojima was a classic slobberknocker, with Kojima going pound for pound against Moxley despite a decent age difference. Moxley, a known purveyor of violence, gave Kojima all he could handle, blasting the veteran with nasty blows to the head and some brutal submission holds. Kojima, meanwhile, landed several of his classic moves, including the Koji-cutter. However, Kojima could not score his fabled lariat on Moxley, which directly set up the end of the match. Kojima went to hit Moxley with a lariat, but Moxley countered and then hit Kojima with two Paradigm Shifts to score the victory.
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Moxley is a noted fan of Japanese wrestling and has made a point of challenging multiple Japanese stars since departing the WWE back in 2019. Moxley recently beat Yuji Nagata in a fantastic match on AEW Dynamite back in May when Moxley was the IGWP United States Heavyweight Champion. While Moxley is under contract to AEW, he has made a point of calling out several NJPW stars, including Hiroshi Tanahashi. Kojima was the latest star to fall against Moxley as he pays respect (in his own way) to the puroreso style that played such an influence on his own career.
Of course, the talk of the match will be about what happened afterwards, when Suzuki laid Moxley out after exchanging multiple blows with the wrestler. Moxley was already bleeding from his elbow when Suzuki entered the ring, and Suzuki ended Moxley’s night with a piledriver while covered in Moxley’s blood. Considering that AEW will be traveling to Moxley’s hometown Cincinnati later this month, it seems likely that the two are set to face off then.
AEW All Out is now available on Bleacher Report and other PPV services.
