Tonight’s episode of AEW Dynamite kicked off with a special return for the fans in Champaign, Illinois. Former AEW World Champion Jon Moxley made his first appearance on AEW programming since his match at AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door. There, he lost the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship to a NJPW legend. Mox appeared out of the crowd like his traditional entrance in his all-black outfit, only this time, he had new music — his NJPW theme, “Death Rider.” Instead of entering the arena to “Wild Thing” he had a much darker tune.
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He meets Tony Schiavone in the ring to cut a promo, but he explains he hasn’t been doing a lot of talking lately. Instead, he’s been thinking (a lot) about what needs to be done. He didn’t really elaborate on that point, and really the whole promo was rather ominous. He says that he came looking for someone that’s not in the building. This person is nothing like him but he’s everything like him so their meeting is long overdue.ย
He calls out Darby Allin and says that it’s about time they have a talk. He won’t be hard to find. He cuts off Schiavone who seems to be poking for more information. While it’ll take time for people to wrap their minds about what he means but his next words, AEW is not Schiavone’s company anymore. He walks off and back into the crowd, the same way he entered.
It should be noted that while Mox has been away from a wrestling ring he’s taken up jiu jitsu and has several matches under his belt. He has always had a “shoot style” type of wrestling, particularly on the independent scene, so it would make sense that he would want to blend that into his AEW character for something fresh. Fans are largely divided on Mox’s preferred wrestling style, whether it’s the use of weapons or him bleeding in every match, it’s certainly not something for everyone.
One of his close friends, Josh Barnett, has been working with WWE for the past several months, and has clearly heavily inspired a lot of Mox’s style. Fightful Select reported earlier this afternoon that while Mox didn’t travel to London, England for AEW All In, he visited Dayton, Ohio for the PW Revolver shows, one of which was Shoot Style. Matt Riddle, Jake Something, Steve Maclin, Marina Shafir, Josh Alexander and Mike Bailey were among some of the talent on the show.
