Jon Moxley

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Wrestle Kingdom 14: Full Results, Highlights Featuring AEW's Jericho, Moxley

Jan 5, 2020
TOKYO, JAPAN - JANUARY 05: Chris Jericho looks on during the New Japan Pro-Wrestling 'Wrestle Kingdom 14' at the Tokyo Dome on January 05, 2020 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Masashi Hara/Getty Images)
TOKYO, JAPAN - JANUARY 05: Chris Jericho looks on during the New Japan Pro-Wrestling 'Wrestle Kingdom 14' at the Tokyo Dome on January 05, 2020 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Masashi Hara/Getty Images)

New Japan Pro-Wrestling has expanded its signature show, Wrestle Kingdom, to take place over two nights this year, culminating with Tetsuya Naito being crowned the promotion's first double-champion in the main event on Day 2. 

The match between Naito and Kazuchika Okada was set up on Wrestle Kingdom 14's first night. Naito beat Jay White to win the IWGP intercontinental title, and Okada successfully defended the IWGP heavyweight crown in an epic bout with Kota Ibushi. 

AEW stars Jon Moxley and Chris Jericho journeyed to Japan to take part in the show. Moxley wrestled both nights and left as the IWGP United States champion. Jericho was able to avoid giving Hiroshi Tanahashi a shot at the AEW title thanks to getting a clean submission win with the Liontamer. 

     

Wrestle Kingdom 14 Results - Day 1

Eight-Man Tag Match: Suzuki-gun defeated L.I.J.

Eight-Man Tag Match: Chaos defeated Bullet Club

Eight-Man Tag Match: FinJuice defeated Guerillas of Destiny

Texas Deathmatch for IWGP U.S. Title: Jon Moxley defeated Lance Archer

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Hiromu Takahashi defeated Will Ospreay

IWGP Intercontinental Title: Tetsuya Naito defeated Jay White

IWGP Heavyweight Title: Kazuchika Okada defeated Kota Ibushi

    

Wrestle Kingdom 14 Results - Day 2

Tag Match: Hiromu Takahashi & Ryu Lee defeated Jushin Thunder Liger & Naoki Sano

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title: Roppongi 3K defeated Bullet Club

British Heavyweight Championship: Zack Sabre Jr. defeated SANADA

IWGP United States Title: Jon Moxley defeated Juice Robinson

NEVER Openweight Title: Hirooki Goto defeated KENTA

Singles Match: Jay White defeated Kota Ibushi

Singles Match: Chris Jericho defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi

IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental Title: Tetsuya Naito defeated Kazuchika Okada

    

Highlights

One of the biggest stories heading into Day 2 of the event was built around the Jericho-Tanahashi match.

If Tananshi defeated Jericho, he would receive a shot at Jericho's AEW title. This led to speculation some sort of partnership between the two promotions had been worked out. 

Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio (h/t Randall Ortman of Cageside Seats) reported the move did indicate some type of change in the relationship between NJPW and AEW. 

Meltzer later reported the agreement is currently limited to the storyline for Jericho's match with Tanahashi. The leader of the Inner Circle did walk to the ring at Wrestle Kingdom wearing his AEW title.

Once the match got started, both men went to work and broke out some high-risk maneuvers, although Jericho's attempt at a frog splash didn't end well. 

One of the best sequences of the match saw Tanahashi block the Judas Effect into a German suplex for a near-fall and attempt a clothesline off the ropes, but Jericho was able to catch him and lock in the Liontamer for the first time. 

Tanahashi was able to take control after working his way out of that Liontamer. He attempted a High Fly Flow off the top rope, but Jericho was able to roll through on the landing to lock in the submission for a second time leading to the finish. 

Moxley's match with Robinson was originally going to happen in October at King of Pro-Wrestling, but he was unable to fly into Japan due to Typhoon Hagibis. This matchup was set up on Day 1 when Mox captured the IWGP U.S. title for the second time in a Texas Deathmatch against Lance Archer that could only end when a wrestler couldn't answer a 10 count or by submission. 

After taking care of business on the first night, Moxley finally got his hands on Robinson in a match that turned into a hardcore showdown with all sorts of weapons involved. 

Moxley got the pin after reversing Robinson's attempt to hit the Pulp Friction into the Death Rider. He hit a second one for good measure to get the three count. 

New Japan didn't waste any time setting up Moxley's next feud, with Minoru Suzuki attacking the U.S. champion after the match. 

In quite possibly the biggest match in NJPW history, given what was on the line, Naito and Okada put on an epic show that went nearly 36 minutes and saw both men kick out of the other's finisher multiple times. 

Okada had been champion for nine months since beating Jay White at the G1 Supercard during WrestleMania weekend last April at Madison Square Garden. It was his fifth IWGP heavyweight title reign since 2012. 

Naito last held the heavyweight belt in 2016 before losing to Okada at Dominion. The 37-year-old finally got his revenge for that defeat by becoming the first dual champion in NJPW history, but the moment was short-lived due to a post-match attack from KENTA, who celebrated holding the two titles:

The next major shows for New Japan will be The New Beginning on Feb. 9 in Osaka-Jo Hall and a 48th-anniversary show on March 4. It seems likely that at least one of those events will feature the Moxley-Suzuki match and Naito defending his belts against KENTA.

AEW Hot Take: Why Jon Moxley Must Join Chris Jericho and Inner Circle Faction

Jan 4, 2020

Jon Moxley would never, ever join Chris Jericho's Inner Circle. Right? Right.

Which is why it should happen.

Imagine for a moment if one All Elite Wrestling's most beloved superstars went out on an episode of Dynamite and went against everything fans thought he stood for, joining Jericho and his lackeys in a faction at a time when everyone in the company seems to be ganging up.

Chaos—of the fun kind. AEW has dragged out the storyline longer than necessary as it is. It seemed like Moxley would give an answer on the New Year's Day episode of Dynamite, only to rattle off a couple of sentences and push back the drawn-out storyline another week.

If Moxley isn't joining, it seems this was mostly for naught. While it would be fun to see Moxley decline and trash the car the Inner Circle scraped cash together to buy in an effort to woo Moxley, the better idea might be to have him join up.

Joining up doesn't mean working with Jericho and Co. or going bad.

And let's be honest, little Moxley can do will get him booed. He's bulletproof, so at least joining up with Jericho will let him show some flashes of different-feeling character work. Yeah, he's a deranged, angry, yelling guy who fancies himself top of the food chain, but let's see him rocking out in that sweet car, lady-killer style. Let's see some nuance so he doesn't get tired quickly.

Call Moxley joining up a good way to pass the time. AEW has a long stretch before its next big event and plenty of time to fill, so getting Moxley into some fresh-looking events and interactions will keep things moving at a nice pace.

But joining this sort of faction and hiding behind attempts at fitting in could take another angle for the lone wolf too: Moxley could pick off the Inner Circle one by one.

And how he would go about it would be a sight to see. Maybe he just punched Sammy Guevara in his (very punchable) face. Maybe he costs Santana and Ortiz big matches and affects their standing in the tag rankings, humorously playing off the accident. He's certainly powerhouse enough to take out Jake Hager, barring just causing enough problems to let someone like Luchasaurus get the upper hand.

Don't forget Jericho himself.

Watching Jericho frantically get more suspicious and worried as a sleeper agent of sorts picks apart his protection would be fun because he can make anything work. Maybe Moxley doesn't help Jericho lose the title but eventually gets his own shot.

That's where this has all been leading anyway—Moxley is going to get his shot at Jericho. That he spends weeks and perhaps months playing mind games, besting Jericho at his own game, could make the whole ride even better.

The best part? There is genuine respect here that both performers have made sure to touch on multiple times. These guys have a long history, starting in WWE at a minimum before Jericho probably played some small part in AEW signing one of the best performers on the planet. There's plenty of emotion in all of this before fans finally get to see the payoff—Moxley screwing over Jericho in an unforgettable moment or making his life hell before taking the belt off him.

What's the alternative to Jericho's Inner Circle? Having The Elite take it down would have been too predictable, if not boring. They are having problems of their own within thanks to "Hangman" Adam Page. The Dark Order did a big belly flop on cement and is trying to recover.

No, dismembering The Inner Circle from within sounds like a job for Moxley. So in that sense, almost anything other than him accepting Jericho's offer and joining up soon would register as a disappointment.

Live AEW Dynamite Scores Easy NYD Ratings Win over Pre-Taped WWE NXT Awards Show

Jan 3, 2020
Chris Jericho attends New York Comic Con to promote TNT's
Chris Jericho attends New York Comic Con to promote TNT's

A live episode of AEW Dynamite beat a pre-taped 2019 awards edition of WWE NXT in the ratings on Wednesday night.

According to Showbuzz Daily, the New Year's Day episode of Dynamite averaged 967,000 viewers, while NXT garnered 548,000 viewers. The win was an expected one for All Elite Wrestling, and the lack of live competition helped it achieve one of its best viewership numbers.

After not airing a show on Christmas Day, AEW returned with a newsworthy episode Wednesday. In the main event, The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega defeated Pac and The Lucha Brothers, but that was far from the only significant occurrence.

Arn Anderson made his debut as Cody's head coach, and Cody went on to beat Darby Allin in a singles match. Riho retained the AEW Women's Championship over Britt Baker, Hikaru Shida and Nyla Rose. Jon Moxley beat Trent, and Sammy Guevara defeated Dustin Rhodes.

Additionally, Dynamite featured two major promo segments. The first was AEW world champion Chris Jericho's continued effort to recruit Moxley into the Inner Circle. Moxley told Jericho that he would give him his answer next week.

At long last, MJF finally announced his stipulations for a match against Cody. MJF stipulated that Cody must beat Wardlow in a steel cage match and take 10 belt lashings. MJF also said that if Cody touches him, he will not get a match at AEW Revolution on February 29 or any future event.

There were no live promos or segments on NXT after delivering a show with some pre-taped matches on Christmas Day the previous week.

Wednesday's NXT featured the presentation of several awards, and NXT champion Adam Cole cleaned up. Cole was named the NXT Male Competitor and Overall Competitor of the Year. He also shared Rivalry of the Year and Match of the Year honors with Johnny Gargano.

Other awards included Female Competitor of the Year (Shayna Baszler), Tag Team of the Year (Undisputed Era), Future Star of the Year (Dakota Kai) and Breakout Star of the Year (Keith Lee).

Aside from awards, NXT replayed three of the biggest matches of the year in Gargano vs. Cole from NXT TakeOver: New York, the first-ever women's WarGames match and the tag team ladder match from NXT TakeOver: XXV.

NXT will return to regular programming next week, while AEW will feature Riho vs. Kris Statlander for the AEW Women's Championship and the team of Omega and Adam "Hangman" Page vs. Private Party.

     

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).

Jon Moxley, Britt Baker, Young Bucks Top AEW Weekly Rankings for Dec. 13

Dec 13, 2019

Jon Moxley, Britt Baker and The Young Bucks lead their respective divisions in the AEW rankings for the week of Dec. 13 released Friday:

The entire men's singles top five remained unchanged from last week, and Moxley continues to pace the field with a 5-0-1 singles record.

Moxley has been teasing a match with AEW world champion Chris Jericho in recent weeks, but the potential rivalry took an intriguing turn on Dynamite this week. After Moxley stared down Jericho from the crowd two weeks earlier and Jericho did the same to Moxley last week, Le Champion offered Moxley a spot in the Inner Circle this week.

Given Moxley's lone wolf character, there is very little chance of that happening, and all signs point toward Moxley and Jericho facing off for the title in the near future, perhaps even as part of Jericho's cruise next month.

While men's singles held steady, the women's singles rankings featured a significant shift. After not competing this week, Hikaru Shida fell from first to third, while Britt Baker went from fourth to first and Kris Statlander leaped from fifth to second.

Both Baker and Statlander competed in singles matches on AEW Dark this week. Baker beat Machiko, and Statlander defeated Bea Priestley.

Statlander made her singles debut one week earlier on Dynamite and pulled off a surprising win over Shida. With the AEW Dark win, Statlander is now 2-0. Meanwhile, Baker is 4-2 and could be in line for her second shot at Riho's AEW Women's Championship.

To determine Riho's next opponent, Baker and Statlander will face each other in a No. 1 contender's match next week on Dynamite.

The tag team rankings also shifted this week with The Young Bucks surpassing Santana and Ortiz for the No. 1 spot after beating them in a Texas Street Fight on Dynamite. As a result, The Young Bucks will challenge SCU for the AEW Tag Team Championships next week.

Best Friends and The Lucha Brothers remained in the third and fourth positions, respectively, while Dark Order supplanted Private Party for the No. 5 slot.

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).

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