Jon Moxley

Jon Moxley defeated Japanese legend Satoshi Kojima in a singles match at AEW All Out on Sunday night.

After an intriguing contest between the two men, Moxley finished Kojima off with the Paradigm Shift.

While the result was not entirely unexpected, the real surprise came after the bout when New Japan Pro-Wrestling legend Minoru Suzuki appeared and set his sights set on Moxley:

Bryan Alvarez of Figure Four Online/Wrestling Observer set the scene from the Now Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois:

Suzuki soon hit the Gotch Piledriver on Moxley:

In recent months, Moxley's All Elite Wrestling storylines have largely focused on the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship, which is why it came as little surprise when a New Japan star was announced as his All Out opponent.

After successful U.S. title defenses against Yuji Nagata and Karl Anderson, Moxley dropped the championship to Lance Archer on the July 21 episode of Dynamite.

Archer lost the title to Hiroshi Tanahashi less than one month later at NJPW Resurgence, which seemed to set the scene for a Mox vs. Tanahashi dream match at All Out.

Moxley specifically called out Tanahashi by name during a promo, but his promos got a bit more general in the weeks that followed and were directed at New Japan as a whole.

The former AEW world champion said he sent a contract to NJPW for a match at All Out, and the implication was that he expected Tanahashi to sign it. Instead, the deal was signed by Kojima.

While Kojima isn't as big of a star as Tanahashi, the 50-year-old is among the most accomplished Japanese wrestlers of all time.

The master of the lariat is a two-time IWGP heavyweight champion, a seven-time IWGP tag team champion, a two-time NEVER Openweight six-man tag team champion and a one-time winner of the G1 Climax tournament.

Kojima has even experienced success in the United States, holding the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and MLW World Heavyweight Championship one time each.

While he posed a fairly significant challenge to Moxley, the much-younger American was a significant favorite heading into the match, and he made good on that status with a win.

Now, though, the unexpected arrival of Suzuki on Sunday night will shift the focus toward a potential match between him and Moxley in the near future.

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On the eve of his match with Satoshi Kojima at All Out, AEW star Jon Moxley won the GCW championship Saturday night. 

Moxley pinned Matt Cardona with a Paradigm Shift onto light tubes during the Art of War Games show to win the title. 

Prior to the match, Cardona beat Frank The Clown with a belt shot to retain the title. He then fought off an attack by G-Raver and a group of druids. 

After dispatching G-Raver and most of the group, there was still one person dressed up as a druid in the ring with Cardona. The druid hit him with the DDT and took off the mask to reveal it was Moxley. 

Moxley's title win wasn't the only surprise at the show Saturday night. Nick Gage came out and challenged the new champion to a death match at the GCW event on Oct. 9 in Atlantic City. 

AEW fans who saw the exploding barbwire death match between Moxley and Omega at Revolution—at least before the explosion failed to deliver—in March know to expect a wild, violent confrontation between two wrestlers, who will go all-out to put on the best possible match. 

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Roman Reigns has opened up about why Jon Moxley didn't become the top guy in WWE when he worked with the promotion as Dean Ambrose. 

The WWE universal champion told Ariel Helwani of BT Sport that if Moxley "could have been the man here, he would've been the man here."

Even though Reigns is clearly cutting this interview in character, his comments ring hollow since everyone knows that Vince McMahon ultimately decides who gets pushed. 

Moxley has been highly critical of WWE since leaving the company in April 2019. He told ESPN's Marc Raimondi two months after his departure that WWE's tendency to overproduce things really bothered him.

"It’s almost like Vince is in the ring with you, the producer is in the ring with you," he said. "It’s like you have two little bubbles on your shoulder, like three heads in the ring. All of a sudden when I got in the ring [in New Japan Pro-Wrestling], five minutes into the match I was like, there’s no chatter. There was no producer-ref-Vince chatter. It was like silence. And I didn’t expect that. I was like, 'Whoa, I’m alone again. It’s just me in the ring.' And then I just started beating the [crap] out of Juice (Robinson) and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, this is what I used to do.'"

Reigns, Ambrose and Seth Rollins became WWE Superstars at the same time. The trio debuted in the company at Survivor Series 2012 as The Shield. They were one of the most popular factions in all of wrestling during their time as a unit. 

Once The Shield split up in 2014, Ambrose was clearly the No. 3 guy on the totem pole in WWE. Reigns received the biggest push of the three, main-eventing five of the past seven WrestleMania shows since 2015 (including night two of WrestleMania 37 in April). 

Rollins has consistently been a top singles star for the past seven years, though he is rarely pushed as hard as Reigns. 

Things have worked out well for Moxley in AEW over the past two years. He is consistently pushed as one of the top stars, is able to cut great promos and works a brawling style that suits him much better than the traditional WWE match style. 

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Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.

Lesnar Reportedly Not Negotiating with AEW

While AEW is reportedly set to bring in some huge stars, Brock Lesnar doesn't appear to be among them.

According to Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men Pro Wrestling Podcast (h/t Felix Upton of Ringside News), AEW and Lesnar spoke "maybe once in passing, like nothing serious whatsoever."

Lesnar has been a free agent since shortly after his last WWE match, which was a loss to Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania 36 in April 2020.

While Lesnar's eventual WWE return has long been assumed, it has yet to happen, which has led to speculation that perhaps AEW could get itself into the conversation.

AEW is rumored to be signing a pair of former top WWE stars in CM Punk and Daniel Bryan, meaning it doesn't necessarily need Lesnar right now, despite how big of a deal his arrival would be.

WWE seemingly has a bigger need for Lesnar, especially since Bobby Lashley is the reigning WWE champion. Fans have been calling for a Lesnar vs. Lashley dream match for years, and WWE would appear to have a better chance than ever to make it happen.

Lashley is scheduled to defend the WWE title against a former Lesnar rival in Goldberg at SummerSlam, which could conceivably leave the door open for The Beast Incarnate to resurface.

Lesnar vs. Universal champion Roman Reigns would also be a money match, especially with former Lesnar advocate Paul Heyman now representing Reigns.

AEW would be wise to reach out to and consider any wrestler who would improve the product, but there is no indication that Lesnar is on the radar right now.

WWE Reaction to Punk, Bryan Possibly Signing with AEW

WWE and its television partners reportedly have different views on Punk and Bryan potentially signing with AEW.

According to Zarian (h/t Middleton), WWE's television partners are "shocked" AEW was able to sign Punk, while WWE is "not very concerned" about the move since it wasn't in negotiations to bring him back anyway.

WWE reportedly does see Bryan leaving for AEW as a "big hit," however, because of his popularity and how deeply he had been entrenched in WWE for the past decade.

Regarding the signings as a whole, a TV network source told Zarian, "WWE is not as concerned about the possible Daniel Bryan and CM Punk signing to AEW as we are."

Punk and Bryan are two of the biggest names in pro wrestling, and AEW signing them would be a huge deal.

The signing of Punk would be especially significant since he has not wrestled in seven years. Punk has been viewed as the biggest free agent in wrestling during that time, and it was unclear if he would ever return.

Bryan, meanwhile, returned from what was thought to be a career-ending injury a few years ago and has resumed being one of WWE's top stars since then.

He even competed in the main event of WrestleMania 37 in April against Reigns and Edge.

While it is possible there is nothing WWE could have done to prevent Bryan and Punk from going to AEW, the signings should provide AEW with even more momentum and put the pressure on WWE to respond with some big moves of their own.

Moxley Possibly Facing NJPW Star at All Out

AEW is reportedly planning a huge cross-promotion match involving Jon Moxley at the All Out pay-per-view on Sept. 5.

According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t WrestlingInc.com's Jason Ounpraseuth), Moxley told AEW President Tony Khan he wanted to face a New Japan Pro-Wrestling star at All Out, and Khan agreed to the idea.

While Moxley's opponent hasn't yet been confirmed, it reportedly may be Hiroshi Tanahashi.

Mox dropped the IWGP United States Championship to Lance Archer in a Texas Death Match on Dynamite last week. Archer then successfully retained the title against NJPW's Hikuleo this week.

Prior to Archer vs. Hikuleo, a video of Tanahashi laying down an IWGP United States title challenge was shown on Dynamite:

Following Archer's win, it is official that he will defend against Tanahashi at a NJPW show in Los Angeles on Aug. 14.

Should Tanahashi win that match, it could set the stage for Moxley vs. Tanahashi with the IWGP United States title on the line at All Out.

Tanahashi is one of the biggest stars in the history of Japanese wrestling, as the 44-year-old veteran is an eight-time IWGP Heavyweight champion and two-time IWGP Intercontinental champion.

Moxley vs. Tanahashi would be a blockbuster dream match on any card, and it would add even more star power to what figures to be a stacked All Out event.

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