Welcome to another eWrestlingNews Question of the Day!
Tonight’s episode of AEW Dynamite will be an important one as All Elite Wrestling has shifted into a new gear following AEW WrestleDream. It seems like a few midcard and upper-midcard talents are going to start being pushed toward the main event scene with more focus than before, and they’ll have a tough hill to climb with Jon Moxley back on top as the new AEW world champion.
My question for you today is “Who do you think should be Moxley’s first challenger for the AEW World Championship? How should they establish his opponent and when should they fight?”
Remember to answer with your response in the comments below.
I think a lot of people’s first thoughts would be Darby Allin. He’s the most directly tied to the storyline, was the guy Moxley beat to win the title shot that was rightfully Allin’s in the first place, and was the first person to come out to try to help Bryan Danielson fight off the Blackpool Combat Club.
However, I can’t go with him as my pick, since I think he’s the guy who needs to beat Moxley, and I don’t under any circumstances think that should happen any time soon. While some people might think that AEW can get around that by having Allin vs. Moxley happen now, Moxley retains, and then, they come back to it at a later date, I think that’s a mistake as well. Maybe it’s personal preference above all else, but I’m not a fan of people losing, killing time, and then winning another match down the road. It doesn’t work for me 99% of the time. Hell, I still think WWE handled the Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns situation poorly and got lucky in a lot of ways, for context, as that was a rough year and things almost went south right toward the end.
With that in mind, I’m looking ahead at some time in 2025 when Allin and Moxley should fight. In the meantime, Allin should feud with Wheeler Yuta and the other members, while some sacrificial lambs should be sent toward Moxley so he can be positioned as a major problem that needs to be dealt with.
Without knowing what their plans are for any kind of “higher power” angle or whatever—and good lord, please don’t let it be that Tony Khan is the one who orchestrated this like Vince McMahon did—there are a few people who stand out to me as potential challengers I’d like to see fight Moxley over the next few months. For the most part, take your pick between any of them as the next in line, but I’ll choose my favorite after I toss their names out.
It’s too early for HOOK, but I’d like to see him work his way into a title match at some point. If he’s not leaving for WWE any time soon (or ever), then I think dropping the FTW Championship should put him in a position where he needs to win a different midcard title and get to a world title level eventually, but that he shouldn’t be ready to take that responsibility on just yet. Having him challenge Moxley and lose will look totally okay as the less experienced of the two, so long as AEW doesn’t drop the ball with him after that.
Eventually, Adam Copeland should have a match. I’m assuming he’s not ready to go yet. If he were to be, though, I’d slot him in that role as quickly as possible, as I think that’s a major selling point just on name value alone and a win over Edge will help boost Moxley even more.
Orange Cassidy literally had a segment at WrestleDream dedicated to Jerry Lynn talking about how he should step up his game. Let’s see that happen. As much as I want Cassidy to win the world title at some point, I reiterate that I don’t think he’s the guy to beat Moxley, though. I’m not positive if I’d rather him be one of the first ones to challenge and lose, where it puts him in a state where he’s not sure of himself and has to still build himself up, or if I like the idea of him being built up a lot to the point where fans think he does have a chance, only for him to lose. The latter works better in a lot of ways, especially for hype against Mox, but I’m worried if that happens, Khan will have gotten tired of putting so much emphasis on Cassidy and will drop the ball after and make it seem like he got close, but failed, and proved that he’s not able to reach the mountain top.
Daniel Garcia should get a match, but he has to win a midcard title first. Give him the TNT Championship. See what happens there. Losing to Moxley any time soon is going to be a mistake.
Give me a Mark Briscoe match eventually, as well as one against Jay White. Now isn’t the time for either of them, though. Briscoe is busy with the ROH World Championship and White JUST got back and needs to get some more wins. The same applies to Adam Cole, who has to do his feud with MJF and build up more steam.
Strangely, out of all the potential options for people like Will Ospreay and Ricochet and Swerve Strickland and all these names that could and should fight Moxley in the future, the first person I would probably go with as his challenger would be Jeff Jarrett.
Jarrett was instrumental in hyping up Danielson to win the title in the first place. He tried to help out with the post-match beat down. There’s a personal stake there. As a former multi-time world champion and a legend, he checks off a few boxes, while also being someone who everyone knows wouldn’t win. But everyone knows Moxley wouldn’t drop the title on his first defense anyway, so that’s what makes it the best option in my mind. Why waste one of the other guys who more people would believe could beat Moxley in a scenario where almost everyone would think no one will beat him on the first go-around?
Give me a Jarrett versus Moxley match on television while setting up someone else on this list for Full Gear. It’s as easy as having Jarrett be one of the guys who approaches Moxley first after a promo segment or something. This doesn’t need to be a complicated setup.
What do you think? Drop your thoughts below!