Moxley’s ‘Reign of Terror’ As AEW Champion Has Run Its Course

What AEW was and is today has many definitions. For those at the dawn of “Elite Time and Space,” it was an upstart movement birthed from All In that stood for counter-culture against WWE’s normalized mediocrity. It was Cody Rhodes, Omega and the Bucks. It was young guys like Hangman Page, Darby Allin and MJF who were ready to step forward into the light, while old veterans like Dustin Rhodes or Sting worked to bridge the chasms between generations, give back and help younger talent figure out who they’d become.

Time passed on, people have come and gone. Many of those individuals were in the company from the outset, be they indie darling, WWE veteran or someone simply looking to prove they could still “go.” During that passage of time what AEW represented has shifted and been in flux. Where first it exemplified defiance in the face of the corporate behemoth and a faux-journo purporting to know everything underneath the yellow sun, it transitioned into a multi-person soap opera. It became a place that people wanted to be, and then a place no one wanted to be because it became disorganized and too bloated for its own good.

AEW has worn many masks in trying to figure out what it needed to masquerade as from one show, one month, one PPV and one year to the next. Whether the company lost its philosophical grounding, or whether it over-complicated, over-simplified or leaned too much into angles and stories beyond their shelf lives, the AEW of today isn’t what it was in 2019. The AEW of today has lost ground to WWE in terms of being the fresher product. There’s nothing wrong with that either, it’s the nature of wrestling. However, understanding that is the first step toward course correction in order to lay the ground work — as they have — to build something new.

The Foundation

The core of what AEW is was not only rooted in the defiance of what was thought to be true of the wrestling business, but also the willingness to be bold and take chances. The AEW that cohered around the Elite in 2019 hinged on determination and hard work, taking chances, and arguably showcasing better wrestling than you were going to find elsewhere.

This is the company that brought together wrestlers from all corners of wrestling that had either needed a fresh start, or simply needed any start all. AEW was the company that showcased Kenny Omega, gave us those dreamy FTR and Young Bucks matches, christened new stars in MJF and Hangman Page, and brought CM Punk back to wrestling. It gave people like Brodie Lee a platform to demonstrate what they could do with one chance, and it gave people like Saraya and Sting another ride and major moments to punctuate their careers.

It’s hard to sum up its essence even now, but I think it would be fair to say that it’s a place that rewards hard work and openly rewards people who have earned their way through the wrestling business. Sure, it’s also “where the best wrestle” and where feelings are “restored,” but I think the above is accurate. I also think in some cases it’s where certain people who have egos about their own work end up, and then in turn, seemingly put themselves ahead of what AEW can become.

Maybe it would unfair to say AEW has suffered from an identity crisis (something I’ve said in the past) in the post-Punk world seeing as some issues persisted prior to his arrival, through the eventual implosion of the partnership and long after he left. Regardless of the subjective truth here, from a viewer perspective the shows had struggled to identify an overarching vision beyond “we wrestle good all the time.” The AEW of today is better off than it was a year ago, and it’s not void of quality like the grifters will have you believe as they repeat that message to death. Regardless, AEW can be more than simply being a serviceable second option for employment, or simply where dudes and ladies “wrestle good” two times a week.

The individual components of AEW’s roster compose a tapestry in terms of what they represent. Each are important. There are great wrestlers, great characters, and storytelling-wise yes, that too (at times). But when I look at what defines AEW, and I look at why I think the company has been better over the last year, I keep coming back to this:

• hard work;
• consistent effort;
• passion; and
• a roster of people who want to be there and have something to prove.

That’s the definition of what an alternative needs to be. Tonally it’s reminiscent of those 2019 beginnings and what All In represented in 2018. AEW can be successful. It will likely never be on the same level globally as WWE, or even as present in pop culture, but for the wrestlers and us as consumers it can represent something. It can fill the vacancies left empty by the more sterilized and consumer-friendly WWE.

Look up and down the AEW roster. You can look at any one person — male or female — and say they are this or that as a correlation of human anatomy. For example, you could argue the Elite — and more specifically Hangman now — is the heart of AEW. Conversely to that, I would argue Moxley has been the soul and the standard for what a counter-culture wrestling platform needs to be.

The Soul

Moxley is the soul of AEW because he represents everything we laid out above. He works hard, is passionate about his view of wrestling and what AEW needs to be, and above all he will do what is necessary to set that example for his peers. “Dictator Jon” is AEW’s undisputed leader, its moral compass, and the one person this company has been able to rely on time and again.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because for all of the work that Moxley has given and bled for AEW over the last 5-and-a-half years, it’s because Swerve Strickland is his spiritual successor. Swerve has molded himself into the kind of person that represents the company in the same way, leading from the front while concurrently calling out and criticizing the current AEW world champion for the person he’s become. One of the heavier blows Swerve levied echoed a past comment Mox made about John Cena acting like someone “playing John Cena” on television. Mox is now a shell of himself.

The dynamic between them is that they mirror each other. Tonally, Swerve and Mox are one in the same, and so it follows from Swerve’s perspective that he can see right through the way Mox has carried himself for months. He can identify — as we can — that this isn’t the same man who carried the AEW title through the pandemic, nor the same man who put the company on his back and did the stuff of “legends” with that now classic babyface Mox promo after All Out in 2022.

Do you remember this?

“The AEW world championship represents passion for this sport, passion for this business. It represents the passion of the guys and girls in the back, and the fans that fill the arenas and watch at home. Those three letters in the AEW world championship represented heroes during a pandemic in a time when the world needed heroes. It represents the dream, the vision that we all when we started this thing years ago when we wanted to show the world just what wrestling could be. The AEW world championship represents taking the dark and ugly side of this business and letting it die with another generation. The world championship represents the freedom to be as great as you are willing to dare to be. The AEW world championship means being better than I was the day before even if it’s just a little better, even if nobody notices but me. That world championship represents slaying demons. That world championship represents everything I love about this business.”

Swerving Forward and Slightly Askew

This past week Swerve asked the very critical question — where is that guy? The man holding the belt hostage in a briefcase carried around by someone else is a distant memory from the person who delivered that promo a little over two-and-a-half years ago. Swerve’s answer to his own question highlights the simple truth that for better or his bloodiest worst, Swerve is now everything Mox once described himself to be.

There’s a parallel between them. Both have been in violent encounters over the last years, both have bled and sacrificed, and have at times been the villains of their own tales. They have also believed themselves to be right, to be just and merciful found all on the passion for what the company needs to be.

Over the last year we’ve seen the two men move in different directions. We’ve seen Mox turn on both his friend and himself, and we’ve seen Swerve turn from a violent villain willing to do anything to win to a…. um, violent anti-hero willing to do anything to win? In the centre there’s common ground between them, which is why now is the necessary time for this encounter.

As their paths wound throughout 2024 and early 2025 we watched them work some pretty intense matches. Those are not everyone’s cup of tea, but neither was ECW and they were much worse in that regard. But in the search for identity, even having two people willing to stand and fight with purpose accounts for something. It’s an intangible that when you compare notes on both you see how far they’ve both come, how much they have changed, and above all that Swerve is the heir apparent to Moxley’s throne. The same way that years ago people called Kobe Bryant the heir apparent to Michael Jordan.

They are both men of conviction, passion, strength, purpose and are willing to call the other out when the time is right to highlight the faults of who they are in that moment. Through their matches — their trials — we know them. We see who they are, what they do, and how they carry themselves. As fans we see what this business means to them, that’s indicated by the crazy and often dumb shit they do during their matches. The point stands though, and I’d ask this very plane question:

What in your life would you be willing to do that for?

Seriously, think about it. That’s the point here, and that’s why this entire 2024-25 arc is important for AEW. The fall of Mox, and the destruction of Danielson. Additionally, the entirety of Page and Swerve’s feud and how their characters were forever broken down, rebuilt and forever molded into something new. Something unrecognizable before that moment Swerve strolled into Page’s home. They are not the same people anymore, including Danielson. They are forever changed and molded into new forms representative of everything Mox talked about in 2022, as well as everything that followed in his wake since that moment.

Only now, arguably, Mox needs them to help him rediscover his way back. These characters and stories matter, and feuds like Mox and Cope provide the context to add colour to their combined “why.” Further, as I highlighted last week, “why” and purpose are everything in storytelling. The Cope and Mox feud brings recent Mox back in line with the crazy dude people fear, and brings him up to the level of recent Swerve. They are on par, they are equals, and they will fight for the soul of AEW at Dynasty.

And from their promo segment at Dynamite last week, that’s just what Mox wants.

Mortal Kombat!

The kicker is that they have become the same person, just as Swerve pointed out on Wednesday. They believe in the same things, they fight the same fights, they bleed for the same reasons and with unbridled passion. They believe in what AEW can still be. That message sets the tone, proving the product of hard work and dedication can still be success.

Toward the beginning of the year I argued that Darby Allin needs to be the one to dethrone Mox. Perhaps that still happens, but I would argue that should no longer be the case. While he certainly deserves the chance, this Moxley reign has run its course and AEW needs to pivot to its heir apparent once more. The second part of that 2022 Moxley promo talked about “winners” not being afraid to take the shot when the game is on the line in the fourth quarter. He said that even in spite of how heavy the weight was on his shoulders, regardless of the odds, winners take the shot not because they need to, rather because they want to. He wanted the ball to reestablish AEW after the Bucks and Punk had their childish squabble.

Narratively we are at that point now. Moxley has betrayed everything he stood for in that promo, and while it would be a nicety to wait for Darby Allin to return from conquering Everest, the run has staled and a change is necessary. The time is now to recrown Swerve as AEW champion. Whether Moxley likes it or not, as he’s dribbling to create his own shot, Swerve needs to be the one to steal the ball, take it down the court and dunk it emphatically to assume the mantle of AEW’s soul and moral compass.