Moxley Redeemed? | AEWeekly #201

Welcome to the #AEWeekly review discussion where PWM contributors reflect on the highlights of the last week in AEW. The eligibility week always includes the most recent episode of Dynamite and Collision, plus any social-media exclusives up until publication.

This week’s contributors are Abel [@loza3.bsky.social] covering Match of the Week, Lauren [@sithwitch.bsky.social] exploring a key Story Beat, special guest Greyson [@greysonpeltier.bsky.social] giving us the Moment of the Week, and Sergei [@sergeialderman.bsky.social] editing and organizing it all.

 A page of links to prior installments may be found here: #AEWeekly

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Jon Moxley vs Kyle Fletcher

"Only in the Continental Classic."

by Abel.

The Continental Classic came to an end at World’s End, and the 2025 edition of the tournament might have been the best. Not only for the stories it told, but also for the quality of the matches. In the semi-finals of the Continental Classic, we saw both front and center in what was one of the most entertaining matches of not just the year, but in the history of All Elite Wrestling. Kyle Fletcher vs Jon Moxley was the epitome of what the tournament is, but on a grander scale, what AEW is all about. For those reasons, and many others, Fletcher vs Moxley in the semi-finals of the Continental Classic is the match of the week.

Moxley vs. Fletcher was the second match of the pay-per-view and had some stiff competition, as it was following a fantastic match between Konosuke Takeshita and Kazuchika Okada. That match was everything you could ask for; however, while both were great matches, ultimately Fletcher/Moxley's match was better than Takeshita/Okada's, because of the finish. The finish for Fletcher/Moxley was the culmination of an emotional, savage, and beautiful match that had us see Moxley standing tall in the middle of the ring, nearly completing his full circle moment.

Moxley’s journey is two-fold. The first layer is his own personal perseverance, which always endears him to the AEW crowd. Somewhere along the way, Moxley forgot that, and the C2 tournament was the best way for him to remember again. The second layer was how the C2 tournament opened his eyes to the fact that AEW has always been the company he wanted it to be, rather than something he needed to fix — a remarkable story.

​The match itself was a classic. It pitted two of AEW's biggest sickos on the roster, so you knew that both Fletcher and Moxley were going to lay it all on the line. “Effort” was the word of the match. Every Moxley promo up to that point preached the virtues of effort, and that was front and center in the ring and on the announce table. The Bryan Danielson angle to this match was exquisite. As much as we want to embrace Moxley, Danielson is there to remind us of what he did to OUR beloved American Dragon. Danielson, on commentary, reminds us of what he endured at the hands of the Death Riders. That is set up to give us an apprehension of Moxley.

​A slow start to the match has become a staple of Fletcher's. It builds the anxiety in the crowd, and once Moxley put his hands on Fletcher, the crowd’s bloodlust was sated. Moxley’s leg was the headline of the match. Fletcher worked the leg, and even when the leg wasn't supposed to play into the match, it serendipitously did — when his leg was caught on the rope after a tope. His leg was masterfully used as a red herring.

​This match was barbaric. Between the brainsbuster on the apron, the Avalanche cut-throat suplex, or the rear-naked choke that won Moxley the match, it all looked real, and real painful — an element that is sometimes underappreciated. But when you have two monsters in the ring, they know how to use their physicality to their advantage. It paid off when the crowd stood up and got loud the second Moxley put Fletcher in that first Bulldog choke, which shows how much Moxley had won over this crowd. Fletcher tapping out looked as realistic as any UFC chokehold I've ever seen. Coming in and out of life builds tension to the moment and creates the force that will drive the crowd to explode. It was beautiful.

​The “Moxley” chant, ringing throughout the “NOW” Arena, was chaotically beautiful. That moment was brought to you because of what? That’s right. Effort. Those fans saw how much Moxley was leaving on the mat, and smart wrestling fans appreciate that. Not only that, but it also opened up storytelling and allowed the fans to be part of the story.  Fletcher looking for the screwdriver and not finding it is one of the most creative story angles ever. It connected this match’s story with the one from the previous match. Not only that, but it also finally made a connection between Okada vs Fletcher. However, the crescendo to this match was Moxley kicking out at one from a knee strike.

​Between Moxley and Fletcher’s reaction to how the crowd absolutely popped gave everyone life in Chicago. Moxley joined them, his adrenaline and emotion exploding when Fletcher tapped, and that's what makes him the best in the world. Moxley winning this match was as far from what many prognosticators predicted as possible. We were all so sure he was going to lose in the semi-finals, and some of us had him not even making it out of the round robin. But his winning makes all the sense in the world.

Fletcher's loss will also add an element to his character in future tournaments. This is the second time that Fletcher has come up short. If the Protostar ever decides to go babyface and they pull the trigger on him to win, that might turn into one of the greatest AEW moments of all time.

In the microcosm, this match’s legacy will be about Moxley’s story. In the macro, it will be about the impact the Continental Classic has had on storytelling. By their very nature, tournaments aren't built for storytelling, regardless of the sport. However, when used correctly, a tournament can be the greatest ally for storytelling. This match is proof of that.

Jon Moxley

"Maybe he wanted it more, or maybe he needed it more..."

by Lauren.

Jon Moxley has had a hell of a year. Until All In, he was the AEW Men's World Champion, hiding the belt away. Then he was a spiraling cult leader, losing several matches via tapping out and causing everyone to anticipate that the titular world ending would be his, when the Death Riders would cut out the weakness and turn on him the way he turned on his former comrade Bryan Danielson.

Instead, Mox found himself again.

Gone for now is the coward who sent his troops in to fight his battles for him. Over the course of the Continental Classic, Mox rediscovered his fighting spirit and his love of the sport. In his semifinal match with Kyle Fletcher, the impossible happened: the crowd cheered for Mox. Between Mox's post-match promos about how the simplicity of the C2 encapsulated what he loves about wrestling and Fletcher playing the bully, the audience began to pull for him. The moment where he broke a tooth, while (hopefully) unplanned, seemed to act as the turning point of the match. While Fletcher tried to use a previously hidden screwdriver–one which had been swiped, used, and discarded by Okada earlier–Mox won clean, tapping Fletcher out. The crowd once again chanted “You tapped out,” but for the first time in months, it wasn't directed at Mox.

After, though a numbed mouth and “gritted, broken teeth” as his own wife Renee Paquette stated, Mox once again praised the Continental Classic, calling it “a hill worth dying on.” This was the Mox who carried AEW on his back for five years. For the first time in ages, his supposed goal of wanting everyone at AEW to fight at their very best felt real, and not like self-serving platitudes.

And then came the final match against Kazuchika Okada, the greatest tournament wrestler of all time. Even Bryan Danielson, the man Mox had previously betrayed and retired, reluctantly praised his performance. And then Mox won.

The Death Riders (minus Pac, probably due to travel issues instead of anything nefarious) ran out, hugging Mox in a display of affection they haven't displayed in a long, long time. They hugged Mox. Claudio Castagnoli, who went from a cheerful badass to a stoic warrior when the Blackpool Combat Club were reborn as the Death Riders, spun Mox in an embrace. He even put the belt on Mox's waist. Panting through pain and exertion, Mox declared that the belt belongs to everyone competing in the Continental Classic, as well as to the fans, a far cry from the man who hid the Men's World Championship belt away.

It would be a mistake to say that in one night he managed to change the opinions of everyone around him; it was a long hard-fought battle over the course of a month and seven matches.

Mox not only won the C2, he won back the hearts of everyone who had turned against him. It's one thing to say that AEW should be a place where everyone improves themselves to be the best they can be, and it's another to exemplify that by doing it himself.

Jon Moxley

"The Redemption of Jon Moxley..."

by Greyson.

The Death Riders storyline can be viewed as two conflicts: one with Moxley and his Death Riders versus the rest of the AEW roster, but also an internal one within Jon Moxley. On one side, you have the goal of maintaining total control of everything in AEW, making sure it conforms to his ideal of serious pro wrestling, symbolized by the Men’s World Championship and executed through constant beatdowns by The Death Riders, in order to ensure that AEW stays strong, because no one but him and Death Riders are capable of doing so. On the other, the goal would be to fight hard with the objective of building toughness among the entire AEW roster and setting an example of the Death Riders principles of “persistence, resilience, and preparation,” strengthening them to be the best they can be at their individual expressions of the sport. We could see early signs of him gravitating toward the latter on commentary in a match on Collision with MxM Collection, a team known for their comedic fashion model gimmick, where he complimented them rather than chiding them. The seeds for this change, however, were planted far earlier. 

Now, if Jon Moxley’s key question to his opponents (and AEW as a whole) is, “where is your grit?,” then Hangman likewise asks, “where is your soul?” After going through all the beatdowns and interference attempts and getting to the achievement of Hangman’s win of the Men’s World Championship against Moxley at All In, his subsequent rematch, Moxley saying “I quit” to Darby Allin, and tapping out repeatedly to Kyle O’Reilly, it is clear that the collective grit of AEW is stronger than ever. And by Moxley’s words after his win of the Continental Championship at AEW Worlds End, we now know for sure where his soul is, with the AEW movement as a whole rather than his prior tyrannical attempts to control it. During his run as Men’s World Champion, Moxley believed he was the championship, others were deemed not even worthy to even see the belt, and hence why the belt was held in a briefcase throughout his reign. By saying “this doesn’t belong to me” about the Continental Championship he just won, but rather that it belongs to every wrestler who fought through the Continental Classic, and to the fans, he made a complete reversal from the positions he held at the start of the Death Riders storyline. “We are the hardest working professional wrestlers in the world, and I am not just talking about the people standing in the ring with me right now,” Moxley continued while members of The Death Riders were present in the ring. 

On the journey to his win, as he gradually began to embrace the strength of the rest of the roster, Moxley genuinely lived out the Death Riders ideals he sought to engender to them, rather than his earlier hypocrisy of proclaiming himself to be the best fighter in AEW while consistently needing outside interference from members of The Death Riders to win his matches. The Continental Classic rules forced him to need to have a clean win, so he put in the work to do so. He did push-ups and conditioning drills with his team even after very intense matches and gave motivational promos about continuing to fight as an underdog when he was behind in the standings and being motivated by a passion for the craft of pro wrestling rather than for an external reward (in contrast to the Don Callis Family). For him to get this win is to prove definitively that he does live up to the standards he holds his colleagues to. 

Jon Moxley’s change of heart shows that the effort and hard work of Hangman Adam Page, Darby Allin, The Conglomeration, and all those who fought the Death Riders does in fact have durability, as Moxley might put it. What we saw at Worlds End, Jon Moxley confidently holding the Continental belt, extolling the virtues of his colleagues, and being cheered for his win, could not have happened unless Hangman Adam Page fought valiantly and freed the AEW Men’s World Championship belt from that briefcase in Arlington at All In, opening Moxley’s eyes to the true strength of a fighting champion who stands for “hard work, collective action, and respect for his fellow man,” as Excalibur put it so well. I believe Jon Moxley remembered some of the values Hangman has consistently set as standards for a champion and chose to embody them, when he said those words at Worlds End. This moment, when Jon Moxley acknowledged the true meaning of a champion in AEW, is our Moment of the Week. 

As a new year approaches with new challenges, in pro wrestling and in life, let us also remember the message of Jon Moxley: to stay strong and not lose hope because “the battle continues tomorrow. That’s what the life is about, man.”