The beautiful thing about AEW is that it doesn't give a fuck about faces and heels and what the audience thinks at the end of the day if it gets in the way of telling the story of the characters and that often makes people So Angry but it will ultimately make these storylines (minus adjustments for things for injuries) hold up so much better looking back in five, fifteen, even twenty-five years.
Mox is crashing out, tapping out left and right, a broken shell of a man mentally while the family he militarized around him prepares to put him down. Marina Shafir is the ultimate Spartan Mother: you come back with your shield or on it when it counts, and she loves him, she's given him every advantage she can, been at his side every match and moment, handed him his safety net fork like a mother passes a baby a rattle (like Don Callis passes the screwdriver) and it still isn't enough to get him back to himself.
oh boy big post
So he's running around, rambling about 'what even is winning and losing' because he's healthy (because he tapped again) denigrating the rules of Death-Jitsu like honoring your opponent when they deserve it, shit talking the very people like KOR and Darby that he founded the Death Riders and who he gave up so much of what was comfortable in his life to inspire to step up because now they've stepped up past him.
And Marina and the rest see this. And they know what it means. Because the Death Riders were founded as the Spartan force to push people to try harder, to not grow complacent with lazy crowd-pleasing gimmicks and half-assed ring work. To inspire the next generation or two of AEW true stars to step up and show themselves as Kenny and the Bucks and Jericho and Danielson and now yes, maybe Mox, show that their days are numbered.
And now we have the New Trinity with Ospreay, Swerve, Hangman. The women's division has NEVER looked better. Bandido better get wrestler of the year or so help me, and Kyle Fletcher, Mark Briscoe, Komander, Penelope Ford, Harley Cameron, Brody King and others who had been on the roster suddenly started shining in whole new ways.
And those who treat the belts with disrespect? As trophies to be collected, or personal legacies to be cemented, or as grudges to be used? They will not succeed, or at least not for long.
But that was all built on the backs of a massive, difficult, and personal sacrifice. Jon Moxley looked at Bryan Danielson in his reign as AEW Men's World Champion and saw it corrupting the man he loved when he was at his weakest. Not weak, but old, tired, and not prepared for the burdens and challenges of carrying the belt. I am straight up talking carrying the One Ring of Sauron slow corruption here.
Championship belts in AEW are not just belts, or things that make you representatives for the company and sport. They are crowns and scepters that weigh heavy and make you King or Queen, with all the responsibilities and lack of authority that comes with that in a modern constitutional democracy. (Or I guess this would be more a meritocracy?) As Jon said in his Death Riders arc, you are responsible for making sure the company does not collapse. You are responsible for filling seats and bringing eyes to the product. You are responsible for Being Wrestling in whatever your belt represents, because this is AEW, where the best wrestle.
There is a reason Mercedes Mone is able to collect every single belt in the world. But the two* times she has failed, have been for the AEW Women's Championship. Because, as Toni told her: it's not about how many belts, and if you treat it like just another belt, it's never going to work. For a moment she almost remembered that, casting off all her other belts symbolically with her bridal cape at All In, and indeed, now Toni is the one that got away after all. But she is right back to parading her belt collection, and using them as weapons in cage matches, and she is doomed to fail.
Samoa Joe started his return against Hangman when he chucked the AEW World Trios's Title at his chest like a used sweat rag without even looking, letting it fall at his feet, never mind that that belt had once meant a great deal to Adam as well. Now it's Lesser than the True Prize he's clinging to as tightly as he can, with low blows every match and shouted promos screaming that he's the champion of the fucking world. Forgotten almost immediately are the months and months of work he did to get to this point to win the belt in the first place and be the champion he promised to be, letting people in to help him, opening himself up instead of closing himself off. Now he repeatedly screams about how proud he is of the things he was most ashamed of, lies through his teeth and makes propaganda films.
Samoa Joe looks at the Death Riders and incorporates their best elements, listening to what Jon Moxley is teaching, while taking BCC and Conglomeration and other lessons as well. He loses a cage match to Jon Moxley six months ago by a hairsbreath because Jon has the Death Riders to back him up and run interference and Joe was trying to play fair on his own and had no one. He forms the Opps, realizes that trying to do anything totally on your own is stupid, and takes out Hangman with the same tactics after calling him out for being a weak champion, falling into the same trap and failing to take Jon's advice. He nearly lost the trios belts but gets Hook to understand why he was replaced and to come back and work with them with open arms.
Jon Moxley founded the Death Riders when he looked at Bryan Danielson, and realized it was more than just he wasn't acting like himself (self-obsessed, ignoring Yuta, into the lights and fame and crowd more than the wrestling) it was that he was old, and weak, and absolutely going to get himself killed doing what he was doing. And that the Bryan Danielson that he knew, the real Bryan, would hate going out like that.
So Mox manufactured a good last final match, and ended things with dignity and respect for Bryan. And then he spent almost a year holding that belt, tucked away where it wasn't on show, wasn't a trophy, wasn't a prize to show that he was proud of what he had done. He wasn't here to wear the crown and be King Mox this time. He was here to be regent, tend the kingdom, and wait until the new king pulled the sword from the stone and showed himself. To carry the burden until he could make sure it would be placed in responsible hands that would carry AEW forward, who wanted power not for power's sake, who could bear the weight without having it threaten AEW or destroy them like it did Bryan Danielson. And he did. (Or we all thought he did at the time.)
He told Swerve he wasn't going to make it if he didn't pass a certain test, and when they had that last interaction I knew I wouldn't get my beloved Champ Swerve back. Because for all he was a fantastic champion, he was a champ who Loved the trappings of being champion. He took the belt home with him everywhere, he wore regal furs and gold and diamonds and had his crier/jester and was every inch a king. But he spoke all the time about how important it was to him he looked the part to inspire young black kids and others as well. And when he wanted the belt back, he spoke about it as reclaiming his legacy. Reclaiming it to wear it once more for how it felt and looked when he did. And it came off that way.
What Jon was looking for, what Hangman eventually became after Double or Nothing, was a mentality of a leader who brings AEW together and carries or wears the belt as symbol to be respected, but not revered in its own right. And an Attitude of "Ask not what AEW can do for you, but what you can do for AEW." This is what Adam won with, and what hit so hard. But this is also the attitude that slipped through his fingers, very quickly, as we saw the 'Champion of the Fucking World' isolate himself and stoop to lower and lower tactics to protect what he now covets.
Don't worry though. The crowd still chants Cowboy Shit. No one would dare question Hangman Adam Page. (Except maybe those who were listening to Jon Moxley, or others who have always called him on his shit like MJF or Samoa Joe)
So now here we are. Marina Shafir is looking at Jon Moxley, and knowing that the Jon who lived by the principles of Death-Jitsu, who made that hard decision, would absolutely hate the man who went back into the ring after tapping out to KOR to beat the shit out of him while he was bleeding out instead of bow or shake his hand. And she's going to have to make a similar decision soon.
And I Love That. Enjoy paternity leave Jon. We'll miss you.
But what always fascinates and frustrates me the most about AEW is how much people are already baying for Mox's blood with glee, while simultaneously complaining about Hangman's loss or any of the Death Riders' other actions, like there isn't a very clear thoroughline.
*Edit: Notes in comments not reblogs this is NOT the three hour essay but I missed a couple things I'm sure.
