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Who should dethrone Jon Moxley as AEW Champion?

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Who should dethrone Jon Moxley as AEW Champion?

As a dedicated fan with over two decades of wrestling fandom under my belt, I have witnessed the rise and fall of countless champions across various promotions. However, none have quite captured my heart like the current AEW scene, particularly its gritty, no-nonsense stars who embody the spirit of independent wrestling.

In a predictable turn of events during the weekend, Jon Moxley successfully defended his AEW title in his initial defense of this current reign, managing to fend off Orange Cassidy’s attempt despite one strong near-victory moment.

After the match concluded, a frenzy erupted as several potential contenders for Moxley’s title entered the fray during the aftermath. This unpredictable sequence presents numerous possibilities for AEW to introduce a new adversary for Moxley as World’s End approaches. The scene inside the ring became particularly noteworthy with the involvement of Christian Cage, “Hangman” Adam Page, and Jay White, potentially sparking rivalries between Jon Moxley and any one of them. However, among these formidable contenders, two stand out as fitting more seamlessly into the AEW vs. Moxley and his Death Riders narrative: Darby Allin and Eddie Kingston.

It appears that Darby Allin is the likely contender to dethrone Jon Moxley. The AEW Full Gear event concluded with Allin bleeding and standing on the hood of Moxley’s car, shouting about their feud not ending yet as Moxley and his group, the Death Riders, exited the parking lot. Darby Allin is an original AEW talent, and to many devoted AEW fans, he embodies the spirit of AEW. He’s a performer who takes risks and sacrifices his body for the betterment of the company, making him a popular choice among fans. If Allin were to win the top men’s AEW title from someone as prominent as Jon Moxley, it would only serve to elevate Allin further in the rankings and offer AEW something unique: an underdog champion who must battle from the bottom, a figure that fans would eagerly support.

While Darby Allin would be an excellent choice as the next AEW Champion, a case must also be made for Eddie Kingston. Allin and Kingston have many similarities, both worked the independent wrestling scene before getting their big break in AEW. Both are extremely over with fans and both generally wrestle as underdogs which generates crowd buy-in. Where Darby Allin is generally the underdog because of his size, Kingston fills that role because of his perceived lack of athleticism and conditioning. He has been seen by many of his opponents as someone who does not fit in with the elite performers in the sport in many past storylines. This slight that Kingston has to endure feels a lot like bullying and it makes Kingston feel like he is fighting for the common man, which the crowd gets fully behind with huge pops whenever Kingston’s music hits.

When debating which one of these two stars should be the one to take the next step by defeating Jon Moxley to become the next AEW Champion, Kingston has a couple of clear advantages. One, Kingston already has a complicated past with Jon Moxley. Their past automatically adds another layer to the Moxley versus AEW storyline and could make for some excellent storytelling within the promotion. Second, Kingston is currently dealing with a serious knee injury. In professional wrestling, absence making the heart grow fonder is a tried and true recipe to capture fan investment, if the story is good. And it would be for Moxley versus Kingston. Kingston is most likely going to be out of action until the summer of 2025. This is plenty of time for Moxley to continue his reign of terror and defeat anyone else who tries to stand up to him in the name of AEW until Kingston is ready to make his return.

The truth is AEW can’t go wrong with crowning either Eddie Kingston or Darby Allin as the next AEW Champion. Either way, they will be elevating one of their more popular performers up to the next level, giving them more fresh options in the promotion’s main event scene. The best way for AEW to decide this should simply come down to one thing, timing. If Moxley winning the AEW Title from Bryan Danielson was creatively meant to be a transitional title reign, then Darby Allin makes the most sense. However, if the story of Moxley’s title reign is slated to continue well into 2025, then the promotion most definitely should hold off until Eddie Kingston is ready to make his return and the “Mad King” should be AEW’s next World Champion.

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2024-11-25 17:15

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