“You can have fun continuing to play Jon Moxley on TV.”
This line from Swerve Strickland on a March 2025 episode of AEW Dynamite delighted me for a couple of reasons. For starters, it was a fun reference to my favorite Dean Ambrose promo in WWE, where the former- and future-Moxley would direct the same barb towards John Cena.
However, in the context of the Death Riders’ initial run, this line also resonated with me because, for the first time since joining AEW, it truly did feel like “Jon Moxley” was a character being played rather than a wrestler I believed in.
Up until he won the AEW World Championship for a fourth time — murdering his friend and then-stablemate Bryan Danielson in the process — Jon Moxley had a fairly consistent character. He was tough as nails and seeking a “paradigm shift” the moment he joined AEW. He’d joined AEW in its infancy to fight a bunch of people and to build up the sport. He said as much in his first promo after Double or Nothing 2019: “This is an official declaration of war tonight to anyone who wants to get in my way. To anyone who stands in AEW’s way.”
This declaration became the backbone of Moxley’s character for the next five years. Whether he was getting violent with Kenny Omega, wrenching the AEW World Championship from the clutches of Chris Jericho, defending the title from monsters like Brodie Lee or jerky hopefuls like MJF, or joining with Bryan Danielson and William Regal to create a wrestling haven in the Blackpool Combat Club, you could still see the vision. Moxley was taking on all comers, proving that he was the toughest, and in increasing his stock, he was also using it to better AEW, whether as champion or as a mentor for guys like Wheeler Yuta.
Then, from late 2024 until late 2025, Moxley suddenly became this incredible self-serving character which was totally inconsistent with who he was beforehand.
I’m no stranger to heel turns and “you people” promos and seeing someone fully switch characters. For example, “Tribal Chief” Roman Reigns feels like a far cry from “Big Dog” Roman Reigns despite the two characters only being separated by Roman’s absence between WrestleMania and SummerSlam in 2020. I don’t think this was a bad turn at all — in fact, I loved it at the time and still appreciate it now — but I don’t think it was a natural turn in-storyline.
In AEW, the main eventers around Jon Moxley were evolving. Hangman’s heel turn in early 2024 was based on his anxiety, paranoia, and burning desire for the AEW World Championship, things which defined him as a face. During MJF’s run as the top good guy from summer to winter in 2023, he still called himself a bad guy, was still obsessed with gold and admiration, still used his Dynamite Diamond Ring (but now in a cheeky way like Eddie Guerrero), and still clowned on his enemies with catchphrases and low-hanging fruit. On the simpler side, Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay are two characters who simply want to be the best wrestler, and their face or heel nature at any point depends on how low they’re willing to go to prove themselves — and how closely they align with one Don Callis.
When Jon Moxley turned heel, he explained it as him trying to put his broken friend, Bryan Danielson, out to pasture. When he turned the Blackpool Combat Club into the Death Riders, he explained it as ushering in a new era of ruthlessness and aggression, and he claimed that the AEW roster needed friction to grow.
This all made some sense. From day one, Moxley said he wanted to defend AEW. As the leader of the Death Riders and the new four-time AEW World Champion, Mox began claiming that he wanted to purge AEW of weakness, and what do you know? After he beat Private Party with hammers, they became tag team champions for the first time.
But, then I start to wonder. Why was the World Championship in a briefcase? Well, he explained that no one else deserves to see the championship and that he is the championship. Okay. Sure.
But, if he’s this tough guy, why does he need Marina Shafir? Well, he’s building up a wrestler who has potential and is tough and who is trustworthy enough to protect his briefcase. Yeah, I get that.
But, okay, why is tough guy Jon Moxley, who says he wants AEW’s roster to get better, outright cheating to make sure that none of these young guys who ARE beating him one-on-one (and are, in theory, perfect candidates to be the face of the company) actually have a chance to beat him and become champion? Well, this is just more of that adversity, you see, so it’s cool. Even if Moxley’s previous character was a violent anti-hero who pretty much stood up to all cheaters.
All of the counterarguments I mentioned above stem from a video AEW put out on their YouTube channel in January 2025, where the members of the Death Riders — months after forming — finally gave a clear mission statement. Claudio was aligned with Moxley and wanted to retire Bryan. PAC hated AEW and wanted it to change. Yuta idolized Moxley and felt he brought the best out of him. Marina found purpose, comparing caring for the AEW World Championship to caring for her child.
Then, Moxley talked about creating an industry built of 1,000 Jon Moxleys. He talked about the roster needing to earn their view of the AEW World Championship. He also said that the Death Riders actually rolled really deep in terms of members, and anyone who wants to be a member can be one so long as they know how to check their ego at the door and just fight.
When I first saw this video, it stunned me. I wanted to believe that this video would make this Jon Moxley title run — where the vague, inconsistent character was already becoming grating just two months in — finally make sense. I showed it to a lot of AEW fans in hopes of getting their thoughts and seeing if this spiel would actually explain who Death Rider Moxley was.
But then, as Mox continued to call for interference during his matches, wrestled veteran Adam Copeland in two matches where (as sick as the second match was) Cope winning would have been an all-time misfire in terms of the story, and accepted help from the Young Bucks for months straight, it really felt like Moxley’s character and the story around him were nonsensical.
I couldn’t just accept that Moxley was a delusional, selfish heel, but that’s what he was looking like for the middle chunk of his title reign last year, and it was a bummer. I’d bought into the character of a violent brawler who was ride or die for AEW, and it sucked to see him have a character who claimed to have nuance but was really just A Bad Guy™.
That’s why I’ve been so enthralled with Moxley’s redemption and relationship with Will Ospreay.
Moxley’s face turn was pretty much just him wrestling so well that the fans liked him again. The Continental Classic does that to a dude. But in all seriousness, Moxley earned fan approval at Worlds End 2025 by wrestling two members of the Don Callis Family (a cheat code if I’ve ever seen one) and having two banger matches in doing so. After that, Moxley was a face without really having to atone for his sins.
Then, Ospreay came back, and he naturally still had beef with the guy who broke his neck last August. However, Moxley now had the nuance he’d claimed to have as AEW World Champion. He still had an army of dudes who I would argue are still villains, but Moxley never let them attack Ospreay with full force again. Instead, once Ospreay had been beaten and held down by Moxley, Mox told Ospreay plainly that he could’ve put Ospreay back on the shelf right then and there.
Moxley and Ospreay fought at Dynasty 2026, and Moxley attacked Ospreay’s neck, exposing Will’s fatal flaw. Then, after Ospreay lost a match to Mark Davis — a match Ospreay should have realistically won if not for his bad neck — Moxley and crew came out, saved Ospreay from a further beatdown, and offered Ospreay training.
At present, Jon Moxley just got done teaching Will Ospreay — AEW’s golden boy who is probably going to win the World Championship this summer — a lesson about fighting with anger instead of with a game plan, then helped him heal his neck. Why? Not as recruitment for the Death Riders; no, Ospreay already said he was disinterested.
Instead, the Jon Moxley character is finally matching the lie he told in January 2025. Yes, Hangman benefitted from overcoming Moxley at All In: Texas, but Will Ospreay’s journey to the top of the card is being directly aided by Moxley’s involvement as a mentor and teacher. Ospreay’s adding submissions into his game, his neck is becoming less of a factor, and if AEW plays this right, Ospreay might just be slower to anger in future rivalries.
This is exciting as a Will Ospreay fan. It’s revolutionary as a Jon Moxley fan.
AEW World Champion and Death Riders leader Jon Moxley probably “makes sense” if you accept that he was just delusional, lying to himself and the fans alike, but those Young Bucks tags and the Copeland detour and the Death Riders not even recruiting a new member until 10 months after they formed still make it feel as though Mox’s character was undercooked. A lot of potential was lost, and for a promotion that prides itself on in-ring storytelling, Mox didn’t wrestle how he spoke.
I’m hopeful for the future, though, and as we continue to watch Moxley dig his knuckles into Wheeler Yuta’s jaw while an unaffiliated Billy Goat does neck bridges in front of him, I can’t help but think that this Moxley would’ve handled his championship run a lot differently.
