Bryan Danielson and Jon Moxley will collide this Wednesday night at Arthur Ashe Stadium for the vacant AEW World Heavyweight Championship. And with that, Tony Khan has a big decision to make.
Not just because he’s crowning a new world champion. There’s more. Khan needs to add legitimacy back to a title which has seen very little stability in 2022 due to multiple injuries and a backstage brawl. This after the first three years of the company were spent with long championship reigns, each title switch coming with great fanfare.
Just look at the length of every AEW World Championship reign prior to CM Punk’s victory at Double or Nothing: Chris Jericho (182 days), Jon Moxley (277 days), Kenny Omega (346 days), and Adam Page (197 days).
In addition to solidifying the title’s credibility once more, the new champion will also play an important role in passing the baton to the next major star for the promotion — everyone assumes that MJF is the champion-in-waiting. But even with MJF hovering in the shadows, the new champion crowned on Wednesday night needs to be more than a transitional champion.
The champion-to-be will be adding stability back to a main event scene that has seen too much fluidity over the summer. And with that, there could be no better choices than Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson.
But who on earth do you put over here? Both choices certainly have a lot of positives to them, leading to a lot of unpredictability heading into Wednesday’s broadcast. That’s what will make this such an interesting viewing experience.
That and the fact that Moxley and Danielson are two of the absolute best in the world right now and are sure to tear the house down.
Jon Moxley as AEW Champion Again?
Moxley has been the hottest singles star in AEW for the last several months. He was a fantastic interim champion given the circumstances, and you almost hated to see him lose the title at All Out. However, the way the match was setup (with the quick victory over Punk on Dynamite) and with the PPV in Punk’s hometown, it was a move they had to make at the time. Really, it was the only logical result.
Of course, nobody could have foreseen what was about to happen backstage, nor could we predict that Punk would injure his left triceps and be out of action once again, this time for at least six months, after the match. Either way, the title was going to be vacated once again.
Now, you could move the title back to Moxley and make him AEW’s first three-time world champion. Nobody would have a problem with it given how great he’s been of late; well, except maybe Moxley since he was supposed to be going on vacation prior to the backstage fight in Chicago. But I digress…
AEW has clearly been setting up Moxley vs. MJF on television, and most expect that match to occur at Full Gear. Are they telegraphing the winner of the tournament in doing so?
Well, maybe not. Perhaps that will end up being a non-title match and you delay MJF using his “chip” for further down the line. Or maybe it comes sooner, more on that in a second.
If Moxley and MJF was for the title at Full Gear, you’ve got to figure that MJF wins. Do you want Moxley to have another short title reign? That’s a tough decision.
Bryan Danielson as AEW Champion for the First Time?
Danielson has become a living legend. It has become a near-indisputable fact that the American Dragon is one of the top ten in-ring workers of all time. The large majority of fans and his fellow wrestlers themselves seem to share this opinion, including Moxley who has stated on numerous occasions that he believes Bryan to be the greatest ever.
There’s no denying that Danielson holding the AEW World Championship would be well-deserved and a great moment. Similar to Moxley, you would hate for it to be in only a transitional spot, with a possible championship loss to MJF at Full Gear.
If Bryan captures the title and they do Moxley/MJF in a non-title situation at Full Gear, you give Bryan a six month or so run as champion, with an eventual loss to MJF at Revolution. Or you could do it earlier at Winter Is Coming in December, giving him a three month run; not great but better than the less than two month scenario that a loss at Full Gear would be.
There is risk in this scenario, though. As pointed out earlier, the AEW title has become a hot potato in recent months due to outside events. Bryan has already suffered an injury this year that kept him out of action for a significant period of time; you’d hate to see AEW lose their world champion once again for an extended period. And if it were to happen, please oh please, no interim champion this time.
While it is a risk, a Bryan title run would solidify the title again by putting the belt around the waist of arguably the most-respected performer of his generation. Yes, there’s inherit risk. But to me, the reward outweighs the risk.
Then again, there’s one more possibility…
MJF Walks Out of AEW Dynamite Grand Slam the World Champion
There’s a distinct possibility that MJF could walk out the world champion this Wednesday night. Don’t underestimate the shock value factor here as AEW could look to do something that could shock the audience, giving them some much-needed momentum after most in the industry feel WWE has seized the moment recently. This is the option that would make for the flashiest headlines, by far.
Plus, putting the title on your hottest young star could hardly be seen as a bad thing. And an MJF reign would almost certainly be lengthy, stabilizing the title once again, one of the most important aspects for the next champion.
So how does it happen? MJF could add himself to the match early in the show, informing the audience he’s cashing in “the chip” and making it a triple threat on short notice. In a triple threat scenario, he could defeat Bryan in order to build intrigue to a match with Moxley (“you never beat me”).
MJF could also pull a WWE Money In The Bank style moment by using his title shot immediately after the main event. Either way works, but one scenario avoids yet another short-term title change.
Either way, Tony Khan has a big decision to make. With television contract negotiations looming next year, the impact of how Wednesday night turns out could be felt for a very long time. It has the possibility of leading to some very hot television for the next several months at a time when the company very much needs it.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments or give me a shout on Twitter @ryandroste.
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