Jon Moxley and Kenny Omega tore the house down as the final match at Saturday night’s AEW Full Gear pay-per-view. This installment of our Statistical Analysis feature takes a deep dive into this hardcore clash between two of AEW’s most violent competitors. Let’s take a look at the key factors that led Jon Moxley to victory.
Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega
Unsanctioned “Lights Out” Match
AEW Full Gear (November 9th, 2019)
One of two matches on the Full Gear card dating back to Double or Nothing, the build for this match has spanned seven months. AEW fans have anticipated this match from the moment Jon Moxley attacked Kenny Omega in the final minutes of Double or Nothing.
Cancelled at All Out due to Moxley’s Mercer infection only heightened fans desire to see these two clash in an AEW ring. After six weeks of spotlight on AEW Dynamite, the build to this match has simmered to boiling point. To say that it finally boiled over at Full Gear would not do it justice!
Omega vs Moxley: The Numbers
This match was a very violent and painful 38 minutes 45 seconds and contained 165 offensive manoeuvres. Thus meaning viewers witnessed, an often brutal, offensive action ever 14 seconds! Kenny Omega was the man who dealt out the majority this collective offence with 58% of it coming from him.
As previously mentioned, this was an extremely violent match. In fact, 64 of the 165 offensive actions would have been illegal in a traditional match, that’s 39%.
Omega was not out of his depth in this kind of contest with 40 of his 96 manoeuvres fitting the criteria of this category, 42% of his total offensive moves. In comparison, Moxley’s numbers were 24 of 69, 35%. Not many people would have expected Kenny Omega to be the more violent participant in this match up.
Statistically, Kenny Omega owned Jon Moxley in this match up. He out did him when we examine strikes, dives, reversals and use of usually illegal offence. There was a small advantage for Moxley through use of submission and they cancelled each other out when it came to the use of grapples. When we look at these numbers it is far from clear how Moxley won this match.
The Margins of Victory
Part of the story here is Moxley’s ability to absorb the kind of punishment he endured in this match from his years of experience in these types of encounter. This was illustrated by the pre-match video package. Kenny Omega does not have the same level of experience.
Another strand of this Moxley-victory is the simple fact he hit the Paradigm Shift, twice. The Paradigm Shift is easier to execute than Kenny Omega’s more deadly One Winged Angel which Moxley did escape from in this match. The same was often true in Omega’s encounters with Okada who often benefitted from the hit-rate of his finishing move as opposed to the effectiveness of Omega’s.
Both Moxley’s ability to absorb extreme levels of punishment and the swiftness of the Paradigm Shift are undoubtedly factors. However, ultimately, it could be suggested that Kenny Omega was almost drunk on violence and was more interested in proving himself Moxley’s equal in this type of match than only securing the win.
This is evidenced by the fact Omega dealt out 18% more of the match’s offence but went for the same amount of pin attempts as Moxley and spent less time on submissions. A more visual piece of evidence? He needed three members of the Elite to bring out a pre-meditated additional object of violence.
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