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Jon Moxley has been ruling over AEW as the company's World Champion with an iron fist. His reign began last year at WrestleDream 2024 and recently reached the 200-day mark. The self-proclaimed One True King of All Elite Wrestling has had a target on his back since then, with many of the promotion's top stars eager to take away his belt.
That list includes Maxwell Jacob Friedman, who has been open about his desire to reclaim his Triple B. However, The Salt of the Earth refused to enter the Owen Hart Cup to earn a shot at the belt, opting to try and secure a spot in The Hurt Syndicate instead, in hopes that the members of the dominant faction would help him regain the World Title.
MJF's run with the All Elite World Championship lasted 406 days, ending at Worlds End 2023. Seeing how audiences have responded to Jon Moxley's current run so far, AEW could understandably decide to bring it to a close soon, perhaps at All In: Texas.
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Nonetheless, there are a few reasons to consider extending Mox's tenure as champ, and even booking it to surpass Friedman's. Let us consider four such reasons.
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#1: Jon Moxley is a worthy candidate to break MJF's record
Jon Moxley became AEW World Champion for the very first time by defeating Chris Jericho at Revolution 2020. He carried the title for over nine months, putting on in-ring classics with Brodie Lee, Darby Allin, MJF, Lance Archer, and Eddie Kingston, before eventually dropping it to Kenny Omega. His run with the belt, and afterwards, solidified The Purveyor of Violence as a company ace.
Moxley's status as a reliable top guy was made evident when he was booked to win the Interim World Title at Forbidden Door in 2022 after reigning World Champion CM Punk had to withdraw from his pay-per-view defense due to injury. He even beat The Straight-Edge Superstar to unify the belts later, albeit subsequently dropping the "Undisputed" World Championship to Punk at All Out 2022.
After The Voice of the Voiceless was suspended due to the "Brawl Out" fiasco on the heels of the PPV, and the World Title vacated yet again, the belt made its way back to Moxley once more, as he won it at Grand Slam. The former Dean Ambrose lost the title to MJF at Full Gear 2022 and was kept away from the World Championship picture throughout 2023, finally recapturing it last year by dethroning Bryan Danielson.
Time and time again, Moxley has proven himself to be one of AEW's greatest standard-bearers. His work for the promotion speaks for itself, and few on the roster stand out as candidates worthier of breaking MJF's record as World Champion than The Death Riders leader.
#2. The Death Riders' story still needs time to hit the next level
The Death Riders have been waging war against the All Elite Wrestling locker room since the end of last year. Built on the ashes of the Blackpool Combat Club, the group assumed its final form when Bryan Danielson's former teammates betrayed and annihilated him at WrestleDream 2024. Since then, the members of the faction - Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta, Pac, and Marina Shafir - have been wreaking havoc on talent and officials alike.
Despite its unforgettable beginning, the story of The Death Riders has received much criticism over the past few months for its seemingly uninspired creative direction.
However, the company has the opportunity to craft a compelling angle with the stable in light of their massive trios title loss last month. With only Mox now holding gold, tensions can be introduced in the interpersonal dynamics of the group, with Claudio beginning to harbour resentment towards his "King".
It was because of Moxley, after all, that the Death Riders lost their World Trios Championship. The Cincinnati native's continued reliance on his teammates for his own World Title defenses could then lead to growing frustrations among the latter. Booking Mox's reign to last longer can allow AEW to produce compelling segments and programs with The Death Riders, and give the story some much-needed life.
#3: Jon Moxley could lose the AEW World Title to close out the year
As things stand currently, nobody can definitively predict how Jon Moxley's current run with the AEW World Championship might end. Fans were under the impression that Swerve Strickland would win back the strap last month at Dynasty, but that did not come to be. After reports emerged that the company had planned to give the 39-year-old a lengthy reign, audiences began to conjecture that Mox might retain the belt even at All In, perhaps all the way to WrestleDream 2025.
To surpass MJF's reign as AEW's longest-running World Champion, Moxley would need to hold on to his belt till at least the end of November 2025, around the time of the promotion's yearly pay-per-view, Full Gear.
However, Tony Khan could potentially stretch the former Lunatic Fringe's run even longer, all the way through to Worlds End. The promotion's last major annual event would no doubt serve as a memorable platform for Moxley to be finally dethroned.
#4: Moxley's legacy as AEW World Champion can motivate MJF
Maxwell Jacob Friedman often refers to himself as a "generational talent". His many notable accomplishments in the sport, at merely 29 years of age, seem to validate his claim. The Wolf of Wrestling often boasts about his record-breaking AEW World Championship reign on the company's programming. If Jon Moxley breaks that record, however, MJF will finally have another mountain to climb in the promotion.
Friedman's on-screen character would likely cope with The One True King, surpassing his title run very poorly. Such a setback could potentially provide The Salt of the Earth extra motivation to recapture his Triple B and then set a new record all over again. It was Friedman, after all, who ended Moxley's reign back in 2022 to win the belt for the first and only time so far.
Lengthy title reigns can legitimize wrestlers as legends - consider Roman Reigns' run as Undisputed WWE Universal Champion as a recent noteworthy instance. Breaking MJF's record as AEW World Champion would allow Jon Moxley to perhaps establish a similar legacy, one that Friedman himself, as well as other All Elite Wrestling up-and-comers, could try to live up to, if not surpass.
