It was announced on Wednesday night that the upcoming AEW Men’s World Championship match between Samoa Joe and Jon Moxley at Beach Break on May 14 would be decided in a steel cage.
Samoa Joe knows his way around a steel cage.
From his brutal bloodbath with Jay Briscoe in Ring of Honor, the CZW versus ROH Cage of Death, or the TNA Lockdown 2008 steel cage match against Kurt Angle, Joe has made his mark in the pro wrestling world surrounded by steel.
It’s also the logical pathway to this feud with Jon Moxley and the Death Riders, and a perfect way to add a sense of intrigue to what would otherwise be a match with an obvious result.
Beating the Death Riders
I’ve had a better feeling about this feud than any program Death Riders have done since the Orange Cassidy program, and this one might even be better. Unlike Swerve Strickland which started perfectly at Revolution only to fall apart one week later with the focus going back to Cope, this one has been all about how Samoa Joe is impervious to the usual Death Rider tactics.
From day one, it didn’t matter if Death Riders found a numbers advantage. Samoa Joe was just too strong for the usual sneak attack and would find a way to lock the Coquina Clutch on Moxley. Even when the Death Riders took out HOOK and put the newly formed Opps down a man, it didn’t matter. They were able to recruit Powerhouse Hobbs and go right back at the Death Riders for the Trios Championship.
That match at Dynamite Spring BreakThru felt like an incredible release of tension. After months after months of insufferable heat and the Death Riders finding ways to get around their opponents, this time there was no surprise. PAC was out injured and Jon Moxley was replacing him for the match. You would think the AEW Men’s World Champion would be a capable replacement, but it almost put the team at a disadvantage to no longer have their fearless leader strategizing from away from the battle.
The Young Bucks tried to interfere in the match but Swerve Strickland put a stop to them. Marina Shafir tried her usual tactics but Willow Nightingale was there to stop her. The AEW roster were united in seeing Death Riders fall that night. And fall they did.
The easiest way to have someone qualify for a World Championship shot is to have them beat the World Champion. Moxley hasn’t been pinned or submitted on AEW soil since his loss to Tetsuya Naito at Forbidden Door 2024 for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, close to a year ago. Here, as PAC’s replacement, he passes out to the Conquina Clutch.
Week after week, no matter what Death Riders try, Joe finds a way to get that Clutch on Moxley. He can’t escape it.
Changing Tactics
It has been something I’ve been screaming for a while. The only way a top heel faction can stay exciting is if they take a loss once in a while to give people hope. You can’t just have one year of sustained heat and then expect fans to care about the people you put in front of them anymore. You need to make people think the Evil Empire can be beaten.
Doing this is also about giving the top heel faction a way to show how ruthless and cunning they are. You need them to show they can respond to adversity and build heat out of that. It’s not enough to just win everything ever. You need to see how they evolve.
The Death Riders were able to take out HOOK but that just meant The Opps added Powerhouse Hobbs. They also have the entire AEW locker room supporting them. Marina Shafir is neutralized by Willow. The Young Bucks and Elite, regardless of what Mox says about them, has bailed them out once at Dynasty against Swerve Strickland. The Trios Championship had Swerve stop them from bailing Moxley out again.
The change of tactics isn’t to find a way to stop Moxley. It’s to make Samoa Joe choose. Joe is getting that Clutch on no matter what Moxley does, so he used himself as bait. That bait allowed Joe to be pre-occupied with choking out the AEW Men’s World Champion and give Claudio Castagnoli a chance to do to Katsuyori Shibata what he did to HOOK. There’s no word yet if Shibata is going to be out for an extended period of time, but it certainly put the pressure onto Joe.
Joe now knows that even if he can get his hands on Jon Moxley any time he wants? That isn’t always the right plan. He can’t lose another soldier, even if the match in two weeks is in a steel cage.
Steel Cage Etiquette
I am really hoping they just do a steel cage match.
There are tropes and booking tricks that AEW is now far too beholden to and it’s starting to ruin the purpose of a steel cage match.
Now every match someone has to break through the cage door so they can brawl out to the floor. Someone has to climb to the top of the cage to do a big spot. Someone has to bring in a bunch of weapons. One of the walls has to come out or be broken.
These booking tactics are good to do on the rare occasion but now they are expected in a steel cage match. The entire point of the steel cage is to keep everyone out except the referee and competitors. You break that too much and now it’s just a playset that distracts the live and home viewer from seeing a clear shot of the wrestlers. You make it pointless.
This program here, this is the time to let all those things go. We don’t need to see Moxley and Joe on the top of the cage. We don’t need Claudio with bolt cutters. We don’t need Marina Shafir slipping weapons into the cage. We don’t need another lights out lights on and the Young Bucks found their way inside.
All we need is Samoa Joe and Jon Moxley having an absolute war surrounded by four cages.
Jon Moxley loves his Bloodsport gimmick matches so maybe they can even borrow from the 2008 Lockdown match between Angle and Joe. Have Moxley and Joe wrestle a mixture of MMA and wrestling to make it a bit grittier. I’m probably playing with fire suggesting this since all of the MMA ground work Moxley did against Swerve hurt the match considerably, but I just figure Joe is a much better opponent for that style.
Either way? We don’t need typical AEW cage antics. We just need Joe and Moxley wrestling.
Surviving the Clutch
Having this just be two men fighting in a steel cage also allows the audience to believe that after the Trios Championship choke out and the week to week chokeouts, Joe actually has a chance of beating Jon Moxley in this match.
I doubt we see the title change so close to Y’All In Texas, especially with Double or Nothing in a few weeks deciding the number one contender to the AEW Men’s World Championship. Hangman Adam Page and Will Ospreay would be good opponents for Samoa Joe, but there’s far more intrigue and tension in the downfall of the Death Riders at the stadium show.
Of course, this makes you wonder how Jon Moxley is going to survive this. Samoa Joe has his number now. That’s why I don’t want the typical ga ga. Let me see Jon Moxley attempt to survive when he doesn’t have his Death Riders to bail him out. Let me see Jon Moxley attempt to survive a former World Champion he can’t simply out garbage.
Moxley surviving this against Samoa Joe will also build him up to be a greater threat to whoever ends up number one contender at Double or Nothing. I’m sure we get Anarchy in the Arena prior to that match but there isn’t going to be a contender between Beach Break and Y’All In Texas.
Jon Moxley surviving this steel cage with Samoa Joe will help bring him from the scared hyena the Death Riders have become to the battle tested top of the mountain king of the lands he claimed himself to be last autumn. If someone wants to come for the king they have to be at their absolute best. Coward Jon Moxley needs to die. King Jon Moxley needs to rise.
This is the most excited I’ve been with the Death Riders storyline in a very long time, and I hope in the next few weeks they don’t blow it. Tony Khan needs to restrain himself from the typical steel cage antics and let Joe and Moxley’s work speak for itself. Make this a Beach Break to remember.
Win or lose, Samoa Joe can focus instead on his Trios Championship, and help rebuild the division next to Shibata and Hobbs. Unlike Hurt Syndicate and MJF, this is a distraction that makes sense. Whether it’s Death Riders again, Young Bucks with a partner (Ricochet?), Paragon, or another team? Just having The Opps on top of the Trios gives the division a lot more options.
Ladies and gentlemen. We have a good AEW Men’s World Championship title program. Appreciate it.
