On AEW Collision last night the word of the day was complacent.
To be complacent is to be self satisfied while unaware of the danger of your situation.
Jon Moxley and his Crusade is a direct attack on what All Elite Wrestling has become in hopes of it becoming what Moxley originally dreamed it could be. In his own words, he’s not against burning down the forest to grow new trees.
Already you got Evil Uno wondering if Moxley was right. Already you got fans asking if Jon Moxley is right. It’s the wrong question to ask, but let me explain why they would come to that conclusion.
Instead of complacent, I’m focusing on the word liberation. In one definition, to liberate is to set free from control. In another? To liberate is to steal or take over illegally.
Liberation From The Dream Match Era
The Trish and Sarah Podcast eloquently called this the “Dream Match Era” of AEW. Instead of being about heated rivalries and feuds with stakes, it’s about Bryan Danielson and Will Ospreay getting to have their dream matches that get crowds really excited on paper but there’s nothing of substance beyond the anticipation of the match. You’re not watching Will Ospreay face Roderick Strong because Roddy and Will have a rivalry or feud you care about. You’re watching it because you want to see a top level wrestler from New Japan Pro Wrestling face a Ring of Honor legend on a pay per view. Ospreay and Danielson’s match at Dynasty was the selling point of the pay per view and was more of a friendly exhibition than anything.
Swerve Strickland essentially had to force Bryan Danielson to care about his own title defence at All In, playing the heel when he was one of the top babyfaces in the company. Danielson’s feuds after winning the championship have been title versus title matches against Jack Perry and Kazuchika Okada, and a dream rematch against an old opponent in Nigel McGuinness. The only thing anyone could ever think about when it came to Danielson was who was his next big match and not who his next big feud was.
That’s the crux of the Dream Match Era. And if you’re in a Dream Match Era? You’re complacent.
Building The Colosseum
In one of my favourite videogames of all time Final Fantasy VI (if you used to read me on my personal blog you know everything in my life always goes back to FFVI) there is a character you meet when the game is in a World of Balance. It’s before the world is destroyed by a tyrannical psycho and thrown into the World of Ruin. This guy just lives alone north of all of the towns on a continent and when you meet him he tells you of his dream of building a Colosseum.
Once the tyrannical psycho does destroy the world and becomes a god perched atop a tower essentially killing people when bored, you find that where the little home once stood is now a gigantic Colosseum. His dream came true. He built his way for people to fight. His monument to the glory of battle.
This is essentially how I see Jon Moxley. He saw AEW in the Dream Match Era and said why do you not care? Why are you not trying to murder each other right now? The only way to dream is to sleep. Moxley is trying to wake up AEW.
It isn’t everybody. Hangman Adam Page and Swerve Strickland certainly understand the importance of hate and fighting for what you want. Maxwell Jacob Friedman as annoying as he can be at times at least understands there’s more to pro wrestling than a marquee and always tries to bring the hate to the altercation. There’s a few exceptions, but they don’t break the fact that too many in AEW are just happy to not be in the suffocation of WWE or the poverty of the indies. They took the freedom All Elite Wrestling provided them and now just use it to be present. Not important. Present. They exist. That’s it.
Moxley and the former Blackpool Combat Club have specifically targeted acts like Top Flight, Private Party, Darby Allin, Daniel Garcia, Orange Cassidy, Dark Order, and more. Wrestlers that should have moved up, should be more important, should matter in the company. Wrestlers who should be a lot more upset about how things have gone for their careers in this Dream Match Era where a lot of them don’t get the big matches because the promoter doesn’t ever think about them when sleeping.
They care now. They care a lot. Because they’ve had to care. They are eating an ass kicking whether they like it or not. Fight or leave. Orange Cassidy, with the call to action like a Monomyth hero, has chosen to leave.
Jon Moxley was complacent
So then Jon is right? AEW needs this? AEW needs a wake up call?
Don’t forget that for the past year, nobody was more complacent than Jon Moxley. In the Blackpool Combat Club, he slipped back and forth between good guy and bad guy by the week because things didn’t really matter. He stayed out of the Men’s World Title picture. He got in feuds and rivalries but aside from the feud with Hangman Page that started 2023, everything felt a bit hollow. When he became IWGP World Heavyweight champion earlier in the year it didn’t feel like he cared that much. He was holding the top prize in another company and was defending it in AEW like it was just another belt.
His match with Tetsuya Naito at Forbidden Door was one of the worst matches of his career and one of the worst AEW main events of all time. He took time off after this. He knew better than anyone this couldn’t be his career in AEW.
If anyone was complacent about their position in pro wrestling it was Jon Moxley. No longer the Paradigm Shifter. He was just a top guy. Top guy who sometimes wins and sometimes loses. Sometimes wins a belt and sometimes loses one. Sometimes a babyface and sometimes a heel. Sometimes as a state of being is about as complacent as you can get. You don’t believe in anything. You don’t stand for anything. You’re just existing.
Just. Like. Dean Ambrose.
By returning after Bryan Danielson won the AEW Men’s World Championship, and setting a course of confusion and mystery leading to destroying Danielson at All Out and then absolutely finishing him off at WrestleDream, Jon Moxley broke that complacency. He liberated himself from his wishy washy existence. No longer would sometimes be in his vocabulary. He was now the King of his domain.
Jon Moxley: Liberator/Oppressor
In one definition, to liberate is to set free from control. In another? To liberate is to steal or take over illegally.
Don’t ever lose sight of the fact that Jon Moxley now has everything he could ever want. He’s at the top of the company, top of the card, with a purpose. He’s AEW Men’s World Champion and he barely had to climb for it. Him and his goons now beat the ever loving crap out of anyone they want to without penalty on the AEW roster. He never has to answer for it because they drive off before they lose the numbers advantage. He’s challenging the undercard wrestlers because he knows he can kick their asses. He’s been doing it since day one. He isn’t challenging MJF who has beaten him. He isn’t challenging Hangman Adam Page who has beaten him. He isn’t even challenging The Elite, probably the biggest target of complacency in the company, complacency and power, and instead leaning on their complacency to avoid a fight. Why? Because The Elite could actually match them, and have in the past.
No, he’s fighting the weak. He’s fighting the ones who never met their potential. He’s presenting himself as someone trying to beat the complacency out of the AEW roster, but do you think for one moment he’d be happy if he wasn’t the top of the mountain? Do you think this works in his mind without him wearing the crown?
There is a lot of truth in what Moxley talks about, and the greatest thing he could do is break the Dream Match Era and bring about War in AEW. No different to the builder of the Colosseum in Final Fantasy VI, Jon Moxley knows that to Dream is to be Asleep, and to be Asleep is to be at Peace. People shine brightest when at war. Moxley is bringing that war.
But Moxley also wants to be on the winning side of the war. That’s why he isn’t fighting the strongest and the best. He’s targeting the ones who will bend or break. I do believe he has greater plans for Darby Allin, a man he has always seen himself in. I think he wants to be the mountain Darby has to climb instead of Everest. He wants Darby to become him, but he’s doing that because he knows Darby better than anyone: Jon Moxley can exist forever in Darby Allin’s world. He couldn’t exist in the Dream Match Era.
For some, Jon Moxley will be the liberator of All Elite Wrestling. Liberating them from the complacent existence of their past. In the end, everyone will be at war due to the actions of Jon Moxley, and for television viewing purposes? That’s a great thing. We want this. We will be in the Colosseum for the fights. But for others, Jon Moxley will be the great oppressor of All Elite Wrestling. He’s stealing this company from them. Things are going to get dark, and things are going to get brutal. A lot of the light you used to enjoy is going to be snuffed out, and a lot of the happiness you used to rely on is not going to be found. This isn’t going to be easy.
The time for dreaming is over. This isn’t about right or wrong. This is about survival. Prepare for war.