Jon Moxley should win the AEW Eliminator Tournament

On this past Saturday’s episode of All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite, the young promotion announced the participants and matches for its latest Eliminator Tournament. The finals will conclude at the Full Gear pay-per-view in November and the winner will receive a shot at the AEW World Championship.

The matches are as follows: Preston “10” Vance vs. Jon Moxley and Orange Cassidy vs. Powerhouse Hobbs on the left side of the bracket and Lance Archer vs. Eddie Kingston and Bryan Danielson vs. Dustin Rhodes on the right side.

On paper, the field doesn’t look as strong as it could have given how opulent AEW’s roster is, but there are still several intriguing matchups in the opening round and possibly in the proceeding ones.

Only one man can win the coveted championship match, though, and while seeing someone like Kingston or Cassidy get the nod would be cool, there is someone else who has the strongest case for winning.

Jon Moxley should win the AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament.

As hard as it is to believe, it’s been almost a year since Jon Moxley lost the AEW World Title to Kenny Omega at the Winter is Coming edition of Dynamite. Since losing the rematch to Omega the following February at Revolution in an Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch, he has kept himself busy away from the World Title picture, mostly working tag matches with Eddie Kingston and facing legends from New Japan Pro Wrestling.

Still, even with the influx of new talent, as evidenced by his participation in the Casino Ladder match on the Oct. 6 episode of Dynamite, Moxley has remained on the fringes of title contention. With either Omega or “Hangman” Adam Page set to leave Full Gear as AEW World Champ, though, the time is right to make him the number one contender and follow up on the story threads the company has stitched with both men.

What story threads, you ask? Well, the ones with Omega are obvious — Moxley never actually got his revenge on Omega for essentially stealing the title from him. But while Mox’s beef with Page isn’t as seared, moments like Mox taking shots at Page’s issues with The Elite (and his absence from the show) and Paige knocking Mox off the ladder on Oct. 6 to get the title shot show that it won’t take much to heat things up between those two.

Based on how the bracket looks and how other stories have played out on television, Moxley will likely have to go through Cassidy (after he beats 10 in a match that will serve as a good litmus test for the Dark Order member) in the semis before facing Danielson in the finals.

Considering Danielson’s and Cassidy’s past run-ins with Omega — Bryan just wrestled Omega to a 30-minute draw and Cassidy had the World Title won at Double or Nothing before shenanigans ensued — picking them to win wouldn’t be a foolish decision, but if Page does what everyone assumes he will do at Full Gear, those two can get their hands on Omega without a title being at stake.

(Plus, them getting one up one Omega after he loses the title would fit nicely into the “Omega sees all the people he screwed over on the way down the ladder” story that AEW will definitely tell.)

As for Moxley, the Word Title is the central part of his narrative. This is a guy who spent nearly all of 2020 carrying the company through the pandemic era at Daily’s Place only of become a bit of a forgotten man while newer stars get to thrive while standing on the foundation that he helped build. And Page certainly fits into that “newer stars” category.

A story where Moxley — either as a blurred lines babyface or as a full-on heel — tries to take out the flavors of the month en route to getting back the title he was robbed of would make for an interesting wrinkle to what would be Page’s first big feud as champion, should Page win the belt.

But in order to get there — besides Page needing to beat Omega — Moxley needs to run the table and win the Eliminator Tourney. Hopefully, AEW comes to the same conclusion.