Jon Moxley's Road to Three Major Championships
At Windy City Riot, Jon Moxley Made History as the First Person to Capture the WWE, AEW, and IWGP Championships
Jon Moxley made history on Friday, April 12th, 2024, in Chicago Illinois at the Wintrust Arena as part of the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) event Windy City Riot.
In the main event of Windy City Riot, Moxley defeated Tetsuya Naito to win the International Wrestling Grand Prix (IWGP) World Heavyweight Championship. With this win, Moxley made history by becoming the first wrestler to win the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Championship, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) World Championship, and IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. This has been coined the Global Grand Slam Champion. Let’s examine how Moxley became a history-maker with these championship wins.
Moxley’s Road to History
WWE World Championship
Moxley signed with WWE in 2011 where he took on the ring name Dean Ambrose and reported to the developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW). He made his main roster debut at the 2012 edition of Survivor Series alongside Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns as part of the Shield stable.
The trio was a dominant force in the WWE that saw all three men win championship gold. Ambrose was no exception as he became the United States Champion at the 2013 edition of Extreme Rules and held the title for 351 days.
The trio disbanded in June of 2014 when Rollins betrayed the group and turned heel in the process. This triggered a feud between Rollins and Ambrose that was on and off for the better part of 2014 and 2015. Although he would capture the Intercontinental Championship at the end of 2015, his aspirations for the most important prize in WWE were not fulfilled. This all changed when Money in the Bank rolled into the T-Mobile Arena in Nevada on June 19th, 2016. came around.
Ambrose defeated Alberto Del Rio, Cesaro, Chris Jericho, Kevin Owens, and Sami Zayn to win the Money in the Bank briefcase allowing him to cash in on title opportunity whenever he wanted. He didn’t wait long to invoke the opportunity.
In the main event, Seth Rollins defeated Roman Reigns for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. He only held the title for a couple of minutes as Ambrose cashed in his shot, pinned Rollins, and won the title for the first and only time. This marked the only time all three members of the Shield held the WWE World Heavyweight Championship on the same night.
He held the title until Backlash on September 11th, 2016, losing to AJ Styles and ending his title reign at 83 days. He departed WWE in 2019 to join AEW.
AEW World Championship
Reverting to his Jon Moxley ring name, Moxley appeared following the main event of the first-ever AEW event, Double or Nothing on May 25th, 2019, from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. He attacked Kenny Omega following Omega’s loss to Chris Jericho in the main event. This launched a feud between the two that lasted until Full Gear in November of 2019.
From there he transitioned into a feud with AEW Champion Chris Jericho and his Inner Circle stable (Sammy Guevara, Jake Hager, Santana, and Ortiz). Jericho, recognizing the threat Moxley presented attempted to bribe Moxley into joining the group which did not work. A match between the two took place on February 29th, 2020, at the inaugural Full Gear pay-per-view from the Wintrust Arena in Chicago Illinois. On that night Moxley captured the AEW World Heavyweight Championship for the first time.
He held the title for the majority of the year before losing to Kenny Omega in December of 2020 at the Winter is Coming special edition of AEW Dynamite.
Moxley re-entered the AEW World Championship picture at the first Forbidden Door event on June 22nd, 2022, at the United Center in Chicago Illinois. This was due to CM Punk not being able to defend the AEW World Championship due to injury. Moxley took his spot in the match against Hiroshi Tanahashi by winning a tournament qualifier match against Kyle O’Reilly. Moxley defeated Tanahashi, becoming the Interim AEW World Champion.
On the August 24th, 2022, edition of AEW Dynamite in Cleveland Ohio, Moxley defeated Punk in a match to unify the AEW World Championship. Moxley was defeated 10 days later at the NOW Arena in Chicago Illinois at the 2022 edition of All Out by Punk, dropping the title once again.
He wasn’t without the title for long following the Brawl Out situation, Punk was stripped of the belt and suspended. Moxley defeated fellow Blackpool Combat Club member Bryan Danielson in the finale of a qualifier tournament to win the belt for the third time. He lost the belt to MJF at the 2022 edition of Full Gear in Newark, New Jersey on November 19th at the Prudential Center.
With his arrival in AEW, the international door to New Japan Pro Wrestling also opened for Moxley.
IWGP World Heavyweight Championship
Moxley first came to New Japan Pro Wrestling in 2019 and quickly entered a feud with Juice Robinson over the IWGP United States Championship. He was forced to relinquish the title after travel issues prevented him from appearing for a defense. Lance Archer won the title after taking Moxley’s spot in the match. At Wrestle Kingdom 14 in January of 2020, he won the title back from Archer but was unable to defend the title due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Once travel re-opened he made appearances for the promotion but was out of any title picture until the start of 2024.
At Battle in the Valley 2024, Moxley defeated Shingo Takagi before calling out IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Tetsyu Naito. Moxley, being known as a no-nonsense, short-tempered tough guy squared off with Naito, whose slow-moving, “Tranquilo” personality proves to be the complete opposite of Moxley. At the 2024 edition of Windy City Riot from the Wintrust Arena in Chicago Illinois on April 12th, 2024, Moxley won a major championship at the Wintrust Arena for the second time in his career.
He made it clear he wanted to include the younger generations in the IWGP title picture and called out his apprentice Shota Umino but was met by Ren Narita who assaulted Moxley before Umino could even the odds. Narita will challenge Moxley at Wrestling Dontaku in May of 2024 for the title
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