Young Bucks return at AEW Dynasty, help Jon Moxley retain World title
After winning the World title for the first time at last year’s AEW Dynasty, Sunday’s Dynasty from Philadelphia seemed like the perfect opportunity for Swerve Strickland to regain the AEW World title.
That storybook ending didn’t happen, however, as the Young Bucks made their return for the first time in six months to deliver a BTE trigger to Strickland, giving Jon Moxley the opening to get the pin and retain the title.
The end came when Strickland threw a chair to Moxley’s head, followed by the Swerve stomp but there was no referee to count as he had been taken out by a chair shot earlier on. The lights then went out and when they came up, Matt and Nick Jackson appeared, hit the move, and dragged Moxley on top of Strickland for the pin and win to close the pay-per-view.
The Jacksons have been off AEW TV since going to “work from home” in fear of the Death Riders at last October’s Fright Night edition of Dynamite — the same show where they lost the AEW Tag Team titles to Private Party. They have had issues with Strickland in the past when he was AEW World Champion.
The ending followed a chaotic last few minutes of the match.
Given the lead-up and the men involved, the match was physical as expected with Moxley drawing first blood on Strickland. Marina Shafir attempted to get involved, stalking Strickland with the briefcase holding the title until Prince Nana prevented it. He got hit with the case, but Shafir got tossed into Moxley who hit her with a cutter by mistake.
After dumping Strickland outside the ring, Moxley got a ladder and walked Strickland up with the idea of suplexing him off it through the Spanish announce table. Instead, Strickland took control and hit a Swerve stomp off the ladder through the table.
Both men eventually made their way back into the ring and Moxley threw a chair at referee Paul Turner’s head. That brought out Hangman Page who has had issues with both men. Claudio Castagnoli, PAC and Wheeler Yuta attacked Page before he took out all three men, then hitting Moxley with a Deadeye. After Page got attacked again, The Opps (Samoa Joe, Katsuyori Shibata & Hook) then ran out to run the Death Riders off.
That sequence led into the Bucks’ surprise return.
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Moxley’s fourth run as champion began with his win over Danielson at last October’s WrestleDream which was followed by he and the rest of the now-defunct Blackpool Combat Club turning on Danielson. He now has six successful title defenses, keeping the belt inside a briefcase guarded by Shafir the entire time.