Top AEW Star “Banged Up”

A big-name AEW star needed some time to recuperate.

Unusually for him, Jon Moxley has been out of action for a couple of weeks with his last match coming at AEW Revolution on March 3rd. On the show, Moxley teamed with Castagnoli to defeat FTR and seemingly booked a shot at the AEW World Tag Team Titles.

However, following the titles being vacated a tournament was announced to decide new champions, but Moxley and Castagnoli were missing from the list of entrants.

Reporting in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer discussed the omission and revealed Moxley was “banged up.”

“The team everyone asks about is Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli, since they beat FTR on the PPV. Moxley & Castagnoli were in the original version of the tournament, but Moxley has been banged up and has dates in Mexico and Japan over the next few weeks.

So they were taken out but it’s actually for the better because they can be used to face the winners after the tournament and won’t have had a loss in the tournament and you need to have something for the winners.”

Jon Moxley’s AEW Absence Planned In Advance

Meanwhile, it’s been reported by Fightful Select that Jon Moxley’s time off was planned in advance, and he and Castagnoli were never scheduled for the tournament.

Moxley will return to the ring shortly with bookings in Mexico and then Japan.

With regard to the Mexican date, this was planned “well over a month ago” ruling him out of the tournament.