One year ago, Swerve Strickland made history when he defeated Samoa Joe in the main event of the inaugural AEW Dynasty pay-per-view to become the first-ever African American to hold the AEW World Championship. It was a moment that kickstarted what Swerve called "The DynastyEra" of AEW, and he will look to kick off part two of that era at this year's Dynasty pay-per-view when he once again challenges for the AEW World Championship in the Dynasty main event, this time against Jon Moxley.
Moxley's reign as the man to beat in AEW has been a hot topic over the past six months as he has walked around claiming to want the best for AEW, while also polarizing fans opinions on he and his Death Riders, to the point where a number of people are happy to have almost anyone dethrone him at this moment in time. No one has actually seen the AEW World Championship belt in 2025, mainly because Moxley doesn't think anyone is good enough to see it, let alone hold it, but Strickland believes that he is the man to get the job done. Strickland has never beaten Moxley in AEW, with their only previous meetings coming in the 2023 Continental Classic tournament that saw Moxley pick up the victory, but it's fair to say that a lot has changed since then.
So sit back, relax, and join us on a journey through the last few months of AEW programming to see how the two men got to where they are, what has motivated them to take the Dynasty main event so seriously, and why AEW fans are arguably the most excited they've been for any pay-per-view main event in nearly a year. For Jon Moxley and Swerve Strickland, this is their story so far.
Cast your minds back to September 2024 and the All Out pay-per-view, which saw two significant moments that ultimately acted as the first dominoes to fall in this long chain of events.
After the All In London pay-per-view, Jon Moxley made his return to AEW alongside Marina Shafir and claimed that AEW wasn't Tony Khan's company anymore. No one knew what he was on about, but part one of his hostile takeover of AEW came at All Out when himself, Shafir, PAC, and the Blackpool Combat Club looked to rally around Bryan Danielson during his AEW World Championship match with Jack Perry, but instead turned on him and suffocated him with a plastic bag.
If that wasn't graphic enough, Swerve Strickland would close the show right after in an Unsanctioned Lights Out Steel Cage match against Hangman Page, a rivalry that had reached a fever pitch leading up to the show due to Page burning Strickland's childhood home to the ground. Bricks, burnt pieces of wood, and needles were all used in the match, but it was Page who survived the bout by knocking Strickland out with an unprotected chair shot to the head, causing Strickland to miss the next few weeks of TV as he needed to go home, rest up, and figure out what was next for him now that he didn't have the AEW World Championship, and his rivalry with Hangman had seemingly come to a brutal end.
In Strickland's absence, Moxley would bait Darby Allin into putting his guaranteed shot at the AEW World Championship on the line at the Grand Slam edition of "AEW Dynamite," leading Moxley to pick up the win, and set himself up for a collision course with Danielson at the WrestleDream pay-per-view a few weeks later.
In front of a Tacoma, Washington crowd that were firmly behind the American Dragon as they knew a loss would signal the end of his full-time career, Bryan Danielson came up short in his defense of the AEW World Championship against Jon Moxley at the 2024 WrestleDream pay-per-view, which was quickly followed by a vicious beatdown of Danielson, Darby Allin, and anyone who dared to help the now former champion in what has gone down as one of the most haunting endings to a wrestling show in recent memory.
With the Death Riders now officially in control AEW, their mission to force the everyone to get to their level was underway, causing Allin and Orange Cassidy to be the unofficial leaders of "TeamAEW," even if Cassidy wasn't really up for that idea originally. However, Cassidy had no choice but to act when his best friend, the recently retired Chuck Taylor, was beaten down mercilessly by Moxley's group, leading Cassidy to issue a challenge for Full Gear for the AEW World Championship. Cassidy would not only lose, but would have cleaning liquid poured down his throat for good measure.
Someone who could have definitely helped "Team AEW" was Strickland, who returned to the company at WrestleDream in front of his hometown, but was distracted by the fact that the newly formed Hurt Syndicate had tried to recruit him. Strickland refused, leading MVP to send Shelton Benjamin and Bobby Lashley after him, resulting in Lashley beating Strickland in convincing fashion at the Full Gear pay-per-view, handing Swerve his third pay-per-view loss in a row. Swerve knew something had to change, he knew he had to become the most dangerous man in AEW again, meaning that he had to shift focus as 2024 came to a close.
With Swerve needing to find his spark again, he was handed the perfect opponent almost through luck as he started crossing paths with Ricochet backstage. Ricochet had started getting on people's nerves in AEW, particularly the fans, to the point where he was bombarded with toilet paper in the Hammerstein Ballroom. However, Ricochet made it through his league in the 2024 Continental Classic tournament, and kept telling Swerve that he was going to go one step further than he did in 2023 and win the entire tournament. That never happened as Kazuchika Okada eliminated Ricochet at the Worlds End pay-per-view, a match that saw Strickland shower Ricochet with toilet paper as a way of getting revenge.
Meanwhile, the Death Riders continued to plague "Team AEW's"chances of ever getting on the same page, with Orange Cassidy, Jay White, and Hangman Page all trying to work together, but ultimately failing. All three men were entered into a four way match with Moxley at Worlds End for the AEW World Championship, and even though the Death Riders were somewhat neutralized, Moxley retained by pinning White. After the match, FTR, who the Death Riders had also gotten their hands on in the weeks leading up to the show, returned with Adam "Cope" Copeland by their side, with the "Rated R Superstar" looking to be the man to put and end to Moxley's reign of terror.
As 2024 turned to 2025, Ricochet finally snapped, attacking Swerve with a pair of scissors on New Year's Day, while the group now known as Rated FTR began their quest to weaken the Death Riders enough so that Cope could be the one to take the belt away from Moxley, but everyone in the company knew that it wasn't going to be easy.
On the road to Revolution, Swerve's feud with Ricochet took an interesting turn as Ricochet defeated him on an episode of "Dynamite," while also taking Prince Nana's Embassy robe as a trophy. Ricochet would make some modifications to the robe, much to the displeasure of Swerve and Nana, but with one victory under his belt, Ricochet felt like it was time for him to ascend to theAEW World Championship picture. However, Swerve had other ideas and got himself a rematch with Ricochet at Revolution, with the winner becoming the number one contender for the AEW World Championship, which Swerve would emerge victorious from.
As for who Swerve would face, Rated FTR did everything they could to soften Moxley up, who already had to defend his title against Powerhouse Hobbs in January, and deal with the fact that Jay White was still on hot on his tale. Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli got the better of Cope and White in a Brisbane Brawl at Grand Slam Australia, and when the time came to face Moxley for the AEW World Championship at Revolution, things once again didn't go Cope's way.
During the match, Cope's former tag team partner/rival Christian Cage inserted himself in to the match, making it a three way and looked to score a cheap victory to become the new champion, but to no avail. Instead, while Cope was laid out, Moxley choked Cage unconscious to retain the title, and as he was escaping through the crowd at the end of the show, he was confronted by Prince Nana and a group of security guards. As Moxley went to get physical, Swerve appeared out of nowhere, hitting a Swerve Stomp from the balcony on to Moxley and the security, standing tall as the show ended.
On the first episode of "AEW Collision" after Revolution, Moxley attacked Strickland from behind and stated that no matter how much Swerve thinks that both of them are cut from the same cloth, respect won't get you anywhere in wrestling. Before taking onStrickland, however, he first gave Cope one more shot at the title in a street fight just a few days later, which saw Cope's bat "Spike" get stuck in Moxley's back even that wasn't enough to keep Moxley down, as he retained his title.
One week later, Moxley finally admitted that his goal of bringing people up to his level has led him to Swerve, because he thinks Swerve is the closest anyone has come to being his equal. However, he is the one who is willing to go the extra mile for AEW and not Swerve, something that Swerve disagreed with as he feels like Moxley isn't genuine and is simply playing a character on TV. Their final interaction before Dynasty came in a Mixed Tornado Tag Match that also featured Marina Shafir and Willow Nightingale, the latter of whom was laid out by Moxley after she and Strickland defeated the Death Riders. Strickland wanted one last confrontation before Dynasty, but was ambushed by Moxley and his group, who powerbombed Swerve into a pile of broken glass only to see Swerve rise, undaunted.
One last thing that bears mention heading into Dynasty: Before that last battle with Moxley on "Dynamite," Swerve had a backstage confrontation with none other than Hangman Page, who has continued to rail against the prospect of Strickland regaining the gold. The two men shouted accusations at each other; when Swerve yelled that Page had burned down his house, Page responded "You deserved it," to which Swerve unexpectedly replied "I know!" The admission left a blindsided Hangman to walk away in confusion, and it's unclear where the two rivals currently stand; while it could be far too early to expect anything to come from this interaction as yet, Page's potential involvement in some way can't be ruled out.
