10 Most Random AEW Appearances

The opening of the Forbidden Door has resulted in an abundance of dream match possibilities moving closer to reality, as Kazuchika Okada, Will Ospreay, and KENTA have been amongst the names to put both feet through the door.

KENTA was the first, smashing the door down when he laid out Jon Moxley, then the IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion, on the 2021 Beach Break edition of Dynamite. For Mox, this was far from his last run-in with an NJPW-contracted wrestler during his run with the strap.

Yuji Nagata, at the time a 53-year-old veteran of the sport, was announced as Moxley's challenger for the title on the 12 May 2021 broadcast of Dynamite.

That alone is a bizarre statement to type just weeks before the fourth anniversary of All Elite Wrestling's official unveiling.

For the eight-and-a-half minutes that the Death Rider and Blue Justice were wrestling, gone were the halcient days of the Lucha Bros and the Young Bucks redefining the Ladder match, the days of Cody and Dustin Rhodes redefining the meaning of a blood feud, and the days of Kenny Omega and PAC redefining wrestling as a whole. Here, Moxley and Nagata took lumps out of each other with their stiff, sickly barrages.

And all for free on Dynamite. Those were the glory days of AEW, when something so random became very real, very quickly.