In an early shocker from Chicago, Minoru Suzuki went nose-to-nose with Jon Moxley set to loud "holy sh*t" chants from the Windy City crowd following Moxley's victory over Satoshi Kojima.
Moxley appeared ready to pay respect to his fallen foe when 'The King's iconic theme hit, stopping him in his tracks. Mox looked on in disbelief as the music continued, but he bowed up as Suzuki hit the ring for a crowd-pleasing brawl and teaser of further hostilities in either AEW or New Japan Pro Wrestling.
The pair have fought in NJPW before, but never for All Elite Wrestling. Suzuki won the impromptu fist fight after some quality exchanges between the pair, then finished Moxley off with a Gotch Piledriver before putting a disrespectful foot on his head.
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Moxley's match against Kojima was a replacement for a planned clash with Hiroshi Tanahashi. 'The Ace' was unable to make the show, but Suzuki as an unannounced addition to the presentation here went more than some way to making up for the initial disappointment.
More on the expected battle between the two as when we hear it.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett
