MJF Makes Shocking Return After CM Punk Beats Jon Moxley to Win AEW World Title
In his hometown of Chicago, CM Punk defeated Jon Moxley at All Out on Sunday to become a two-time All Elite Wrestling world champion.
After the match, MJF made his long-awaited return to AEW and challenged Punk to end the show. MJF was revealed to be the masked man who appeared in the Casino Ladder Match as the Joker earlier in the night, and he won an opportunity to challenge for the world title at a later date.
Punk vs. Moxley was a rematch of a bout that occurred less than two weeks ago on an episode of Dynamite with the undisputed AEW World Championship hanging in the balance.
Mox entered that match as the interim AEW world champion, while Punk was the de facto world champ, making their Dynamite clash a unification match with the biggest prize in AEW on the line.
Shockingly, the match lasted only a few minutes, as Punk appeared to tweak his foot, and Moxley took advantage by hitting him with his finisher and pinning him to officially become the first two-time AEW world champion in history.
Punk completed his rise to the top at Double or Nothing in May when he beat "Hangman" Adam Page for the AEW world title, but he didn't get to celebrate his win for long, as a foot ailment landed him on the shelf.
Rather than having Punk vacate the title, AEW president Tony Khan instead decided to determine an interim champion through a series of matches.
The interim title match ended up being between Mox and legendary New Japan Pro-Wrestling star Hiroshi Tanahashi at Forbidden Door, and Moxley prevailed to set the stage for an eventual match against Punk.
After missing a little over two months of action, Punk returned on the Aug. 10 episode of Dynamite and confronted Moxley after a successful defense of the interim title against Chris Jericho.
It was widely expected that the unification match would occur at All Out, but AEW shocked the wrestling world by doing it on an episode of Dynamite, and fans were even more taken aback by the manner in which Mox won.
At that point, it was unclear if a rematch would happen, especially after Punk expressed doubt in himself and his health on the go-home episode of Dynamite prior to All Out.
Moxley left an open contract for a title match at All Out, however, and Punk's close friend, Ace Steel, implored Punk to sign it and give it another shot against Moxley.
Punk ultimately agreed and erased the devastating loss to Moxley on Dynamite by beating him at All Out and overcoming adversity to win the AEW world title for a second time.
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