In the main event of AEW Full Gear 2022, MJF took on Jon Moxley with the AEW World Championship on the line.
The match was a chaotic affair with Moxley trying his best to draw his rival into a street fight. Things started going downhill for MJF when he seemed to injure his knee after dropping Moxley with a Tombstone on the ring apron. This gave the champ an opening he used to hit a huge Piledriver from the apron through a table on the floor that had been set up by MJF earlier.
After the Salt of the Earth made his way back to the ring, Moxley targetted the weakened knee with a Figure Four Leglock, but the Friedman was able to reverse it. MJF then struggled back into the match before his momentum was brought to a halt with a Paradigm Shift from the top rope. It wasn’t enough, though, as the challenger grabbed the bottom rope to break the pin.
Towards the end of the match, MJF used the referee to block Moxley before trying to get his favourite weapon, the Dynamite Diamond Ring he’d been keeping hidden.
However, William Regal urged the star not to use it and he decided against winning with his usual dirty trick. As the action continued, a second referee was taken out, meaning no one saw the challenger tap out to the Bulldog Choke.
While Moxley tried to wake up the official, a shocking betrayal took place as Regal slid a pair of brass knuckles to MJF, who delivered a knockout shot to his rival to claim his first World Title win.
MJF makes history
With the win, MJF has become the youngest AEW World Champion in the company’s history at the age of only 26. The previous holder of that honour was Hangman Adam Page, who was 30 when he became the champion at last year’s edition of Full Gear.
This puts him in the ranks of the youngest World Champions in pro wrestling history, ranking among the likes of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, The Undertaker, and Yokozuna. However, he is positively a veteran compared to Paul Wight, who was 23 when he won the WCW Championship, and the legendary Lou Thesz, who captured his first world title when he was only 21.