Jon Moxley entered AEW x NJPW's Forbidden Door with a lot to prove but also nothing to prove at the very same time.

If he won the main event of Forbidden Door and became the Interim AEW World Championship then great; that would make him the first-ever two-time champion in the promotion's history and he'd finally get the win over a man he's been chasing for years now.

And if Moxley lost? Well, he'd still have a prominent spot in the promotion's storied history, a match versus Hiroshi Tanahashi under his belt, and presumably more opportunities to potentially face off against “The Ace of NJPW” at future Strong events like their first encounter at Capital Collision back in May.

Fortunately for Moxley, the outcome of his match fell firmly into the former category and he will now forever go down as a two-time World Champion in AEW; the first two-time World Champion in AEW history to be exact, interim or no interim.

Jon Moxley left it all in the ring versus Tanahashi at AEW's Forbidden Door.

When the bell rang at the start of Jon Moxley's bout versus Hiroshi Tanahashi, the duo took a moment to let it all sink in. Whether there's another Forbidden Door, ten more Forbidden Doors, or the prospects of seeing an IWGP championship bout on AEW television become as commonplace as seeing a superkick in a Young Bucks match, this was the main event of the first-ever co-promotional event between AEW and NJPW, and that is something special indeed.

… and then the duo got to work.

Moxley and Tanahashi entered the ring with a lot to prove and prove they did. They began the match with a series of lockups and reversals, with the feel of a classic match of yesteryear. Things escalated to side headlock takedown, then into some good old-fashioned headlocks, before Tanahashi took to the ropes and launched his body at Mox for a crossbody, which didn't sit too well with his foe. The duo exchanged blows in the center of the ring, with each hit becoming more and more desperate before the intensity went up a notch and the speed of the kicks, blows, and dragon screws ramped up significantly.

A master of the cloverleaf, Tanahashi turned his attention to Moxley's leg in the hopes of setting him up for an eventual submission victory, a maneuver he attempted on multiple occasions but was never able to keep locked long enough to get the tap-out victory.

No, the hand raised at the end of the bout belonged to Mox, who now has two title wins to his credit in the Second City, which is practically like a second home to the native son of Cincinnati, Ohio. Mox put Tana in a sharpshooter, into a bulldog choke, and even through a table, which he demanded to be cleaned off by the associates ringside. After connecting on multiple legs lariats, and absorbing multiple moves both exciting and savage from Tanahashi, a bleeding Moxley got his long-time rival in the bulldog choke, pulled him to his feet while the crowd cheered “Go Ace” and then hit him with a Death Rider in the middle of the ring to secure the 1-2-3 from Paul Turner. Mox got the belt, and that was that.

… except that isn't what happened either. No, Chris Jericho and Daniel Garcia hit the ring to try to earn a second advantage coming into Blood and Guts, they came to blows with members of the Blackpool Combat club, and as the post-match beatdown grew bigger and bigger, with Claudio Castagnoli helping to clear the ring of the JAS – and Eddie Kingston – the championing hero took in his moment, again a champion in an AEW ring assembled in Chicago.