When Brody King outlasted the competition in AEW's inaugural post-Blood and Guts Rampage Royal to become the first challenger for Jon Moxley's Interim World Championship, it created a very intriguing matchup for the two-time title holder.
Though fans of Tony Khan's promotion mostly know King for his efforts in tag team action, having wrestled just one time as a solo performer, his status as the big-bodied enforcer of The House of Black has rightfully made him one of the most feared performers in the promotion and rightfully so. King is a big, tough performer who comes down to the ring in either a ski mask or one adorned with devilish horns, barks in the ring to intimidate his foes, and has developed a movest with absolutely brutal big-time moves like the cannonball senton, the Gonzo Bomb, and his new signature move, a good old fashioned sleeper hold – a move so vicious it literally put Darby Allin to sleep to close out the Rampage Rumble.
Factor in his experience wrestling everyone from Bandido to Rush and even “Filthy” Tom Lawler during his time in Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling's America-based Strong spinoff, and the prospects of King turning in a fantastic effort and a great hoss fight in his first title match as a member of AEW was all but guaranteed.
Fortunately, the match did not disappoint.
Wrestling a few minutes over the 10 pm EST cut-off time, King and Mox exchanged big-time chops, locked in holds, and King hit a particularly vicious cannonball senton on a “sleeping” foe before the Champ gave his challenger some just deserts and choked him out to a referee's stoppage with his now-signature hold, the bulldog choke.
Was the match great? Yes. Did it live up to expectations? Yes. But was it the big story coming out of AEW Dynamite? No, the big story, excluding the new matches announced for Rampage, the chants of FTR during the Young Bucks promo, or The Gunn Club reuniting/turning on The Acclaimed was the Malakai Black promo on Jon Moxley and the follow-up discussions of the House of Black being ‘a lot like the Blackpool Combat Club' according to its leader, William Regal. Though Mox may have won the battle and retained his belt, did he just accidentally fire off the opening shots of a war far more vicious than anything the sports entertainers of the Jericho Appreciation Society could throw at them?
Cannonball senton by @Brodyxking connects this time! #AEWDynamite is LIVE on @TBSNetwork! pic.twitter.com/sgnRRe97b7
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) July 7, 2022
Things are heating up between AEW's House of Black and the Blackpool Combat Club.
In their 37 combined years in a professional wrestling ring, the men now known as Malakai Black and Jon Moxley have met exactly once, in the 2019 Royal Rumble, where, after being a surprise entrant in the match, Black eliminated Mox/Dean Ambrose. While that may feel like ancient history long since forgotten, do recall that Black is the man who still wears makeup to the ring in order to sell an eye injury he sustained at the hands of the “Monday Night Messiah” Seth Rollins when WWE was still airing from the Performance Center.
Sidebar: Goodness, that's a word salad from the past.
Fast forward to 2022, and as much has changed as stayed the same for the two performers. Mox remains one of the baddest dudes in the business, while Black still looks to fully cross over after being a fan favorite for years. Black almost certainly loathes his fellow AEW employee for earning all of the accolades that he has just as much claim to and would like nothing more than to test his mettle against the promotion's top guy in order to see who has a higher threshold for pain.
On AEW Dynamite, Moxley scored the first victory, picking off King with a bulldog choke that left him unconscious in the middle of the ring, but what will happen if, after closing his chapter with Daniel Garcia at Ring of Honor's Death Before Dishonor 2022, Wheeler Yuta finds himself in the twisted eye of Mr. Black? Will he be able to escape the gaze unscathed, or could his sacrifice in the center of the ring be the thing that starts the House of Black's first proper feud since moving on from the Death Triangle/the Lucha Brothers?
Once Miro is out of the way, it's hard to see Black targeting anyone else.
The House of Black has long been looking for the right feud to take them over the top. While their matches with Death Tringle were always show-stealers, even when booked for some of the biggest Pay-Per-Views on the promotion's calendar, beginning a war with the Blackpool Combat Club is a one-way ticket to stardom for Malakai Black, Brody King, and company.
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