WINC Watchlist: Jon Moxley Vs. Konosuke Takeshita

AEW Revolution 2026 is right around the corner, and one of the featured matches on this year's pay-per-view will see the latest instalment in a long line of matches between two men who just want to be the best. Jon Moxley will defend his AEW Continental Championship against Konosuke Takeshita in a match that will have no time limit to ensure that an actual winner is decided, primarily because they have been so evenly matched in their previous encounters.

Over the past four years, Moxley and Takeshita have crossed paths multiple times, with a total of five singles matches taking place between the two men in that time. Moxley was naturally the heavy favorite when he first got in the ring with Takeshita, but "The Alpha" has grown and matured over time to the point where he hasn't lost to the current AEW Continental Champion in nearly two years. That fact is why Moxley is so obsessed with beating Takeshita as he once knew how to get the job done against "The Alpha," but when it comes to putting him away these days it's a little more difficult, and he will need all the time in the world at Revolution if he wants to achieve his goal.

With Revolution on the horizon, we here at Wrestling Inc. are hyping ourselves up for the big event by looking back on old matches, reviewing previous events, and documenting how certain rivalries got to the point they are at now. Today, it's Moxley and Takeshita's turn to have the spotlight shined upon them to see the evolution of this competitive rivalry in between the ropes. As previous mentioned, a total of five singles matches between Moxley and Takeshita have gone down in AEW, and we are going to watch them all. So sit back, relax, and join us as we look back on every match between Jon Moxley and Konosuke Takeshita.

We start our journey through this series in the weird limbo time that was the summer of 2022 for AEW. CM Punk's injury right after winning the AEW World Championship meant that an Interim AEW World Championship was created, and Jon Moxley was doing everything in his power during to make sure that people saw him as the top guy and not Punk. The summer of 2022 is also seen by many as the real turning point in the feud between AEW and WWE as Vince McMahon was forced to retire at the end of July and was replaced by Triple H, leading to WWE reaching heights it hadn't seen in years.

With an injured world champion and the company's biggest rival on the verge of turning a corner from a momentum standpoint, Moxley really was the right guy to lead AEW at this time as he was operating on a different level to everyone in the business. Consistently putting on matches that ranged from very good to excellent, not just in AEW but in every promotion that would have him, Moxley returned from his stint in rehab at the beginning of 2022 and was completely different beast. However, he was facing a different kind of beast in a young Konosuke Takeshita. He had a breakthrough performance against Hangman Page in May and proved he was no one hit wonder with a string of big performances through the early summer, earning himself the biggest match of his AEW career heading into Fyter Fest.

Babyface DDT Takeshita is one someone who immediately connected with the fans, so much so that Moxley, who was extremely popular at this time, ended up playing the heel role in this match. Takeshita was able to hang nicely in the early going, but once he gets busted open, something you don't see from him these days, Moxley is all over him and is toying with his food. The champion just uses all of his experience to have fun as Takeshita sells the blood as if he is in the biggest fight of his AEW career (which he is), and while I can see what they were going for with this match taking place a few months after Wheeler Yuta's blood-soaked Blackpool Combat Club initiation match against Moxley, it doesn't quite live up to what was achieved in that bout.

But that doesn't make this match any less awesome which it absolutely is. The fans really rally behind Takeshita as he mounts a comeback, and even give referee Paul Turner a piece of their minds with some of the near falls as the crowd genuinely wants Takeshita to win. In the end, Moxley, who is also busted open at this point because he probably felt left out, withstands Takeshita's fighting spirit and grinds him down into a Bulldog Choke for the win. Moxley knew he had been in a fight, and he knew another fight wasn't far away with Takeshita.

Fast forward to the end of 2022 and AEW is already in a very different spot to where it was when Jon Moxley and Konosuke Takeshita last faced off. We had all of the fall out from "Brawl Out," and while The Elite had returned to the company, CM Punk was still away from the company nursing his injuries. WWE found a new lease on life and could genuinely make the claim of being the hottest company in the world, and MJF had just kicked off his first reign as the AEW World Champion that wouldn't come to an end until the final show of the following year.

A lot had changed for both Takeshita and Moxley as well. For Takeshita, he had officially signed with AEW in November after becoming one of the hottest young wrestlers in the world through his performances on AEW TV, but had been scouted from afar by Don Callis who hadn't gotten into his ear just yet. As for Moxley, he became the Undisputed AEW World Champion by beating Punk, lost the title to Punk who then had to vacate it because of injuries and the whole "Brawl Out" incident, won the title again but dropped it to MJF at Full Gear thanks to William Regal turning on the Blackpool Combat Club, with Regal literally leaving AEW just a few days before this match.

To put it simply, this match had very low stakes. Both men didn't even get entrances at the start of "AEW Rampage" as the show dove straight into the action, and it's probably because it took place on "Rampage" that this match doesn't get talked about a lot, which is a shame because it is just as good as their initial meeting five months earlier. The match acts as a natural escalation from the first one as Takeshita enters with a lot more confidence and experience. He's the one who actively goes for the control of the match rather than trying to take advantage of Moxley's errors, which causes Moxley to dive into his bag of dirty tricks. He takes the action into the crowd where he is more comfortable, but Takeshita is able to hang with Moxley and busts him open on the outside, reversing the roles from the initial bout.

Moxley bleeding in matches became something of a meme by this point as you couldn't look at him a certain way without him furiously blading himself, but seeing him on the backfoot because of the blood loss gives this match a different spin from the first one. Takeshita is firing on all cylinders by busting out all of his big guns, and because of the lowered stakes and Takeshita just being signed to a full-time deal, the crowd leaned in once again and thought this might be the night where Takeshita gets that first major victory. However, it's Moxley who takes advantage of Takeshita trying to escalate things by using his experience to once again get a submission victory via a Bulldog Choke. 

"Rampage" was a show that rewarded you for being loyal to it because you never knew when a banger like this would happen. Definitely one of the best matches in "Rampage" history, and well worth a watch.

The only pay-per-view offering from Jon Moxley and Konosuke Takeshita took place at AEW Double or Nothing 2024, which just so happened to be held in the same building Moxley made his AEW debut five years earlier. If you thought a lot had changed between the first two matches, the 17 months between the 2022 holiday season and Memorial Day Weekend in 2024 is something else.

Moxley was on something of a side quest in the spring of 2024 as he returned to New Japan Pro Wrestling and captured the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship from Tetsuya Naito, making him the first man ever to hold the top prize in AEW, NJPW, and WWE. But for as rewarding as winning the title may have been, this period was a bit bland for Moxley as he wasn't really doing anything in AEW, and while he might have been fully bald here, the Death Riders story was still a few month away. 

Takeshita on the other hand had become "The Alpha" of The Don Callis Family a year earlier at Double or Nothing 2023, he had beaten Kenny Omega twice in one week, and was gradually working his way up the card to where he could challenge for gold. However, when an opportunity to get a shot at the prestigious IWGP World Heavyweight Championship presents itself, no one is going to pass up on that.

This is probably the most divisive of the Moxley/Takeshita series so far as it is widely different from the 2022 matches, but offers up the simplest story. Takeshita injured Moxley's arm on the episode of "AEW Collision" before this match, leading to Moxley walking in with his left arm completely bandaged up and providing the biggest bullseye for Takeshita that he could have asked for. "The Alpha" is more methodical and slow in this one as he zones in on Moxley's arm, who puts in one hell of a selling performance. He's even selling the arm while he's making his entrance, he just gets it doesn't he? 

The crowd does take a little bit of time to warm up due to Takeshita being so dominant in his arm attacks, but when he yanks Moxley down shoulder first on the apron everyone squirms in their seat for the angle its performed at. The bombs do start landing in the closing stretch, with Moxley consciously avoiding any sort of strike or move that requires his left arm which looks to give Takeshita a clear path to victory. However, he decides to listen to Don Callis and brings some chairs into the ring, but this comes back to haunt Takeshita as he gets his head stomped directly into the steel while Rick Knox throws the other chairs out, and Moxley escapes with the win. Certainly a different match from the first two, but the slow burn pays off well and ends up being a rather underrated bout in the end.

Another 17 months passes by before Jon Moxley and Konosuke Takeshita again, with their fourth match taking place in the ultra-competitive environment of the Continental Classic tournament. The "C2" is AEW's annual round robin tournament where everyone has their eye on becoming the AEW Continental Champion at Worlds End, and both men had very different journeys heading into the 2025 competition.

Right after losing the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, Moxley vanished from AEW and returned with one goal in mind, burn AEW to the ground and rebuild it with his vision. He retired Bryan Danielson, locked the AEW World Championship in a briefcase, and alongside his Death Riders he terrorized AEW for nine months as the rest of the roster were forced to step up to Moxley's level. Once the unbeatable aura surrounding him was shattered, Moxley became more erratic and started losing several matches to the likes of Darby Allin and Kyle O'Reilly, and wanted to use the Continental Classic to rebuild his image in a tournament where he couldn't have any help from the Death Riders.

Takeshita was only challenging for the right to challenge for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship when he last faced Moxley, but he walked into the Continental Classic with the title around his waist. In the summer, he won the G1 Climax tournament in NJPW and used his title opportunity to dethrone Zack Sabre Jr., adding the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship to the AEW International and NEVER Openweight Championships he had won in the 12 months prior. "The Alpha" had reached his final form and wanted to be the first man to win NJPW and AEW's signature round robin tournaments in the same year. 

Much like the Double or Nothing match, this one focuses on Takeshita zoning in on a Moxley injury. This time it's the left ankle from all the times he was forced to tap out at the hands of Kyle O'Reilly throughout the fall, and it's another fantastic selling performance from the leader of the Death Riders. He is limping all over the place while Takeshita just beats the snot out of him, but Moxley doesn't give up and actually uses the injury to his advantage when doing a Stomp on the apron, and even going after Takeshita's ankle as well.

However, the injury ends up catching up to Moxley and plays into the end of the match as the adrenaline wears off and he buckles while trying to hit a Lariat. This leads to Takeshita hitting two Power Drive Knees and the Raging Fire in the dying embers of the time limit to pick up his first win in AEW over Moxley. A nice mixture of their first three encounters upgraded to incorporate their current characters and most recent storylines, this match was one of the best matches of the 2025 Continental Classic, and you just knew that Moxley would want revenge once the tournament was over.

The most recent showdown between Moxley and Takeshita only happened a couple of weeks ago at the time of writing, but it's the reason why their bout at AEW Revolution on March 15 has no time limit. 

Not as much changed with the two men between their Continental Classic bout and this one, but there was enough to give both men extra motivation for winning. Moxley went on to win the tournament and become the new AEW Continental Champion, and despite wanting to rip AEW limb from limb in 2025, his performances in the C2, as well as the matches he had since winning the title where he will literally face anyone who throws their name out there, Moxley has earned the respect of the fans. Takeshita fell short in the C2 losing in the semi-finals to Kazuchika Okada, and he would end up losing the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship to Yota Tsuji at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 20 on January 4. However, he did have one thing going for him, that being his victory over Moxley in the C2 which has weighed heavily on the mind of the AEW Continental Champion since it happened. 

Not to say that this match is bad or anything, far from it, but recency bias doesn't apply in this instance as I actually believe this is the weakest of all the matches Moxley and Takeshita have had together. This match has big house show energy, which is understandable given where the match takes place as you can tell that the Australian fans wanted to cheer basically anything that happened. What that leads to is a match where the in-ring story almost takes a backseat in favor of giving the fans something to cheer for, which foes make for an entertaining watch, if not a little inconsequential in the first half.

All of that changes when the time cues start getting called out as both men immediately wake up and the big bombs start dropping. This extra level of urgency gets the crowd going even more, and this match that was being wrestled more as a marathon to begin with is now an all out sprint. Moxley and Takeshita swing wildly at each other, with Moxley showing a lot of resilience as Takeshita really takes control. The sprint gets even quicker with one minute remaining with headbutts, kickouts at one, a Power Drive Knee to the back of the head, it's the most frantic these two have ever been, but the knee was so powerful that Takeshita couldn't hit the Raging Fire in time and it ends in a 20 minute draw.

Moxley and Takeshita won't have to spring at Revolution as they will have all the time in the world to do their thing. Takeshita looks to finally have Moxley's number after years of falling short, but one thing is certain, fans in Los Angeles will witness a battle for the ages over the AEW Continental Championship.