Jon Moxley had his AEW debut match at the Fyter Fest pay-per-view in June, where he defeated Joey Janela in an unsanctioned match. After the match, Moxley was attacked by Omega in retaliation for his previous assault. A match between the two was scheduled for All Out on August 31. However, on August 23, Moxley was forced to pull out from the event after being diagnosed with a MRSA staph infection in his elbow, and would undergo surgery to remove it. AEW subsequently revealed Pac as Moxley's replacement at All Out.
The match was subsequently rescheduled for the Full Gear event on November 9. Moxley made his return on October 2, during the inaugural episode of AEW Dynamite, attacking Omega during the latter's main event match. On the following episode of Dynamite, Moxley competed in his first sanctioned AEW match, defeating Shawn Spears. On November 9 at Full Gear, Moxley defeated Omega in an unsanctioned Lights Out match.
On the latest State of Combat podcast, he reflected on AEW remaining an alternative to WWE so far: “A lot of other start-up promotions over the years have relied on ex-WWE stars and WWE formula and so forth like that. And the cool thing about this is that the top six, eight, however many guys. If we wanted to be in WWE right now, we could. We are actively choosing to do something different to try it a different way.
It’s all dudes in their primes, at the top of their games, and we brought these fans with us. And really, these AEW fans that are showing up to Dynamite every week, that are watching our PPVs, coming to PPVs, following our stuff. They’re really, the fans have driven us more than anything. It hasn’t been hard, it hasn’t been like staple gun and posters all over town, trying to get people in the buildings. These fans are hungry for an alternative. They want this and we’re just trying to give them the best possible wrestling show that we can every week.”