Even now, it’s a little hard to believe that AEW gave “The King of the Bums” a clean victory over a three-time former AEW World Champion. It was an incredibly emotional moment for Kingston fans, as it suggested that AEW might finally be ready to present Kingston as one of the company’s top acts. But now, looking back with a little distance and some scrutiny, are we sure it was as big a win as it initially seemed?

On its face, that seems like an insane question. Worlds End marked just the 11^th singles loss of Moxley’s AEW career, and he’s been with the company since the beginning. The list of people who have beaten him is short and includes names like Kenny Omega, CM Punk, Adam Page, and MJF — all former AEW World Champions. It’s ridiculous to think that a win over Moxley could do anything but elevate Kingston.

That said, it has to be admitted that there’s a little less shine on the Moxley rub these days. He’s been losing more often — six of those 11 singles losses came in 2023, whereas there were only five in the three-and-a-half years prior — and the list of his conquerors now includes names like Jay White and Orange Cassidy (promising stars, but not on the level of his previous competition) and even Rey Fenix, though that loss was merely the result of happenstance. Beating Moxley now isn’t quite the same accomplishment as it was in, say, 2020, when Kingston came up short against his old friend in two world title matches.

More troubling is the fact that it remains unclear exactly how big of an accomplishment winning the Continental Classic actually is. We’re sure Kingston, who holds a deep love for Japanese wrestling history, is personally thrilled to have won an American take on the G1 Climax and Tony Khan’s “modern triple crown,” and we’re thrilled on his behalf. But two of the championships involved — the ROH World title and the NJPW STRONG Openweight title — were already his before the tournament began, and the third, the AEW Continental Championship, is brand new. We still don’t know if the titles will be defended individually or if they’ve been formally unified (a question with ramifications for the future of ROH as a whole) and we don’t know what, if anything, this victory means for Kingston’s intermittent presence on AEW TV. And it also has to be acknowledged that AEW has given Kingston a PPV victory over a former world champion before (when he beat Chris Jericho at Revolution 2022) and it ultimately did nothing for him.

Bottom line: There’s no way to grade this match result with the information we currently have, because we don’t know what the win actually means. If AEW is prepared to give Kingston an actual main event push, it was the massive victory it seemed in the moment. If not, it might be remembered less fondly down the road.

Grade: Incomplete