Jon Moxley's former protege has a "long uphill battle" after massive setback, says AEW star

One of Jon Moxley's former proteges has seemingly gotten a setback, as he fell just before achieving one of his dreams. However, it seems he has gotten the support of another AEW star during a tough time for him, as the latter claimed that great things were in store for him. The AEW star concerned here is Willam Ospreay.

Shota Umino recently competed in NJPW's New Japan Cup. He made it to the finals of this year's tournament but fell short to David Finlay. The leader of Bullet Club has earned a shot at Hirooki Goto's IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. Umino was Jon Moxley's former protege until he split up from him due to him not liking his mentor's recent actions.

Will Ospreay took to X/Twitter to talk about the match, as he mentioned how Shota had a long way to go from here on out, but he noticed how he was graceful in defeat. Ospreay commended him and encouraged him to keep on pushing forward.

"Shota is going to have a long uphill battle. His main event with Finlay was a blast to watch. Even in defeat, you can see it’s starting to connect the dots. The biggest thing he will need to do is not allow a loss to change his mindset. Keep it up lad! You can do it," Ospreay wrote.

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Nic Nemeth praised Jon Moxley despite controversial spot

A few days ago on Dynamite, the wrestling world watched with unease as Jon Moxley was impaled in the back by Cope's weapon - Spike. They had to watch in horror as referee Paul Turner and Wheeler Yuta attempted and were eventually able to remove this from his back.

During the recent edition of Busted Open Radio, Nic Nemeth (FKA Dolph Ziggler) spoke about the moment and gave credit to Mox for the effort he has always put into AEW. He mentioned how he has cemented himself as Tony Khan's go-to person.

"Whatever you think of the storyline right now, that doesn't matter. The guy has been there through thick and thin for AEW, he's been their guy. When in doubt, when there's an injury, when there's an issue, when there's a problem, when anything is going wrong, it is a break glass in case of emergency and bring out Moxley to do something 'cause clearly he is one of those guys that would do anything." [1:29-2:09]

Jon Moxley continues his reign as the AEW World Champion, but now it remains to be seen how long this will keep going as he has an endless list of challengers stepping up to him. Which of them will dethrone the king?