Four years ago, Jon Moxley debuted in AEW. Following the main event of Double or Nothing, AEW’s inaugural pay-per-view, he attacked Kenny Omega, brawling with him through the crowd before hurling him off the top of a stack of oversized casino chips.
The image of Moxley atop that monument captured his rebellious, renegade spirit. He took an enormous gamble by leaving the comfort of WWE and going all in with AEW, but it was clear that the payoff was going to be worth the risk.
“That was surreal,” says Moxley. “We started fighting through the crowd, and I heard the crowd cheering ‘AEW! AEW!’ That gave me a feeling this was going to work. Before then, it was just an idea.
“At the time, Kenny was known as the best wrestler in the world. I was coming off f---ing off [from] WWE, so I was in the news, and people wanted to see what I was going to do. I was a hot name, he was a hot name and we’d never entered each other’s universes before. On the first show, we got all these incendiary ingredients lined up: Jericho, a TV deal, the Young Bucks. And then the real explosive fuel was me and Kenny at Double or Nothing. That’s where the match got lit and we set it ablaze. It was the spark that ignited the whole blaze that is AEW, and four years later, it’s coming back around again. It feels really good, it feels like where we should be.”
Moxley and Omega have combined to form AEW’s signature feud, which will be reignited Wednesday in a steel cage match on Dynamite, advancing the heated story line pitting The Elite against Moxley’s Blackpool Combat Club.
The feud between the two has driven AEW programming throughout the past four years, right from the start at Double or Nothing. After spending the majority of that night in hiding to keep his debut a surprise, that was the first time Moxley heard the crowd chant “AEW!” As he laid down a beating on Omega, he finally had genuine reason to believe in this brand-new wrestling promotion, one he could only imagine when it was pitched to him by Tony Khan.
“When me and Kenny entered each other’s spheres, AEW was just beginning,” says Moxley. “Tony was sitting at my kitchen table telling me about this theoretical TV show that might exist and this theoretical promotion that might exist. Now, four years later, we just sold 60,000 tickets to a country we’ve never been to without a match announced. There is definitely pride for those of us who’ve been here since the beginning. I don’t know if you want to call me and Kenny the definitive rivalry, but it’s important. The cool thing is, this is four years later and we just sold 60,000 tickets to Wembley f---ing Stadium.”
The encounters between Moxley and Omega have been epic. There was the Lights Out match at Full Gear in 2019 that Moxley won, followed by Omega evening the score when he defeated Moxley for the world title at the “Winter Is Coming”–themed Dynamite in December 2020. Their third singles bout took place the following March, when they went to absurd lengths to put forth an outrageously compelling Barbed Wire Deathmatch—pyro effects be damned—that otherwise would not exist in mainstream American pro wrestling.
Moxley is eager to test himself against Omega, no different from his mindset at the beginning of their feud.
“I have an immense amount of respect for Kenny and the Young Bucks,” says Moxley. “We’re blades looking for iron to sharpen ourselves. That’s true. I want to challenge myself against the three of them.
“Four years ago, a lot of people were ready to write me off. A lot of people thought I couldn’t even measure up to Kenny. He was coming off that New Japan run and he was the greatest wrestler of all time. I felt an immense amount of motivation. I felt like, ‘I’m going to show all you motherf---ers I belong on the top.’ So Kenny has been pushing me since day one in AEW. And now I’m far better than I was then in 2019, especially now that I’m not scared of dying of a seizure in the ring. And substance abuse issues are never really over, but it’s in the rearview. Mentally, physically, this is the best I’ve felt in a long time.
“Let’s face the facts: I’ve got a lot of miles on my body. You only live once and I don’t take it easy. I’ve pushed myself to get everything I can out of my body. Mentally, I feel better than ever. And right now, never in my life have I given less f---s about anything. I’ll do whatever the f--- I want. And I don’t give a f---. That may sound abstract, but it’s a powerful thing.”
Moxley and Omega are two of the absolute best in the world and both in their prime. But their styles are drastically different. Moxley is a professional wrestling outlier in every sense of the word, operating with a flat-out different mindset and approach from his peers.
“I’m not out there looking for a standing ovation,” says Moxley. “I’m here trying to get people to go, ‘Oh my f---ing god.’ I’m looking for an entirely different reaction from everyone else. I look at wrestling differently from everyone else.”
Alongside Bryan Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta, Moxley’s spirit has been rekindled in the BCC. There is a different dimension to their work. They are bullies in the ring, with no redeeming qualities to sell to advertisers of younger demographics. Their goal is to hurt people and win the match, and it is quite a juxtaposition against The Elite, who are splashy and fun.
“The BCC is real,” says Moxley. “It’s only been around for a year, but those guys have been my partners for like 10 years. I don’t have many close friends in the business. Danielson and Claudio, those two are on that list. They’re best friends, training partners, and I’ve spent so much time in the ring with them. The only difference was, back then, it was the opposite side of the ring. Me and Seth [Rollins] vs. Sheamus and Cesaro [now known by his real name, Castagnoli], we’d wrestle so much and tear the house down. I get off on s--- like that. I think there was a match where Claudio busted his teeth out, and, for some reason, we felt slighted in some way because it wasn’t getting the attention it deserved. So we said, ‘F--- it, we’re just going to steal the show every night.’ I was in The Shield at that time, but you need guys on both sides to push each other.”
Cutting-edge wrestling is on display every time the BCC enters the ring. Moxley, Danielson and Castagnoli are visibly relishing the chance to experiment with pacing, tempo and timing, bringing an innovation to matches that subverts an audience’s expectations.
“I love to ask, ‘Why?’” says Moxley. “A lot of times, the answer is because, ‘That’s the way it’s done.’ That goes for all professional wrestling. Why is it that everybody hits the tackle and then takes off and runs to the ropes on their right? What if we cut out the other bulls--- and got back to the fight? We’re going to do it our way.
“Gearing up with the BCC for this war against The Elite, I’m so excited I can do this now that I have my s--- straight. I don’t care what obstacles are in front of me. By sheer force of will, I’m going to squeeze every single drop of potential out of myself that I can. Anyone who stands in the way can get f---ed. I’m not going to sit idly and let time go by. I’m going to completely realize the best version of Jon Moxley, whatever that is.”
For all their differences, Moxley and Omega are two professionals committed to exceeding expectations in remarkable fashion. Their date inside a steel cage Wednesday will be the next chapter in one of the most storied active rivalries in wrestling, and Moxley intends to deliver.
“Another thing me and Kenny have in common is that no matter how our bodies feel, when people give us their time and money, we put it all on the line,” says Moxley. “We just don’t know any other way to do it.
“The BCC vs. The Elite, this rivalry is the absolute apex of professional wrestling right now. We’re going to have a great crowd and we have the steel cage. It’s got all the ingredients for a really memorable night.”
Justin Barrasso can be reached at JBarrasso@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinBarrasso.
