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Jon Moxley on AEW: “For me, it’s a perfect fit”
All Elite Wrestling announced Friday that Jon Moxley had signed a new five-year contract. The deal will keep Moxley in AEW until 2027, with a very real chance his stay will last even longer.
“I don’t plan on going anywhere else,” Moxley says. “It’s the best job in the world, and I’m very lucky to have it. In AEW, all I worry about is wrestling. That’s my focus, and that’s a joy. I love storytelling, I love promos, I love wrestling. I love coming up with ideas for other people, I love learning. For me, it’s a perfect fit.”
The new contract also includes an expanded role with mentorship and coaching. That represents an evolution for the 36-year-old Moxley—whose real name is Jon Good—and one in which he believes he is well equipped to help others in the locker room. Before AEW, Moxley starred in WWE as Dean Ambrose. He has also wrestled a number of big matches for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, beginning in 2019, and was a major piece of the indies before and after his WWE run.
“I’m a good gap between the old generation and the new generation,” Moxley says. “I come from the Les Thatcher system, so I understand paying your dues and respecting veterans. I’m also old enough to know what it was like to go to the post office and send stacks of my videotapes—ones I had to make—to promoters. I was also there for the advent of YouTube, and I was one of the first indie wrestlers to gain a buzz doing that. My friend had a video camera and a laptop, so I would cut promos every week on my indie shows and used YouTube to my advantage.
“When I started in 2004, there was WWE and some other indies, but there wasn’t much money in them. There was a big gap in between when you first started and actually having any success in the business. Now there are so many tools and so many promotions, and such a great fan base, and wrestling has evolved so much. It’s a great thing for the fans and the wrestlers. No one is shoving a script in your face telling you what you have to say. I wish I had this opportunity in AEW when I was 25. I hope the young people at AEW understand how cool this place is.”
Moxley will also continue to lead by example. Currently in his third reign as AEW world champion, he was originally supposed to be in the thick of a month-plus vacation. Yet that all changed after he dropped the title to CM Punk at All Out. Moxley and Punk worked a fantastic main event, a match that was both physical and compelling. Unfortunately, it was immediately overshadowed by the postshow media scrum, which was followed by a backstage altercation including Punk and company executive vice presidents Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson).
“I was going to be gone and off TV for six weeks,” Moxley says. “It wasn’t that I needed a vacation. I was feeling good and feeling hot, but it had to do with what we were going to do for a story.
“Going into All Out, I was thinking, ‘After I get through this match, that’s it for a while.’ I wrestled the match, and we kicked each other’s ass. I was happy, Chicago was happy, everybody was happy. I went outside to smoke a cigarette with Eddie [Kingston] in celebration. That vacation lasted about 30 minutes. By the time I went to bed that night, I was pretty sure we were going to pretend that vacation was never going to happen. But it’s all good; you just roll with the punches.”
Moxley’s ability to adapt and thrive in difficult situations can be traced back to his time in rehab last November. He stopped drinking, then returned to AEW in January with renewed strength and zest, which has been noticeable in his work over the past 10 months.
“A year ago, I wasn’t in the same head space,” Moxley says. “I was all f---ed up. I hated traveling. I was living in Vegas, felt like I was always in an airport, flying coast to coast, and I was sick of leaving my family. I thought about freelancing when my deal was up. Not that I would leave AEW, but I didn’t want to be there every week. I was in a bad place.
“Then I went to rehab and all that, and now I’m in a totally different headspace. We’re living in Cincinnati, too, which is great. I look forward to going to TV every week. I get to see my friends in the Blackpool Combat Club. I’m not f---ed up. I have a clean headspace. My life is completely different than it was a year ago, and all for the better.”
Since his return, Moxley has been performing on a different level inside the ring. The All Out match against Punk stands out, but his interim title bout against Hiroshi Tanahashi in June at Forbidden Door was also superb. Moxley will continue to work for New Japan, but the AEW press release announcing his new five-year deal made it sound like his run on the indies is coming to an end. That notion was further supported by Moxley dropping the GCW belt to Nick Gage this past weekend, though he lost largely in part due to interference from W. Morrissey and Stokely Hathaway, who were working on behalf of MJF as part of the AEW story line.
But there is more to the story. As long as Moxley is involved in wrestling, he will always be involved with the indies.
“If there’s something I want to be part of, I’ll find a way to make it happen,” Moxley says. “That’s tougher now—I have my family, AEW and New Japan. But I love supporting independent wrestling. So you never know when or where I might show up.”
Moxley’s commitment to AEW has not gone unnoticed by his peers. Long the anchor of the company, his words are backed by actions.
“I’ve been at the highest highs and the lowest lows,” Moxley says. “I’ve been destitute, dirt poor sleeping under stairwells, I’ve flown in private jets, and everything in between. I have a pretty good understanding of what’s important in my life. I’m not worried about any arbitrary goal right now. I have an infinite mindset. I have the joy of getting to do what I love to do, and I do it with people I respect and for people who love watching it. That’s my focus. Why would I waste my time thinking about the dumb s---? I’m really happy where I am.
“In this game, your only competition is yourself. I’ve realized that over time. There’s no other me out there. I have a pretty specific ever-evolving, proprietary blend of s--- that is me. As long as I keep making that a little better every time I’m out there, I’ll be good.”
A key to Moxley’s success has been his involvement in the Blackpool Combat Club. That has allowed him to work closely with Bryan Danielson, William Regal, Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta, and he credits them all with helping revive his unabashed passion for pro wrestling.
“It’s not like you get sober and instantly feel great,” Moxley says. “This takes time. I felt kind of whacked out when I first came back; my first couple matches felt like out-of-body experiences. Being in the ring with Bryan again at the beginning of the BCC, that’s when it all started to click again. And it became fun again. Everything, and I mean everything, became fun again. A few months later, somewhere along the line after the Anarchy in the Arena [match at Double or Nothing], I realized I was having a f---ing great year. Even though I’m working my ass off, I’m not trying too hard. I’m letting the match come to me. I’m letting the promo come to me. It’s fun as s---, and I have so many great f---ing people to wrestle. It’s so much fun.
“Regal is in my ear after every match. I know exactly what I want to do, even if it’s just perfecting my Europeans in a match. That pumps me up. I practiced this kick for a month, and I nailed Juice [Robinson] with it [two weeks ago on Dynamite]. I felt so f---ing good about that. My goal is to keep getting way better. I want to wrestle into my 50s and become one of those crusty old-man wrestlers. It’s going to be f---ing awesome.”
Sober, motivated and operating at the highest level of his career, Moxley is seeking to create a distinct and meaningful reign with the title. He will be on Dynamite this week, and defends the world title next week in his hometown of Cincinnati in a rare Tuesday edition of the show.
“I want to be better tomorrow than today, and I want to be better next week,” Moxley says. “Our roster in AEW has so much talent. Men and women, it’s f---ing crazy. I’m jealous of most of them, and I want to work with all of them. Now there’s plenty of time to do it.
“I’m very excited about the future and what could possibly happen. I have no idea what will happen, just like I had no f---ing idea what was going to happen in 2019. So I can’t wait for what’s next.”
The (online) week in wrestling
- Vince McMahon’s releases have led to some phenomenal returns during the Triple H–led era of WWE—none better executed than the one we saw Saturday from Bray Wyatt.
- Another major return took place Monday, as Brock Lesnar came back to clobber Bobby Lashley—which led to Seth Rollins winning the United States title.
- I was very surprised that DX wasn’t attacked in the closing segment of Monday’s Raw. Billy Gunn, who wasn’t part of the reunion but is enjoying a renaissance in AEW, will be in action Wednesday night against Swerve Strickland.
- Triple H has brought unpredictability back to WWE. That was on display, again, on Raw with the surprise return of Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows. Anderson, who is still the reigning NEVER openweight champion, is coming off a major win in New Japan against Hiroshi Tanahashi, and he was just starting a long-term program with Tama Tonga.
- Jimmy Smith is no longer the lead voice of Monday Night Raw, but he did an outstanding job and brought value to the position after a disappointing run from Adnan Virk that lasted just more than a month.
- Bully Ray returned this weekend for Impact Wrestling, and he is the next challenger for Josh Alexander. But another defining moment of the Bound for Glory pay-per-view was Jordynne Grace’s victory against Masha Slamovich.
- RIP to Sara Lee.
Logan Paul is giving even more visibility to the brilliance of Roman Reigns
Roman Reigns has never been better.
Reigns hasn’t wrestled a televised match in more than a month, but he doesn’t need to. Every appearance is meaningful, with each leaving the audience wanting more. The addition of Sami Zayn into The Bloodline has been a stroke of genius—how about Zayn telling Jey Uso on Raw that he hasn’t been “Ucey” enough lately?—and Paul Heyman is somehow so great with Reigns that their magic has superseded what he created with Brock Lesnar.
The next scheduled match for Reigns is next month in Saudi Arabia at Crown Jewel against Logan Paul. So far, in their press conference and in-ring showdown last week on SmackDown, Paul has been overmatched by Reigns on the microphone. And that is the beauty of this program—it puts even more eyeballs on Reigns.
As odd as this match appears at first glance, it is a really smart pairing. Why not use Paul’s celebrity to Reigns’s benefit? Reigns will ensure that Paul has his moments in their match, but this title bout isn’t designed to bring Paul to the next level in WWE or start a prolonged program that will run until WrestleMania next April. This is the definition of a one-off, and no one is going to come out looking better than Reigns.
Though presented as tentpole events, the Crown Jewel shows are basically glorified house shows. This match is reason alone to watch, even if the outcome is not in doubt.
Tweet of the Week
This was a fascinating look inside the man behind the character.
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Justin Barrasso can be reached at JBarrasso@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinBarrasso.
