The past several months at AEW have been tumultuous. But throughout it all, Jon Moxley’s been the person to steady the ship — in-the-ring, and reportedly behind-the-scenes, too.
So it’s no surprise Tony Khan would want to lock up his three-time World champion, and announce he’ll be taking on a more official role in the locker room. But what about Mox? Did he consider returning to WWE now that Triple H is in charge?
As he said in one of Dean Ambrose’s first interviews on the main roster, “Nope.”
“I don’t plan on going anywhere else. 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 36 year old did say that a year ago — when he and his wife Renee Paquette were still living in Las Vegas, and before Moxley took time off to get treatment for alcoholism — that he did think about letting his deal lapse and working per-appearance wherever he wanted:
“A year ago, I wasn’t in the same head space. 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.”
The night after his new deal was announced, it looked like he finished up with Game Changer Wrestling. But Moxley says he’ll always find ways to support the indies:
“If there’s something I want to be part of, I’ll find a way to make it happen. 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.”
Regading the mentorship & coaching piece of his new contract, Moxley spoke on why it’s a good fit for him:
“I’m a good gap between the old generation and the new generation. 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...
“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.”
As for the rest of his career? May I present to you the most Jon Moxley quote in the history of Jon Moxley quotes:
“I want to wrestle into my 50s and become one of those crusty old-man wrestlers. It’s going to be f---ing awesome.”
Check out Mox’s entire interview with SI — where he also talks about how his planned time off after All Out was “what we were going to do for a story” and how “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” — here.
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