Jon Moxley had a lot of plans, some came to fruition, others didn't.
Moxley's upcoming film, Cagefighter: Worlds Collide is out this month, featuring a familiar plot line. Moxley portrays a pro wrestler making the move to MMA, to take on the sport's top names. The worlds of wrestling and MMA often meet, but for Moxley himself, it's been tough to make that happen.
He's twice been scheduled to face former UFC Heavyweight Champion Josh Barnett at the Bloodsport events. Last year, he was forced to withdraw due to a staph infection, and this year's COVID-19 pandemic pushed back a second planned encounter.
"Yeah, I think we’re at 2, Tony [Ferguson] and Khabib [Nurmagomedov] are at 5," Moxley told Fightful. "So we’re not the most cursed match-up in sports just yet. Maybe in sports entertainment. But, yeah, maybe next time we just won’t advertise it. We’ll just, whenever me and him are in the same city we’re just gonna have to set up a mat and just do it. Film it with an iPhone and just get it in the can."
For now, you can get your crossover fix in Moxley's Cagefighter film, though he's not past showing up on Dana White's UFC fight island, joking "Yeah, we might have to take a trip."
A lot more than Bloodsport got canned. Visibly bummed, Moxley explained the frustration.
"That’s just one of many matches and many events like [AEW] Blood & Guts, 14,000 tickets in Newark down the drain; Philly, Boston, all down the drain. All these promotions, all these [independents]—it especially sucks for the independent guys just aren’t working right now. That sucks. I mean, WrestleMania had to take place in front of nobody and that’s not ideal for all those guys and girls who wanted to have their big WrestleMania moment, they had to do it in front of nobody. So, everybody got affected by this. Pro wrestling is such a small part of the world even though it dominates my life, there much more important things. People are suffering through way worse financial times and stuff. It sucks for everybody," Moxley said.
Moxley has been AEW World Champion for over two months and has barely been in front of a live crowd. He admits that the transition makes it hard to gauge how he's performing as a champion.
"It’s not ideal. I won the World title on a Saturday, that Wednesday, a few days later, was my last time in front of an audience. So, that’s not ideal timing to say the least. It’s not for everybody. Yeah. Because it’s a dark time in the world. So, it’s a little weird. But, I have a task of carrying the torch through a really, really dark time. I’m not gonna complain about it," Moxley noted.
With all the time at home, Moxley had the opportunity to watch WrestleMania 36, which also took place in front of no crowd. Don't expect sour grapes about his old place of employment, as he said that he liked the presentation.
"I watched the whole thing," Moxley said. "Both nights. I enjoyed it. I thought it flowed nicely and a lot of people really worked their ass off and put on great performances. I enjoyed the Boneyard Match, I thought that was cool. I thought that was really cool, too, because the Undertaker is a really beloved character. He’s like a comic book character. He’s a beloved character from our childhood. Same as John Wayne or John McClane or any action movie star you can think of, so it was really cool. I think everybody really enjoyed that."
