Jon Moxley no longer wants to disappoint fans.
AEW star Jon Moxley has made it no secret of his happiness by the end of his WWE run. Moxley (named Dean Ambrose in WWE) got tired of scripted promos and his creative direction, making the decision to leave when his contract expired in April. Moxley wasted little time finding a new home, signing with All Elite Wrestling while also making appearances for NJPW.
“I think since I’ve left WWE–I don’t think I’ve been told ‘no’ once,” Moxley told Still Real To Us. “Usually, they say, ‘Do whatever you want to do.’ For instance, with Joey Janela at Fyter Fest. At first, I was like, ‘Okay, cool. We’ll do some nutty stuff.’ I thought we would be somewhere in the middle of the card. Then I realized, we were going to be in the main event.”
Moxley's first bout in AEW took place against Joey Janela in a bout many fans were looking forward to given their respective hardcore backgrounds.
“Once I started learning more about Joey Janela, and what he means to the death match scene; I realized that this was a dream match. Now we’re in the main event. I realized the expectations are so high,” Moxley revealed. “I told [management], ‘You realize, just by putting my name with Joey’s together, you’ve created an expectation for insanity. Anything less than balls-out would be a disappointment, and I’m not going to be in the business of disappointing fans anymore.' I had to do that for years, when I had to do these stupid scripts. I’d have to say stuff like, ‘I’m going to eviscerate your skull at Hell In A Cell!’ It’s like, no…I’m not. I know I’m not. I know that there’s not going to be any blood. I’m lying. I’m lying to the fans. I’m selling this violence that’s just not going to happen.”
The former WWE Champion won the match, but perhaps Janela got the last laugh as he skipped out on watching the end of 12 Rounds 3 starring Moxley.
Moxley continued, discussing the differences in how much freedom he has in AEW.
“I haven’t had to shoot down any bad ideas from anybody, which is great,” said Moxley. “‘Cause, you know. I used to go to TV, and it’s like starting in a hole. I’d think, ‘How bad is it? Oh God, maybe if we could make this crap passable, it would be a victory.' Everything so far is great. It’s almost too good to be true. But, it’s so simple. We’ve got, no pun intended, some of the most elite wrestlers in the world. All guys who are veterans, in their primes with huge fanbases. They understand their fanbases. We know what's good, and what's not. We don’t need writers or producers, or anything like that. We know what we are doing. You’ve got myself, Jericho, Kenny, Cody, The Bucks, PAC, and Spears. We’re all at the top. If we wanted to be in WWE right now–we could, and make huge money. Any one of us. We’re all actively choosing to do this, instead.”
Moxley picked up his first official AEW victory on Wednesday's episode of Dynamite when he defeated Shawn Spears. Moxley is scheduled to team with PAC to face Hangman Page & Kenny Omega on the Oct. 16 episode of AEW Dynamite.
