Jon Moxley On Renee Young's Reaction After Telling Her That He Wanted To Leave WWE, NJPW Status

Before working for the WWE, Jon Moxley spent a lot of time wrestling in deathmatches. While some find this type of style gruesome, others see it as another form of the already diversified pro wrestling style umbrella. During an interview with Chris Van Vliet, Moxley spoke about his love for this style of wrestling and how he understands that most fans don't like it.

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"I am unapologetic about my love of the – what you want to call it- deathmatch style, hardcore wrestling," Moxley stated. "I love that stuff. I understand that most people are gonna think it's crap, and they're not going to watch it. But, there's a reason a lot of those promotions and stuff like ECW was a niche promotion, because a lot of people got turned off by all the excessive gore and so forth. Although I make no apologies that I like that stuff, I would never force it upon anyone else. It's not like I walked into AEW and was like 'Look, all my matches are going to be crazy.' This was brought to me [by AEW]. I never imagined we'd be able to do stuff like that [in AEW]."

Moxley went on to say that his wife Renee Young was one of many concerned during his Lights Out match with Kenny Omega at Full Gear last month. He told Van Vliet that's the price you pay being married to him. You're going to see him take part in extreme matches like that.

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"When you get married to me, you sign up that you're going to be under a fair amount of stress sometimes," Moxley jokingly stated. "Sometimes I'm going to come home and I just fell down the side of a mountain. Some days I'll come home and I'll be bludgeoned with barbed wire. This is just how I live my life."

Van Vliet added that Young's tweets during and after the match were pretty entertaining. He asked Moxley if he contacted her right away after his match was over and if he did so through text or phone call.

"Oh, you got to call immediately just to be safe, you know?" Moxley said. "I don't need no heat."

In addition to Young, Moxley went on to say that she has been in his corner since the moment he decided he wanted to leave the WWE. Her only concern was for him to be happy and pursue his wrestling career to greater heights. He even added that she had no qualms about what he was going to say on Chris Jericho's Talk Is Jericho podcast. She wanted him to tell his story his way.

"Way before, I'd be like 'Ah, screw it, maybe I'm going to New Japan. I'm not going to re-sign [with the WWE].' She said 'Good, don't. Whatever you want to do, do it. Whatever makes you happy.' I'm like 'Good,'" Moxley began. "I even asked her before I did the Jericho show, I was like 'Is there anything you don't want me to say?' And she said 'No, say whatever you want.' She didn't give an f**k. She's untouchable. She's completely irreplaceable in her spot – no fear of reprisals."

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Before concluding his interview with Van Vliet, Moxley stated regardless of those who believe AEW will sink or swim, he believes this promotion was the best one for him to do business with.

"A lot of it was timing and the chance to not just do the things I want to do, but change the business," Moxley mentioned. "It really does create a viable alternative, because I can be a difference maker here, and it was almost like I had to. It was like Double or Nothing chose me. I loved everything they said. From the business kind of plan, to the ideas, to the way we're going to do stuff to the creative aspect of it or whatever, I was like okay. There was no reason to not jump on this boat and take the journey. A lot of other people would have swam back to the island, but I'm like f**k the island. Let's find some new territory."

Van Vliet stated after the boat/island metaphor that some outsiders looking in might not see it the way Moxley does, delivery wise. Van Vliet asked Moxley if he believes that AEW will deliver on what they've promised the fans and their employees?

"Yeah," Moxley answered. "What's the worst that could happen? It's a failure? So, what? Let's give it a shot. It'll either be one of the startup companies who's tried and failed to gain a foothold and be successful, or maybe it's the exact opposite and maybe, we take over the entire world. Who knows. Maybe it's a new wrestling boom renaissance, which it's already starting to be. The opportunity was so good to be part of that I was like I'm in."

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Since Moxley's focus has been with AEW as of late, Van Vliet asked Moxley if he's still part of the New Japan Pro Wrestling roster.

"As long as I'm wrestling, I'll still wrestle in Japan," Moxley stated. "That's another cool thing about AEW is that [the roster] can do other stuff outside of AEW. There's guys wrestling in Mexico, there's guys wrestling in Europe. The schedules are a little bit different. You don't have to run everything through everybody to get everything approved."

You can view Jon Moxley's full interview above. If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Chris Van Vliet with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

damien demento contributed to this article.

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