Jon Moxley On Similarities To CM Punk, Triple H "Buying The Indies"
Jon Moxley is arguably the most polarizing pro wrestler at the moment. After setting fire to the internet with his Talk Is Jericho and Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast appearances, Moxley continues to dish out details of the current state of pro wrestling.
In a recent interview with 25 Years Later, Moxley showed the divide between the public and controversial departure of former WWE superstar CM Punk against himself.
"A bridge is never burnt in WWE Vince [McMahon] would have me back tomorrow and would love it if I came crawling back to him," Moxley said. "I think Punk had a lot more personal animosity towards WWE and specific people. I don't know every detail of his story and I haven't spoken to him since he left WWE. His experience drove him to not like wrestling anymore, I think. For me, I wanted to exact opposite. I just got pro wrestling back after losing it years ago. I'm like "Whoa, I'm back in the game, here we go!"
"I wanted to make sure that people knew that there's no bitterness and that my love of wrestling and my desire to perform for the fans, my desire to meet and exceed their expectations and my love for the fans has only gotten bigger... That's probably the biggest difference between my interview and the Punk interview. He was basically saying f*ck pro wrestling, and I was saying that I got my love of pro wrestling back."
As numerous former WWE superstars have eventually jumped ship to AEW, many fans have followed suit. Moxley said that his loyal fanbase from WWE, as well as other WWE fans, have now put feelers on the AEW product.
"They have stayed with me through thick and thin and they're going to follow me wherever I go," Moxley said. "Now they're AEW fans. They can still be WWE fans but they're AEW fans too. Not trying to come off as arrogant but that's a lot of fans that are now following AEW. We're garnering a huge fan base and we've only done one show. It just so happens that the one show we've done was f***ing awesome. Even if this whole thing goes t*ts up and we never run another show, that was one helluva show. But we're going to run more shows, a lot more shows.
"The sum of wrestling outside of WWE is bigger than WWE. I feel like myself, the entire AEW roster and all of the fans are the same team, reaching for the same goal, to make wrestling awesome. To not be embarrassed to tel people you're a wrestling fan because they'd say to you 'oh that show with fart jokes and they poop on each other or whatever the f**k happens over there anymore'. If you're a wrestling fan and you show someone some things from WWE, you'd be embarrassed. You'd want to bust out old VHS tapes to show them why you're a wrestling fan because this isn't it. I want people to be wearing an AEW shirt and have someone say 'Oh, you're a wrestling fan, f**k yeah, me too'. When I was standing on that poker chip at the end of Double Or Nothing, I didn't know when we were going off the air. I stayed up there but for some reason, I just wanted to take a f***ing victory lap. Security did not appreciate it but I took a giant victory lap around the arena off the air, and I felt like I was with 12,000 teammates. We are all AEW. We have that common bond."
Moxley discussed the flow from indy wrestling to WWE main roster status. Moxley believes that products like Triple H's NXT might not necessarily be the best development process for talent. He references Daniel Bryan and CM Punk as two superstars who have partaken in massive WWE moments without the aid of NXT. Moxley also compared Triple H buying up all the indy talent to Vince McMahon buying up all the wrestling territories in the past.
"I thought it was a bad idea when Hunter started buying the indys," Moxley confessed. "You had Seth and me, along with Joey Mercury and we were able to sneak in a few key guys like Luke Harper, Neville, Cesaro. Once I was on the main roster and NXT started, which I wasn't a part of, every week Triple H was taking an Instagram selfie with some indie guy. I don't know if he was trying to make himself look cool and get some indy cred or what, or make NXT cool. He basically started buying the Indys. I remember thinking that it might not be a good idea. Then where are all of these good ideas going to come from? If they signed Daniel Bryan at 21, he never would've become Bryan Danielson and you never wouldn't had WrestleMania 30. If they signed Punk before he really became CM Punk, he never would've done what he did. If they signed me as 21, I never would've become anything good. I had to develop first before getting brought in.
"Buying up all the indy scene was the same as Vince buying all the territories back in the day. There's nobody left to cherry pick for talent. It's amazing that even though they bought up the indys that it has repopulated itself stronger than ever. Makes you very optimistic about the future of pro wrestling...I want to wrestle everyone. Let's drop all the bridges, get all the companies together and have a super show that sells out a stadium right now."
Moxley is set to face Shota Umino at NJPW Dominion this weekend. Moxley's in ring debut for AEW is scheduled for June 29th, 2019 against Joey Janela at AEW Fyter Fest in Daytona Beach, FL.