Jon Moxley On Creative Control Of His AEW Character, His Thoughts About Kenny Omega Full Gear Match

One of the things that Jon Moxley brought up in his post-WWE interview on Talk is Jericho is the lack of creative freedom he had as Dean Ambrose. Moxley now has more creative control over his character in AEW and he talked about that on the State of Combat podcast.

"Pretty much it's a collaborative effort. There are so many great ideas that come in. I'm hearing really good ideas. I have full control in that I am not going to go out there and do anything that makes me look stupid, at least not on purpose, which is a giant weight off of my shoulders," revealed Moxley. "Everybody has ideas. Everyone adds their own flavors to the mix to get all of these talented, super-creative guys that have no fear of reprisals. There are no higher-ups to make sure we have to please. It is super-creative guys who don't give a damn what anyone thinks. We're trying to put on something that we will like and that we think people will like. You get to play your music your way and hope people will appreciate it, but whatever it is, it is authentic and honest."

Moxley also praised AEW's construction of their roster in that they have something for everyone so every type of fan is accounted for.

"You have all of these different guys with different styles being able to bring something different to the table. We have funny guys, we have high-flyers, we have traditional sports-entertainment, we literally have everything on the show and it's a testament to how much talent we have and how we all bring so much different stuff to the table," said Moxley. "It's kind of like a giant, musical jam session where at the end of the night everyone's goal is to make sure everyone leaves on their feet. There aren't any negative egos, everything is positive. The fans are the ones who are driving the power in all of this so it's such a joy to perform in front of all of them."

At Full Gear, Moxley was victorious over Kenny Omega in an unsanctioned light out match. The match involved many weapons including barbed wire, trash cans, chains and even a screwdriver.

It was certainly different and more extreme than anything Moxley did in WWE and he talked about how he felt looking back at the match.

"I was thrilled with that match. I remember thinking the night before about how far we were going to take it. You take two guys like me and Kenny Omega who are super-creative guys who really don't give a damn what anybody thinks about anything. We are pretty immune to worry, fear or criticism," stated Moxley. "I remember thinking the night before how some people are going to hate this match but it is going to be awesome. We are going for it.

"It is funny how little any of this was my idea. I make no apologies for my love of the deathmatch/hardcore style, but I would never force that upon anyone else. I would never have imagined that we can go that far in AEW, so when some of these ideas were being thrown around, I was like, we can do that? Hell yeah! This is going to be awesome. To do something that is going to legitimately shock people and get people talking in 2019, and more importantly, something that was different. Pay per views for the last decade or so, even if they are really good you pretty much know what you are going to get, so to do something that was totally unexpected and create a really unique painting ? I said this in media recently that we painted the painting that we wanted to paint. It's not something everyone is going to want to hang up in their living room. They might look at it and make them a little uncomfortable."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit State of Combat with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Peter Bahi contributed to this article.