AEW world champion Jon Moxley recently spoke with TV Insider to talk all things pro-wrestling, including his run during the COVID-19 era and how he one day hopes to compete in the AEW tag team division.
Says he’s proud to carry the torch during the pandemic era:
The way I look at it is I’m carrying the torch during a weird pandemic era. Nobody is going to look back on this time decades from now saying, “Remember back in the day when Moxley was champion and it was like weird with no crowds and things were f—ing strange.” A time where we had to change the card due to someone coming in contact with someone with COVID. We’re going to look back on this as a weird time, but to me it is what it is. As the good guy around here, I bring stability to an unstable world. People watch our show because they want to escape and have fun and not think about anything bad. They want us to tell stories and inspire. When you tune in to AEW, you know Jon Moxley is the f—ing world champion no matter what challenge is put in front of me. I have to keep my head held high and persevere.
How he wants to present strength for the people:
I have to present strength to people. There was a time I was in a literal sea of fans bleeding and sweating. It was a totally different world. It has been my job to cultivate and grow this championship. It’s kind of like the Powerball. If you just flip flop a title every 30 seconds, it becomes a prop. The more you defend it against different challengers and situations and put value into it, the value goes up like the Powerball. So when someone does cash in, it’s a huge monumental moment. Chris Jericho was the perfect choice as the first champion to establish it. Now it has been my job to foster the value of the title. It’s really easy to do when you have so many talented guys to wrestle.
On Eddie Kingston’s rise in AEW:
That’s the thing about 2020. Anything you book or plan or advertise, the day of the show anything can change due to COVID. You have to be able to change on the fly and pivot real quickly. For him to be in the TV main event on a few hours notice and parlay that into a pay-per-view main event is really cool. He was in that position because he got himself over. When I first heard he was going to show up a few days before, I knew he would knock it out of the park. He just needed a mic. It was supposed to be a one-off, but I bet he would turn this into more. I wanted him to be in the locker room because here is a guy I kept in touch with over text messages and as much as I keep in touch with people. As I knew him, he was a guy who would never change and wasn’t fake. I have to be around straight-up regular dudes. I haven’t seen him in years. Within five minutes, it felt like I saw him yesterday. That’s what I appreciate about him.
How their rivalry is based in reality:
For Eddie, it’s 18 years of him being chewed up and spit out in different, bad scenarios he found himself in. Grinding and working for all those years, that builds up a certain amount of frustration within you when you look at other people getting opportunities you deserve. That builds up animosity and frustration. That is what is exploding out here on to me. He is projecting all that anger and frustration out on me. Dude, that isn’t my f—ing problem. No matter what anybody says about you or what you did, I was ride-or-die with you. Now you’re going to turn around and act like this. Throw that s— in my face? That isn’t going to go like that. I’m going to have to beat some f—ing sense into him. In an “I Quit” match there are no possible excuses. There is no way out other than confronting your own ego and place into this world. It’s a lonely place when you can’t lie to yourself. He is going to quit, and in doing that, going to lose the match. But in my mind this will go one of two ways: admitting that he was wrong and reverting back to my friend or I beat him and beat him and put him out of wrestling. I prefer the former. Everything I’ve done to build up this championship to the number one championship in the sport. Make it a real world championship. Fighting and defending it by my personal code of conduct with pride and honor. All that is on the line here. It’s a high-stakes game.
Calls Cody’s statement about the TNT championship being the most important inaccurate:
That’s why I don’t do Twitter. Whatever, dude. I’ll classify that statement by him as inaccurate. That’s why I don’t play Twitter games.
Hopes to get a tag team partner to compete in AEW’s stacked tag division:
Tag wrestling is such a focus in AEW. Having the best tag teams in the world, one of these days down the line I wouldn’t mind finding a partner that compliments me in some form or another, maybe a bigger dude or a younger guy. I would like a legitimate tag team run. While I have this championship opportunity in AEW, there are tag teams I’d love to work with. I love tag team wrestling. I don’t want to deny myself having great matches with FTR, the Young Bucks or SCU. One of these days I’d love to get a partner and get a tag team title run. When I had that one tag match with Darby, I was getting all excited. It felt good and made me miss it. I’ve had a good partner and been part of a pretty successful team in the past.
