Jon Moxley opens up about the concussion he suffered at AEW Dynamite Grand Slam back in September.
The Death Rider discussed this topic during a recent interview with The Messenger, where he admitted that the concussion sent him to “outer space,” one so bad that he knew he had to finish the match immediately.
I just kept getting progressively more lost and couldn’t figure out where the f— I was. Then I had this moment of clarity, ‘Oh, I’m f—ed up. I gotta get the f— out of here.’
Moxley managed to finish the match, which saw him drop the AEW International Championship to Rey Fenix, which was not the planned booking for the International title. He later says that concussions are a touchy subject and that there needs to be better protocols put in place to protect the performers.
In pro wrestling, it’s a really touchy subject. Somebody’s gotta f—ing bring it up. Pro wrestling is such a strange thing. In football, if a guy goes down and he doesn’t go back to the huddle, you know he’s f—ed up. In pro wrestling, a lot of times it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s fake. Maybe a really experienced wrestler and a really experienced doctor, who are trained to see signs of that sh–, are watching it on a separate feed. Even if they have a doctor close to ringside, what if the guy f—ing spills outside the ring? He doesn’t see that. The doctor and wrestler are completely untethered to the creative portion of it. They have no idea nor any interest in what the story is, who wins, who loses or how long it’s supposed to go. If a guy f—ing spins around or something and the doctor goes, ‘Is he OK?’ The wrestler can tell him, That’s just a pro wrestling thing. Don’t worry.’
The former three-time AEW World Champion later suggests that there should be a doctor ready to “hit a red button” as soon as they see signs of a concussion.
As soon as the doctor sees a sign of somebody being concussed, he just hits the f—ing red button. Boom, this is over. No matter how much time is left. No matter if it’s on live TV. It’s just over, and you figure it out from there.
The full interview can be found here.