During his recent interview on Wrestling Observer Radio AEW superstar Jon Moxley spoke about his hatred for scripted promos in wrestling, as well as how important it was for him to speak with Chris Jericho prior to jumping ship from WWE to AEW. Highlights from the interview are below.
On how much he hates scripted promos, adding that he’ll never do them again:
“I will never read a script on a wrestling show for the rest of my life. I guarantee you that. Nobody will hand me a script ever again. That sh*t ate at me. Promos are my favorite part of wrestling…Literally from almost day 1, they (WWE) hand us this promo. It was the first promo The Shield ever did. They handed us a script. I was like, ‘Ok, we’ll play with this. I got some ideas of stuff I want to say.’ They said, ‘No, this is what you’re saying.’ I said, ‘Yea, but we’re thinking about this.’ Then it got awkward. People started looking at each other, like writers, and Heyman was there because we were involved with Heyman at the time. Hunter came in and it was awkward. It was made very clear to us that this is what we’re saying. We’re reading the script. I remember this feeling in my gut like, ‘Oh no. I made a terrible mistake’, because my favorite part of wrestling is coming up with promos, talking, saying the truth, and relating it to the situation. It’s so much fun and artistically pleasing. I love doing promos, but now that’s taking away? Now I just read what’s on the script, literally on day 1. But I went along with it. Over the years you can work with the writers, you can work with Vince, and you get a little more leeway sometimes. I feel like over the years, I got good at getting a shi**y script and making it good, reading it well, and changing it a little bit. I got a little leeway. There’s some scripted sh*t that was pretty good. I actually got really good at being a WWE Superstar taking a script, you got 8-10 minutes, making it perfect, nailing all the beats, and getting all the hits in. I got really good at that sh*t, but this isn’t what I want to do ultimately.”
Says talking with Chris Jericho was a huge reason AEW worked out:
“Dude, I didn’t know if AEW existed. I was already out the door. The crazy thing about it is it was just timing. A big thing people probably don’t know or understand is that it wasn’t a super easy decision to go to AEW. It was not easy at all. It was actually very scary to go to AEW. But the timing of it was so crazy, that it was almost like I didn’t choose this. The universe chose me. I would be a pu**y if I didn’t take this opportunity. Of all people at this exact moment in time, at this crazy crossroads of professional wrestling where some fu**ing sh*t is going down, there’s a chance for one person to step in and do this, and you got picked. Like, you were the guy that the universe picked. It wasn’t as easy a decision to just sign with AEW. A lot of people probably think, ‘He just left WWE and went to work for another millionaire. It wasn’t a risk.’ It was down to the wire. Before that original Double or Nothing, I was going to go back out here and I was going to figure out who the f**ck I even was as a professional wrestler anymore. The AEW thing was scary because I’m like, ‘I don’t know who these people are. I don’t want this to be another WWE. I don’t want to sign this contract.’ It was like I just got out of a divorce and I’m jumping into another marriage and I don’t even barely know this person. I didn’t know Tony. I met Tony a few weeks before Double or Nothing. Jericho was a big help. He was the first guy I talked to about it because honestly, I heard a little bit about this AEW thing. There’s all these like Impact, AEW, PWG, Ring of Honor, all these three letter companies. So AEW, whatever, I didn’t think it was a big deal. I just thought it was like an indie, like ok, that’s another place I could work on the weekend one of these days, Maybe I can go work there. I don’t know where they run. Maybe they do a bingo hall in California. It didn’t hit my radar at all. It was when I talked to Jericho on the phone, and he was like, ‘No dude. This is like a real thing. I signed here and they have real money. It’s a real thing.’ I’m like, really? I literally had no idea because I was in such a bad state and just trying to get through this contract. It was a bad deal. I was not in a good mental space. I had no clue what was going on outside the world. I didn’t know what GCW was and now I’m the GCW World Champ. I watched this Bloodsport show on WrestleMania weekend because I wasn’t booked on WrestleMania, but I had to be there anyway.”
(H/T and transcribed by WrestlingNews.Co)
