AEW superstar and former world champion Jon Moxley recently spoke with the Fight Game Podcast to promote his new biography and discuss all things pro-wrestling, including what the Purveyor of Violence learned during the pandemic era, and how excited he is to have fans back in the building.
Says he didn’t really learn anything from the pandemic era:
Honestly, no [I didn’t take anything from the pandemic era of wrestling]. I don’t wanna work in an empty building, I don’t wanna work in front of fake fans. If we have to do it — I mean, we and other companies too. Everybody, from IMPACT, Ring of Honor, New Japan, even the ThunderDome and all that, everybody figured out a way to make it work in wrestling and in other sports too. Like hockey and all them, you know? UFC. I mean everybody figured out a way to do it but like, honestly, I didn’t learn sh*t. I wanna go back to full crowds.
Says he didn’t like taping multiple shows in a day but there were some benefits to being able to re-do spots:
I don’t wanna tape multiple shows in a day, I don’t wanna be out there changing outfits as if it’s a different day. I am not — I don’t like that. I like showbiz, live TV, I want the adrenaline, I wanna go out there live and do it once. There are times we were taping Dynamite or Dark or Elevation where like I might have screwed up a move, trying to do some lucha move or some sh*t with some of these f*cking kids, and I’m like, ‘I screw it up’ and I just go, ‘Let’s do it again’ and then I get it right the second time and it’s cool because you can do that when it’s taped. But I’m like, ‘If it wasn’t taped, would I have screwed it up the first time?’ Nah, I bet I wouldn’t have because I would have been concentrating harder, I would’ve been more — because it’s live. I wanna do it live, I want real people. I wanna walk out of the arena, I wanna walk back through the locker room, hear the crowd outside the curtain, I wanna do it live one time. F*ck the pandemic. We figured it out, we got through it but once that’s over, I’m not — you know, I would love there to be, ‘You know, I learned a very valuable lesson’ but nah, I didn’t learn sh*t. I wanna do it live, live people, that’s what I want.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling)