AEW superstar and former world champion Jon Moxley was a recent guest on Inside the Ropes to discuss all things pro-wrestling, including how traveling is one of the harder parts of the industry, but the sensation he feels after a brutal bout cannot be matched. Highlights from the interview are below.
Says traveling is the hardest part of wrestling:
“When you’re doing it at a high level, yeah, the travel is definitely the hardest part. I used to say, like, and a lot of people say that you get paid to travel, the wrestling is the fun part. It’s the bonus part. Being in the ring for 15-20 minutes every night is your release.”
How most days he feels like crap but post-matches he usually feels great:
“I usually feel like crap most of the day, every day. The best I ever feel is usually right after match, even if it was a very physically demanding match. My adrenaline is high, I’m loose, I’m on a high, I’m feeling good. When I walk into the back and I’m bleeding and sweating and everything and all busted up, that’s usually when I actually feel the best.”
Talks being on the road:
“When you’re on the road every single night, that’s kind of the high you’re chasing at the end of the night. The travel’s the hard part. It’ll take years off your career, and when you’re going on well over ten years of just being in chronic pain all the time now, you just get used to it. It’s part of the deal. That’s I guess a byproduct of the whole thing – but travel is probably the biggest component of breaking your body down, but it’s part of what you have to do because you can’t Zoom in a f***ing pro wrestling match. You’ve got to you got to get there. You’ve got to go to Scotland, you’ve got to Japan and wrestle in these places live – and it’s all worth it, man.”
Remembers when he decided to be a wrestler:
“There’s not, like, one light bulb moment or anything, it’s just kind of my first memories of anything were memories of wrestling. It’s just what we watched on TV. Kids underneath me in an apartment building had wrestling tapes, and we watched them and it just kind of went along with the Ninja Turtles and whatever the hell else you play with as kids and I just was really into wrestling and that’s all I ever liked. Bret, like you said, he was a guy who was just on top when I was nine years old or whatever, he was kind of the guy.”
