During a recent interview with TV Insider, Jon Moxley discussed AEW’s potential, stating that if the company fails, it could hinder the industry’s progress by twenty years.
Moxley also discussed retiring Bryan Danielson at AEW WrestleDream 2024.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On the potential of AEW: “The potential of AEW is so f*ckin’ huge. We’re not even scratching the surface of it. Just the roster of wrestlers is this ridiculous bounty of riches. Just a ridiculously stacked roster of the best wrestlers in the world. So many people you haven’t even seen yet of what they can do. I’ve seen what they can do. I can imagine what they can become if we water that seed and let it grow.”
On AEW needing to be successful: “There is no me being in there and losing. Everything is different now. It is life or death. AEW has to be a success. If it’s not, the business gets set back another 20 f*ckin’ years. I’m not willing to go through that again. Others who I’ve known for 15-20 years are not willing to go through that again. It’s at the hands of our generation. This is what we wanted to do and all we’ve ever wanted to do. The future is in our hands. Whatever AEW will become in the future is up to us. Frankly, in five years nothing has been built. We’re going to build it right now. There has been no flag. AEW has not really nailed down its identity being a young company, and that’s fine. There has been a known flag for everyone to unify to say this is who we are what we do and the direction we’re going. We’re going to plant our flag. That’s starting with me and the few people watching my back and others. We’re going to demand more of everybody around us. We’re going to unify behind one flag and march forward and turn this into what it can be. This could be the best place I’ve ever worked. It could be 10 times better than anyone has ever worked. I can see how powerful wrestling can be. We want to build a place we can take pride in. I see all this beyond Saturday night in Newark. That could all go up in flames if I get taken out. If the AEW title gets put in the wrong hands. It’s my responsibility to make that impossible for that to accomplish.”
On beating Bryan Danielson at WrestleDream: “It’s easy to get emotionally attached to a match with Bryan Danielson. One of my best friends and training partners and a guy I’ve been down the literal and proverbial roads with all around the world for years. There was an objective that needed to be completed. He had to be taken off the board as part of the big picture. He was a thing on a checklist. There was no way I was walking out of the building without getting the job done. I don’t have time to feel sad about it. To me, it was a beautiful funeral. His mom was in the front row as I was squeezing his neck as his mom screamed that she loved him, and he screamed it back to her. I’m not sure if that was caught on camera, but that was quite a powerful moment to see up close. A lot of guys’ careers will end in the hospital or their phones will stop ringing. It won’t be on their terms. Bryan was able to do very much to end this stage of his career on his terms. He did not verbally submit or tap out, but I felt the spirit of the ‘American Dragon’ leave his body and feel that he can now rest.”
On Danielson’s health: “I don’t think people understand how much he has gone through physically. I remember the run-up to WrestleMania he headlined. I was with him pretty much every night, and he was banged up. He was getting through it to get there. A lot of people don’t understand the actual physical toll this could take on your body. I don’t think people knew how much he was suffering. You would never know it by looking at him. I was there and saw and understood what he went through. I felt like Bryan was at peace. I felt his mother was at peace, and everyone in the state of Washington was upset that night. It is what it is. We’re moving forward from here.”
Jon Moxley is currently in the midst of an AEW takeover, and, in a recent interview with CBS Sports, the AEW World Champion shared his vision for the company.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On coming up with his vision for AEW: “I spent about two months just thinking and reading books and walking around downtown Cincinnati at 3 in the morning, thinking, as I am one to do. I had a vision. A vision of a future. A vision that could be ours. That it could belong to everybody. A vision of a world where everyone can be successful. A vision of a world where everyone’s strengths are brought to the forefront. A vision of a world that is inhospitable for bulls*it. One thing I found challenging in the previous iteration of AEW was, I found it challenging to find anyone who would take responsibility for anything. ‘It’s not my fault’ was a thing that would be heard bouncing around the hallways of AEW quite ubiquitously. Essentially, what it boils down to is, I’ll take responsibility for everything. For every single thing. I’ll make it my responsibility. You can blame me. If we run out of hot dogs tonight, if the vendor runs out of hot dogs in Rhode Island, I’ll make it my responsibility, blame me. I’ll go to Costco, get 30 boxes of hot dogs and I’ll drive them to the building. I’ll make sure we have enough for next time. I’ll have my wife bake cookies for three days straight I’ll drive them to the building myself. Whatever I have to do. There is stuff that it can’t not get done. It can’t not get confronted. I’ll do it myself. I can rely on the person to the right and left of me. That’s my group and circle and that’s what we’re doing. That circle will grow. None of this stuff happens overnight. There’s no press a button and it looks entirely different on the surface.”
On AEW’s growth from two to five hours of TV: “If you don’t have the infrastructure….you fall to the level of your systems. If the branch pops out of the dirt before it’s ready, it will not have the structural integrity to hold the fruit that it bears. Maybe we’ve gotten things out of order.”
On his own personal transformation: “I feel I’ve gone through a bit of a personal transformation recently. Things are clear in my head and slowly, over time, evolving into the person I think I’m meant to be. I think this is exactly where I’m supposed to be and it was always like this. Right here, at this exact time and place, is exactly where I’m supposed to be. I’m very optimistic about everything. Moving forward, it might sound like I’m young and screaming and trying to destroy things and I’m some sort of dissident, but nothing could be further from the truth. I’m a realist who is always searching for the truth of the situation. There are people who get upset when you lie to them and there are people who get upset when you tell them the truth. I’m very much the former. In a lot of ways, I can see the whole board. If the board falls, we will make the necessary adjustments. It’s very exciting. I’m in a very exciting place right now. The cool thing for me is, I don’t give single f**k. I have not one single f**k to give. That is the attitude that I’m moving forward with and that is the attitude my group has. Everything I’m trying to achieve right now, this is very much the hill I will die on. I have no intention of dying on this hill, but it’s the hill I’m prepared to die on. It’s a very exciting feeling to have.”
