Jon Moxley Makes His AEW Debut at Double or Nothing

Former WWE Champion Dean Ambrose, now known as Jon Moxley, officially debuted for All Elite Wrestling at the Double or Nothing pay-per-view event on Saturday night in Las Vegas. Moxley appeared at the end of the PPV, attacking Chris Jericho after Jericho beat Kenny Omega. After delivering a Dirty Deeds to Jericho and the ref, Moxley and Omega brawled through the crowd until Moxley delivered a finishing blow to Omega and then tossed him off a pile of giant poker chips.

Back in January WWE confirmed via press release that Ambrose would not be re-signing with the company and would be leaving once his contract expired in mid-April. While he wasn’t used at WrestleMania 35, Ambrose went on an extended farewell tour with the company, turning babyface and rejoining The Shield for a number of six-man tag matches. His final match in a WWE ring came on April 21 at the The Shield’s Final Chapter WWE Network event in Moline, Illinois.

Earlier that same day Ambrose did a WWE.com interview alongside Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins, where he emphatically refused to answer any questions about what he would do after leaving WWE.

“Let me stop you right there, because I already know what your final question is gonna be, okay? And I don’t appreciate people putting words in my mouth, and I don’t appreciate people trying to tell the story of my life to fit their narrative, okay?” Ambrose said. “Eight years ago, I walked into this casino. And now I’m cashing in my chips, and I’m walking away from the table. I won the game. And what I do with the rest of my life from here on out, is my business. I answer to no one. This time, the million dollar man didn’t get what he wanted. Cause I can’t be bought.”

Nine days later Ambrose suddenly went viral by releasing a high-quality short film on Twitter showing that he was going back to his old wrestling name, Jon Moxley. The video showed himself breaking out of a prison, training in a wrestling ring and wrapping one of his arms in barbed wire, indicating that he’d be returning to the wrestling world soon. The video quickly caught on, racking up more than 2.7 million views.