Seven days later, Jon Moxley’s surprise debut with AEW at the end of their Double Or Nothing PPV is still being felt throughout the wrestling world.
Moxley started to make the media rounds this week following a much talked about appearance on Chris Jericho’s podcast. That podcast was actually recorded before the Double Or Nothing PPV, though, and Moxley gave his first post-AEW debut interview this week to Flip the Strip on 840 KXNT.
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During the appearance, Moxley made a surprising statement; he said that his AEW debut was bigger than winning the WWE Championship.
“Growing up all I wanted to do was win the WWE title and I did that across the street at the T-Mobile Arena,” Moxley stated. “This totally trumps winning the WWE title. To stand on my own two feet with no WWE involvement, they obviously made my name. Jon Moxley was not a famous name, but 12 thousand people chanting Moxley was a satisfying feeling.”
The former Dean Ambrose wrestled as Jon Moxley for the first several years of his career before signing with WWE in 2011.
“I’m just getting used to it. Because I was Dean Ambrose for so long and it was so weird changing my name originally,” Moxley said “I was so used to Dean Ambrose. But, I’m getting used to Jon Moxley again after a week. A lot of people still called me Moxley, who knew me before. However, you were first introduced to someone in the wrestling business, that’s what you know them as. A lot of people still called me Mox in WWE.”
He went on to describe the surprise element of his debut this past Saturday night.
“It was top secret, only a select few people knew,” said Moxley. “It was not hard for me to keep the secret. I’m pretty good at staying silent. My ethics as a performer, even if I want to tell you, even if I know you know, I cannot tell you. I got to wait for you to be surprised. Loose lips sink ships.”
He continued, “Kind of blur, it was very surreal, it was a great feeling, probably the best feeling of my career. It was the inverse of being uncomfortable in your own shoes, your so comfortable your almost not used to it. I had to get my bearings a little bit. It’s like putting on a well fitting pair of pants. Definitely the highlight of my career thus far.”
[H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcript]
