Jon Moxley Discusses the State of WWE, The Thunderdome, and Renee Young’s COVID-19 Battle

Jon Moxley hasn’t been shy about criticizing his former employer since leaving WWE last spring. The current AEW Heavyweight Champion is as honest as can be when it comes to the wrestling business, and during a 90 minute interview with Dave Meltzer and Garrett Gonzales of F4WOnline, Moxley hit on several topics. That included his wife, Renee Young, who recently gave WWE notice that she is leaving the company.

Of note, WWE debuted their Thunderdome concept this week, resulting in a bump in WWE SmackDown’s ratings last night. Moxley was asked about the Thunderdome and WWE’s current state.

“I really don’t want to get into bashing them (WWE) thing, you know, but all the LED boards and s**t in their ThunderDome isn’t going to fix their problems,” Moxley said. “We know what their problem is (he discussed Vince McMahon moments earlier). I saw a picture of the Thunderdome and it had all the, it was like a Zoom call, with all the faces on there and it tripped me out because it immediately made think of…have you ever read the book, Fahrenheit 451?

“So, this book, it was written in 1953 by a guy named Ray Bradbury and basically, it’s like a dystopian kind of thing, kind of like 1984. But he basically predicts, in 1953, exactly what 2020 will be like. If you read it, you’re like woooaah. Because the firemen, they burn books because they don’t want people to be literate or smart or think for themselves. They just want to feed them with all this, uh, like mindless entertainment. Why the Thunderdome made me think of it is because this is in the 50s before computers and social media but he kind of imagined what it would be like and the thing was like, your family quote-unquote in the parlor wall. So, like in your living room, the wall will be filled like with all these faces that you communicate and hang out with, that’s kind of like social media is now. And that’s exactly what The Thunderdome looked like. I went, ‘Oh My God, it’s the thing from Farenheit 451 come to life.’”

Moxley went on to say that he wishes WWE well because he still has friends that work there. He noted that he wants them to succeed and gets mad when they do poorly because it makes the entire industry look bad.

Moxley also gave some insight into his wife’s (Renee Young) battle with COVID-19 recently. When she discussed she had it, what the battle was like, and even how it affected his time with AEW.

“She (Young) came back from Orlando,” Moxley explained. “Apparently somebody there had it. Everybody had to get tested. She was negative. She flew home. Then five or six days later, she starts feeling sick. I’m thinking nothing of it. Next morning, she said she hopes she doesn’t have COVID. The next day I went to train in the morning. I came back and she was still in bed. She said she felt like sh*t. I figured we would get her tested. The tests came back in an email. I looked at mine and it said negative. I figured hers would be the same because we have been in super close contact for six days. At this point, I had already pulled out of the next day’s TV because all I was going to do was a promo and it wasn’t worth the risk. I see it was negative, so for 30 seconds, I figured I could catch the 6 AM flight and still make TV.

“Not 30 seconds later, she gets hers back and it’s positive. I didn’t expect us to have different results. I went and slept on the couch. I didn’t know what to do so I got tested again as soon as I could. She was bad for a couple days. She was coughing a bunch. I was sleeping on the couch hearing her cough all night. I didn’t sleep for two days because I was scared. I’m not ashamed to admit that I was scared because we know so little about this disease and it affects everybody differently. Her case was average at best. She was sick for a couple days. It lingered a bit and now she’s fine.”

To listen to the entire Wrestling Observer Radio intervew, click this link.

H/T to Sportskeeda for the transcript.