Jon Moxley says things are going to get a little cringy and awkward in a match like the one he had with Kenny Omega at Full Gear, but he’s thrilled with how the whole thing unfolded.
Moxley spoke with Wrestlezone and 101WKQX host Kevin Kellam on Tuesday while promoting this week’s AEW Dynamite taping in Chicago. He spoke to Kellam about the different reactions to the match at AEW Full Gear got, including that from his wife and current WWE host Renee Young. Moxley said he tends “to fly close to the flame sometimes” in wrestling and life in general, but says that level of violence and those moments just come with the territory.
Overall, Moxley is happy with how things turned out and he says he loves the awkward tension in the air and getting a different kind of intense reaction from the fans. Moxley agreed that it might not be some people’s cup of tea, but the match went on exactly like he’d hoped.
“I’ve never been offended or had any problem with anything I’ve watched in wrestling. I’ve never gone ‘ooh, I can’t watch that,’ and I’ve seen some gross stuff, I’ve seen some horrifying stuff. I’ve seen some stuff where I’m like, ‘Oh God, even I’m grossed out by that…but that’s cool! I wish I would’ve thought of it.’ So, if you don’t have the stomach for that level of gratuity, whatever, then I’m not offended by it.” Moxley said. “We painted the painting we wanted to paint, exactly as we intended, but not everybody’s going to want to have that painting hanging in their living room. It might make some people uncomfortable. I was thrilled with the whole thing.”
Moxley was asked about his thoughts on AEW’s early success in building up supporting characters like Luchasaurus and Marko Stunt. Moxley talked about AEW giving an opportunity to anything that works and how there’s no formula to what gets pushed.
“Look at Orange Cassidy, he gets a ‘Road Warrior’ pop every time he comes out. It’s great. You see all of this different stuff, there’s no formula. Anything that works, we give it a platform and give it a chance to work and get over. All of these things that are various people’s—some people like Lucha Libre, high-flying, this and that, some people really get into comedy stuff like that. Some people only want to see hard-hitting,” Moxley said, “people getting dropped on their heads. Everybody likes something a little different. Some people like the sports-entertainment—people on the mic going back and forth—we have all of that on the show.”
Moxley continued to speak about the unpredictable nature of Dynamite, saying the show’s name is appropriate because it’s very fitting of the ‘anything can happen’ nature of the show. He went on to say he’s not throwing shade at anyone, but WWE and other promotions can be very predictable because they have a formula to follow each week and fans begin to pick up on these tendencies.
“Show opens, guy comes out, talks, other guy’s music hits, [he] comes out with a mic, talks, we’ve made the main event for tonight, or whatever. There’s these patterns or formulas that you see and subconsciously know as a fan what’s happening and you can predict stuff. We don’t have any formulas or patterns yet. One week we open a show with Nick Jackson and Fenix and you see this ridiculous match,” Moxley said, “one week we open with a promo. One week we’ll open with—who knows, maybe we’ll open with the World Title match tomorrow night. Maybe Chris Jericho says ‘I’m Le Champion and I’m going on first!’ That could happen—I’m not saying that’s happening, it could. I think that’s a great idea, I’m going to text somebody right now! ‘Let’s just open the show, world title!’”
