Photo courtesy: Ricky Havlik, All Elite Wrestling
Jon Moxley appeared on Wednesday’s edition of Talk is Jericho in his first interview since leaving WWE in April.
In an interview that covered a lot of ground, Moxley outlined how WWE killed his passion for professional wrestling and his ability to perform as an artist confined in an overly scripted environment. On several occasions, he mentioned a depression that set in when he would arrive at arenas awaiting his script for the night and fighting battles over verbiage and his overall direction.
He flat-out stated the creative process at WWE “sucks” and was “killing the company”, criticisms he relayed to Vince McMahon, Paul Levesque, and Michael Hayes.
A lot of the frustrations centered around his return last summer from a triceps injury that was compounded with a bout with a staph infection.
As Dean Ambrose, he was continuously fighting with McMahon over how he was scripted, injecting comedic elements to his character, and being given wilder ideas that reached a boiling point during his heel run last fall.
Any defense regarding the decision to incorporate Roman Reigns’ real-life battle with leukemia into a storyline was muted in this conversation with Moxley’s disgust over lines he was asked to deliver regarding Reigns. He said there was one line that was scripted that was ultimately pulled but would have cost them sponsors and their relationship with Susan G. Komen, a line which Moxley would not repeat on the podcast.
His decision to leave the company was made up long in advance but waited until Royal Rumble weekend to alert McMahon and Levesque. When a contract renewal was offered, he said he didn’t even look at the contract because money didn’t matter, and he was adamant about leaving. He was suspicious how he would be used after giving notice when he was booked to take a bump from Nia Jax the night after the Royal Rumble. He added that it was a very small circle that knew he was leaving, although it was reported by Wade Keller following that episode of Raw that he was planning to leave.
He had no idea why WWE issued the press release on January 29th that he was leaving at the expiration of his contract. Throughout this process, he remained quiet and was playing his cards close to the vest.
The trailer that he released escaping the prison, which was released the minute he became a free agent on May 1, was filmed all the way back in February. He enlisted former wrestler “Sick” Nick Mondo, who oversaw the production and they filmed over two-days with a budget of $8,000. During the filming, he received a text message from Vince McMahon asking him to work the European tour, which would extend his stay into May, which Moxley declined citing a “film commitment” he had lined up.
— Jon Moxley (@JonMoxley) May 1, 2019
His final appearance for WWE was in April for The Shield’s Final Chapter special on the WWE Network in Moline, Illinois. Ambrose was paid $500 for his final appearance, that he believed was the company getting one last shot in on him as that is the low-end payoff for a live event, much less working the main event on a network special where Ambrose’s farewell was the reason for it being broadcast.
We will be chatting about the interview further on The Double Shot later tonight.
