CLEVELAND — Jon Moxley has gained a reputation in professional wrestling of being somebody that wants to handle his own business and not ask for help or support from other competitors to reach the top of the sport, and not much has changed now that he competes for All Elite Wrestling.
Moxley entered 2020 with a clear vision of doing what is best for his career, and when AEW’s weekly show, “Dynamite” makes its Cleveland and Ohio debuts at Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center tonight, he will continue letting that be known in his own, unique, and often, physical way.
“As much as I want to get in there with younger talent, help them make their name and build this brand -- I want to be one of the guys that helps us get to the next level -- there’s a lot of self-interest right now,” Moxley told WKYC.com Tuesday.
“My career, at this point, for 2020 to be the year that it needs to be for me, it has to be about me. My focus has to be on me. I don’t need any partners. I don’t need anybody watching my back. I watch my own back. I want to be able to make decisions on the fly.”
Moxley made it clear during his AEW debut at the “Double Or Nothing” pay-per-view event back in May of 2019 that he was going to do things his way.
After the main event on the card, featuring a match between Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega, Moxley walked through the crowd and dropped Jericho, now the AEW world champion with his finishing move, “The Paradigm Shift.”
Moxley went on to battle Omega throughout the ring before gaining the upper hand.
“They’re in the main event,” Moxley said. “They’re in the last match of the evening and competing for that top dog spot in the company, so if you’re showing up on that first day, you want to come in on that prime spot in the main event. Whoever was standing there was going to get dropped on their head. It just happened to be those two.
“The whole journey I went on to where I’m sitting here with AEW now, I’m going my own way and being my own person. I don’t need to wear a white hat. I don’t need to wear a black hat. I get to do what I want, when I want and to be able to have the ability to do that in AEW is definitely exciting. Everybody’s got that spirit and that freedom here.”
Despite being on the wrong end of Moxley’s debut, or maybe because of it, Jericho recently offered him a spot in his stable of talent, “The Inner Circle.” After initially accepting, Moxley smashed a bottle of champagne on Jericho in an act of defiance.
Instead, Moxley is focused on a path toward the AEW world title.
“I ain’t no dummy,” Moxley said. “I know why he wanted to…keep your friends close and your enemies closer. I’ve been in this game a long time. I’ve known Chris Jericho for a long time. I knew that ploy, saw it coming from a mile away.
“Nobody can tell me what I can and can’t accomplish, what I can and can’t do, and if I want Chris Jericho’s AEW world title, I’m going to get it. That’s what I’m going to go for. I don’t care if he’s got four guys in his group, five guys in his group, 10 guys in his group, I’m going to do what I’ve got to do to get to the other side.”