Jon Moxley calls it “Day Zero.”
That was on August 28th, when he returned to All Elite Wrestling for Dynamite in Champaign, Illinois. He had difficulty walking due to a lower back injury sustained while wrestling, and returned after taking a two-month break for rehabilitation.
For him, this day marks the beginning of what he calls a “hard reset and complete restart” for his five-year-old company.
His new AEW is two months old.
“Everything that's ever happened doesn't matter,” Moxley said in a recent Zoom interview with the Post. “Today is day zero. Let’s start here. It may not seem like much has changed now, but it really has. Things are accomplished by small incremental steps, by continually doing small things. And that makes a huge difference over time.”
This break allowed him to take a step back and have an epiphany, giving him a creative overview of owner and booker Tony Khan's company that “other people don't see.”
“My goals going forward are probably the most ambitious I've ever attempted,” Moxley said. “And if you think about it logically on paper, some people would probably say it's not possible, but we're going to make it happen. We're going to accomplish those things.”
That night in Champaign, he told interviewer and play-by-play man Tony Schiavone in the ring, “This is not your company anymore.”
On screen, it's Moxley's even rougher new character and his new Death Rider faction, consisting of Claudio Castagnoli, PAC, Yuta Wheeler, and Marina Shafir, who force the company until someone steps up and takes it away. It meant that they were going to take us hostage when we returned from them.
Moxley, 38, became AEW World Champion for the fourth time by ending Bryan Danielson's full-time wrestling career and stripping him of the title at WrestleDream on October 12.
Moxley called the funeral for his friend and former Blackpool Combat Club alumnus “the most beautiful funeral I've ever seen with my own eyes” and said he “didn't have much emotion”.
During the preparation for the match, Moxley storyline-wise attempted to suffocate Danielson by putting a plastic bag over his head, and Yuta did the same during his post-match “American Dragon” attack at Wrestle Dream. Fan criticism.
The entire presentation was surprisingly different and grittier than what fans are used to from AEW.
But Moxley felt it needed to be that way.
“There's a lot of noise in the world, and sometimes you have to do something drastic to really get everyone to stop what they're doing and look in your direction and make a statement. I'm not afraid of doing that,'' Moxley said.
Behind the scenes for Moxley, the relaunch and his storyline is a chance to develop as much other talent around him as possible and build something even more sustainable for the company moving forward. He wants AEW to be a place that “not only puts on a great wrestling show” but also produces “great talent.”
He hopes that wrestling can be as much of a north star for others as it was for him.
“Wrestling gave me the opportunity to become a functioning human being in a way, and it gave me a path in the world,” he said.
We've already seen this article try to elevate Darby Allyn and Orange Cassidy. Orange Cassidy will be Moxley's challenger for the AEW World Championship at Full Gear on Nov. 23 at the Prudential Center (8 p.m. on Triller's Bleacher Report).
This will be Cassidy's first singles match for the AEW World Title.
“I have dreams, I have visions, I have visions,” Moxley said. “I want a world where everyone can succeed, where talent is nurtured, where talent is fostered, where talent is prepared for success, where talent is prepared for growth, where talent is developed and where their potential is realized. By bringing their strengths to the forefront and leveraging them, we unlock their value and give them the opportunity to become what they can be.”
Moxley, who has been with the company since its first pay-per-view in May 2019, said the change was necessary because “a ton of things” happened with what he calls the old AEW before Day Zero. said.
The most public of these were the backstage brawl with The Elite after All Out in 2022 and Jack at All in 2023, which ultimately led to Punk's firing before his return to WWE. -Many situations centered around CM Punk, including a backstage argument with Perry. Last November.
Moxley chose a variety of examples to illustrate why intense scrutiny and company-wide revamping is needed.
He gave an example of someone behind the scenes saying something he was surprised about earlier this year, saying he felt talent was not being put in a position to succeed due to a lack of “preparation, framework and direction.”
Moxley said that's just “a small part” of the problem he's seen.
“This person said, 'Well, it's the bottom of the card. It doesn't matter. It's the bottom of the card. It doesn't matter,'” Moxley said. “Can you imagine saying something like that? 'Yes, you're fired.' Yes, you're fired.” Work at Sunglass Hut. If you said that, you should be pistol whipped.
“Everyone at the top has been at the bottom once. That's how it works. You climb the ladder. Because there's no great ladder, some of these talented people We see frustration and confusion. They don't know what to do. They're just wandering through the desert. We're going to grab them by the shoulders and walk them. Ta.”
He said the company had been so successful that it may have “broken through the cracks” faster than it could effectively deal with it. In less than four years, AEW has gone from two hours of live television and four pay-per-views with Warner Bros. Discovery to five hours of television (four of them live) and nine pay-per-views this year .
“The more you focus on something, the more you have to add infrastructure and support to support it, or it breaks,” Moxley said.
With that mindset, TV ratings are stable but slow to grow and ticket sales for weekly shows are down as we prepare to begin a multi-year media rights extension with WBD. This is likely the ideal time for a revamp of AEW. AEW will have a four-hour live broadcast with Dynamite and Collison, which will also be simulcast on Max, and the pay-per-view will move to a streaming service.
According to Variety, the deal is worth $185 million annually, considering all factors.
This is not the time for Moxley to rest on his laurels and believe his success will continue. This contract should be seen as an opportunity for the talent to get back on their feet.
“That's great, but now is not the time to celebrate. We didn't just win the Super Bowl,” Moxley said. “You don't have time to go to Disney World, do you? I mean, this is your chance, right? That's not it. Well, there's something to do. Here's what's possible.
“By signing this contract, we promised to do something, to try something, to create something, to be successful at something. You know, now is the time to celebrate. No, I don't have time for that. It's time to get to work.
“What are we going to do with this occasion? That's what I'm curious about. In the past, in AEW, there's been a lot of sitting around and celebrating and just treating it like this happened. It's like, oh, it's just a success, it's just, you know, it's happening and it's not going anywhere, it could all be gone tomorrow.”
That's why Moxley wants to reshape AEW's creative mindset.
His current storyline has played out across AEW programming, something rarely seen in AEW history. One of his promos, which opened for Dynamite, was shot while the Death Riders were riding into the arena in the back of a pickup truck.
“It can be any fk we want. There are no rules,” Moxley said. “The rules we have are…'Oh, we have to do this interview on set, so we have to get this done in time, and we have to publish this.' All the rules are just things we put on ourselves. It's professional wrestling and it's always evolving, and if you don't keep evolving yourself, you're going to be left behind.”
Elements of his current storyline, especially those with Danielson, have been compared by fans as follows: Terry Funk turns heel against Ric Flair in 1981 Starring in one of the most successful stories of the time with Jim Crockett Promotions, there's a bit of an NWo vibe to the way his group beats babyfaces en masse in and out of arenas.
However, he revealed that while his character may question and belittle the motives, hearts, and abilities of AEW's other talents, behind the scenes they couldn't be more different. I would like you to do so.
“I take a lot of shit from a lot of guys, but I'm never hitting on lazy kids. Like, I'm you.” Clint Eastwood on the lawn or something like that ,” Moxley said. “Absolutely not. I'm their voice and I'm probably the only guy in the locker room defending them.”
His goal is to create better habits and to adhere to the highest standards because anything with the AEW logo reflects everyone in the company, and not doing so is a disservice to paying fans. To better understand what it means to be “blatantly disrespectful.” . He wants to create an environment that is “inhospitable to bulls.”
“I'm kind of excited about the new kind of attitude that you guys are feeling, the energy that you're feeling in the locker room, backstage, the arena, everything surrounding AEW,” Moxley said. “It's a different kind of attitude.”
It's all part of his ambitious pursuit, which he hopes to share with everyone at the company, from on-screen talent to production staff to fans, as it becomes clear.
Everyone is “heading in the same direction'' toward that goal.
“You have to understand how amazing this opportunity we have right now is,” Moxley said. “We have a responsibility to make the most of it. Whatever AEW becomes in the future, next year, five years, 10 years, whatever it is, it's going to be what we make.”
