WWE Rumors: Did Elias take a dig at Jon Moxley on Raw?

What's the story?

Elias began the June 17 episode of Raw by insulting the fans in Los Angeles, California – something that Jon Moxley, formerly known as Dean Ambrose, was reluctant to do during a November 2018 promo in WWE.

Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted that Elias’ promo was in reference to comments that Moxley made during his recent appearance on Chris Jericho’s ‘Talk Is Jericho’ podcast.

In case you didn't know…

Jon Moxley has been very outspoken about his time in WWE since he left the company at the end of April.

In one of the most notable comments from his conversation with Chris Jericho, Moxley recounted a story from an episode of Raw in November 2018 when he was told to insult fans in Los Angeles by referring to them as “smelly”, “foul” and “disgusting”.

He explained that, as well as a “pooper scooper” line, the words that Vince McMahon wanted him to use were “goofy” and “none of them made sense”.

When he tried to change the script and present it back to McMahon, via a member of the writing team, Moxley received the following note from the WWE chairman:

“Notes from VKM: Dean needs to understand why he needs to insult the audience. Dean needs to read his promos verbatim and not try to rewrite them.”

The heart of the matter

The latest episode of Raw began with Elias insulting the crowd before taking off his jacket to reveal that he was wearing a referee’s shirt. Seth Rollins, whose match at WWE Stomping Grounds against Baron Corbin on June 23 will be officiated by a yet-to-be-confirmed special guest referee, then attacked him from behind with a steel chair.

During his promo, Elias made derogatory remarks about the people of Los Angeles, describing them as “pieces of garbage” who are “more toxic than the air”.

The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer drew comparisons between Elias’ promo and the promo that Jon Moxley was asked to deliver in the same city:

“Moxley explained this whole thing that Vince wanted and he didn’t want to do it, so Elias did it. After a lot of people heard that podcast, for them to go in there and have Elias do it, that’s almost kind of weird to me, but it’s like, ‘We liked it, we haven’t been in Los Angeles, and now we’re in Los Angeles, so we’re gonna have somebody do this interview, so we’ll have Elias do it’ … and he did it.”

What's next?

WWE did not reveal who will officiate the Universal Championship match between Seth Rollins and Baron Corbin at Stomping Grounds, so Elias’ role at the pay-per-view is still uncertain. As for Jon Moxley, he is scheduled to face Joey Janela at AEW Fyter Fest on June 29 before competing in NJPW’s G1 Climax, which begins on July 6.