11 astonishing WWE backstage secrets Jon Moxley revealed on Talk is Jericho

“Your creative process sucks, change it” – Jon Moxley's message to Vince McMahon.

Jon Moxley appeared on Talk is Jericho in an episode called "The Emancipation of Jon Moxley". For over one and a half hours, Jon Moxley, fka Dean Ambrose went on a rant about his final WWE run and many of the frustrations that he had to deal with.

It was mostly creative frustrations but Moxley pulled no punches and was very blunt and brutal about the system in WWE and what caused him to ultimately call it a day. While he did thank WWE at first, his overall frustration was visible and he went into great detail to reveal what it was that irritated him at WWE.

From creative frustrations, backstage incidents and more, Moxley revealed all the backstage secrets that WWE didn't want you to know. It's already getting comparisons to the CM Punk-Colt Cabana podcast, albeit, there's no content that either Jericho or Moxley can get sued for.

Here is what you've been waiting for. Here's what Moxley revealed in his interview.

---

#11. When the seeds were planted in his head about leaving WWE

Dean Ambrose backstage before his final WWE appearance

Jon Moxley knew when he was going to leave WWE, but the doubt in his mind was planted while he was rehabbing in early 2018.

He said he loved watching live concerts when cycling during rehab, emphasising that he loves watching any guy or girl perform and do what they're good at. When watching these concerts, he saw these musicians playing how they wanted to play and how involved the audience was.

He realized that he never felt that way for a long time. He started watching all sorts of wrestling - New content, old content, ROH, Impact Wrestling, Japanese wrestling and more. He realized that he was excited to come back to wrestling but not excited to come back to WWE.

This was something Batista felt after his 2014 run. He loved wrestling but was sick of the WWE process.

#10. The moment when he knew he was leaving WWE

Dean Ambrose described his injury period as "miserable"

Dean Ambrose revealed that even before his comeback in August 2018, he knew that he was done with WWE.

I pretty much knew I was gone (from WWE) in July of 2018. At that point, I was out with an injury, tore my tricep. Normally it's a 4 month thing, but it was so banged up and bruised since I had been working on it hurt for a long time and the tendon was all mangled up, so that was six months. And then I got a staph infection and I had to go for surgery again and it turned into a whole 9 months. It was a mess. It was a very miserable time in my life. Very challenging. In July was when I knew.

He stated that dealing with creative even prior to his return made him angry.

#9. The key moments that led to his WWE exit

Dean Ambrose stated a series of circumstances led to him leaving

Ambrose still kept an open mind about things possibly changing during his return run (though he knew in the back of his mind it wasn't). He spent quite some time in the episode ranting about being handed crappy scripts and doing promos that he didn't like at all.

He gave examples of promos that involved cringe words such as "pooper scooper". In another instance, he had a promo entirely changed and sent it to Vince. Vince wrote it and put all the removed material back. When he asked Vince why the chairman replied "This is good s**t. It's so you".

What was clear was that Vince McMahon and Dean Ambrose had two very different ideas about the Dean Ambrose character. Moxley revealed that it was at this point where he started to count the days till his contract ended in WWE.

#8. The day he almost walked out of WWE

Moxley hated the segment as much as fans did

Jon Moxley admitted that in hindsight, it was a good decision not to walk out or cause a ruckus. Looking at the fact that his wife worked there too, he felt it would be unfair and awkward to her, saying that he didn't mind riding out 8 months and leaving on decent terms.

However, he stated that it was in late 2018 on a certain episode of RAW during his feud with Seth Rollins where he genuinely felt like walking out. He said:

This day, RAW takes place in Milwaukee. I wake up in the morning and get a text from a writer explaining to me what Im going to do that day. 'You'll be backstage with your own personal doctor, where you'll be getting injected with rabies shots and all kinds of innoculations to innoculate yourself against the disgusting fans'.

And I replied 'I hate that' and he replied 'Yeah, I know'. So I get to the building and you can imagine the mood I was in. The word just from my response has already circulated that I might not be very excited about this promo.

So Michael Hayes comes up to me and says 'Hey Dean. I heard you're not very excited about your promo and I was like 'No'. We've been talking about this for months - why am I always doing this goofy crap? They hand me this sheet and it's as bad as you can imagine, right? Then I got hurled into some sexual harrrasment meeting that everyone was in and I'm just staring at this promo and I'm seething.

As soon as I get out of the door a writer says 'Vince wants to talk to you about this promo. He wants to make sure that you know it's not comedy. Vince anticipated that I was going to come storming in there and ask why I'm doing this prop comedy all time.

Vince says 'I want you to know it's not comedy'. This promo is such good stuff, it's so well written and it's going to get you a ton of heat.'

#7. He wasn't happy about WWE asking him to mock Roman Reigns' leukaemia

Roman Reigns' leukaemia was used in the storyline to get heat

Roman Reigns' leukaemia announcement was one of WWE biggest tragedies. In hindsight, it's good to see that Reigns recovered fast, but Jon Moxley said that he wasn't happy that he was being told to make fun of Reigns' situation.

He stated that on one instance, Vince convinced him in a weird way to do it despite his protests:

"Earlier I had to go to Vince, because in this promo, there's a line, a very distasteful line, taking a jab at my friend who had leukemia and is now going on to recover - Roman Reigns. I don't remember the line but I went 'I'm not - are you kidding me? This is clearly a mistake. I'm in a production meeting and go 'surely you don't want me to say this' and he's like 'But Roman is a part of the story. You turned on him and Seth. You just include Roman. He said it in an inocuous way where it didn't sound so bad. He played the Vince Jedi mind trick"

"I cut the promo and as soon as the line left my mouth I go 'I can't believe I said that'".

He even stated that on one occasion, he was told to use a line so disgusting that someone would have been fired or they would have lost a sponsor. He put his foot down and told Vince McMahon that he refused to say that. Vince had no choice but to give in.

#6. He wanted to come back as a heel, but Super Show-Down prevented it

A moment too late?

Jon Moxley revealed that when he returned to WWE, his plan was to return as a heel and a completely new character altogether. He explained to Vince McMahon that he wanted to come back as a completely different character. He told Vince McMahon he hated his character and insisted that he wanted to evolve, change and do something different.

The idea was to come back at WrestleMania. He flew to New York to meet Vince in person. He pitched feuding with Seth Rollins, or even moving to SmackDown and challenging AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan, etc. The big problem was they already advertised The Shield for Super Show-Down in Australia all the way in October so he couldn't be a heel until then.

They wanted him to partner with Seth Rollins (which he said he loved doing), but it was the same old thing. He felt deflated and he was asked to come a week before SummerSlam. He asked them if he could return at SummerSlam to make an impact.

He even ranted about how they ruined his comeback, stating that it was one of the easiest things to write. He seemed absolutely bewildered that they could overproduce that.

#5. Felt the Nia Jax segment was to bury him; reveals why WWE potentially buried EC3

Dean Ambrose didn't mind taking the bump, but the circumstances were wrong

An hour before RAW, he said there was a super secret meeting, with only Vince McMahon and Triple H knowing about his departure. He stated that he didn't mind taking a bump for Nia Jax, but given that the segment was added right after he mentioned he was leaving, it seemed like an intentional way of burying him. He went on to say:

"I'm totally cool taking a bump for Nia. It's 2019, she's a very powerful woman. She did great in the Royal Rumble the night before. If this existed outside of me leaving, it's a totally different conversation."

He did admit that he had fun in the rehearsal but stated that it seemed all too convenient. He added that his series of matches with EC3 really didn't help the young NXT up-and-comer. He said that EC3 beating him in two minutes was a terrible idea and he knew it. He knew that fans would be able to see what's going on and they would lash out on EC3.

He stated that he even faced EC3 in a live event and despite being the babyface, EC3 was booed while he was cheered. He sounded sympathetic towards EC3, stating that the producers of the live events told Vince about this and he was furious. This may be why EC3 got buried.

#4. He said the conversation about him leaving made Vince McMahon emotional

The chairman may have shed a tear or two

Jon Moxley stated that when he had a conversation about leaving with Vince McMahon, it was quite emotional. Stating his creative frustrations, McMahon said:

"I heard you were unhappy about the shot thing we did? Wish you would have told me. I didn't know you had all these problems".

Ambrose more or less called him out on that saying that he knew, because he had stormed into his office multiple times and said that McMahon was trying to justify it in his mind.

He said that the meeting with Vince was emotional on both sides and that he took the opportunity to say whatever he wanted to say. He had been having that very conversation in his head for months. He said that every Monday he got physically sick in his stomach and he dreaded being handed a script.

McMahon said that he wasn't going to bury him, but the Nia Jax segment made it seem like exactly that. Vince called it "an attraction"

#3. He didn't even look at the envelope containing a new contract

Jon Moxley had no interest in re-signing

It took longer than he expected to be offered a contract from WWE, but when he did receive the envelope containing the offer, he didn't even open it.

He said that he didn't even want to look at the contract. He was handed an envelope but didn't even open it. He contemplated what he would do if he was offered a $10 million Brock Lesnar type of contract. He said he wouldn't take it, because his truck, house and mom's house was paid off. What would he do with 10 million dollars? Jericho agreed and felt similarly for WCW, stating that even if he was offered a million dollars, he wouldn't have accepted the contract.

That just goes to show that the paycheque didn't really mean anything for Moxley. He was dissatisfied at losing his passion for wrestling.

#2. AEW had nothing to do with him leaving WWE

That's how you make an impact

Jericho asked Moxley if Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) or Japan was what he was thinking of after WWE. Moxley said that while people want another Monday Night Wars back between AEW and WWE, him leaving WWE existed outside of that.

"It's good to know that the wrestling business was doing so well outside WWE, but even if it didn't, I still would have left WWE. If there were no other promotions to work forin the world, I still would have left. If there were no other wrestlers, I would have started my own promotion, started my own promotion and trained my own opponents. I would have receeded the wrestling business from scratch if I had to. But the timing of it is just so crazy."

He did admit that his relationship with Cody Rhodes was good, making the AEW deal easier. He also praised Tony Khan, stating that he was the opposite of Vince McMahon.

#1. He got paid ridiculously low for his final WWE match

Behind the scenes at The Shield's Final Chapter

A couple of weeks post-WrestleMania, WWE decided to turn a live event into a house show special, calling it "The Shield's Final Chapter". It was a show that was done to say farewell to one of the all-time great factions, with Ambrose having his final match for the company.

His paycheque? A measly $500.

Jericho said that 500$ is what opening guys from NXT get paid just to show up. Ambrose thought of calling Vince McMahon but he thought it was funnier this way. Jericho said that when Ambrose and he main evented a live event in Asheville in a street fight, they got paid $750 each. Moxley then said that he doesn't even get up his couch for that much before adding that he might just frame the cheque and never spend it. Jericho agreed that it was one final cheap shot from WWE.