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And here it is. Jon Moxley – AKA Dean Ambrose – sat with Chris Jericho in the latter’s podcast Talk is Jericho and revealed a lot of things that are set to blast the internet wrestling community.
Moxley didn’t hesitate to say his point of view about the company and what actually made him leave. He spoke at length about the problems with the company and, as expected, blamed Vince McMahon for a lot of things.
He revealed that he got paid only $500 for the Shield Special that was done as a . parting gift from WWE to the Lunatic Fringe. Jericho then joked that he shouldn’t spend it and keep it instead.
Moxley accused the company of ruining even the simplest of things and that by the time he had decided to leave, he didn’t even look at the contract that WWE offered to him because, for him, it was not about the money anymore as he had his house, car and even his mother’s house paid for.
Anyway, there were a lot of things that Moxley revealed and here are some of the highlights…
#5 Grateful to WWE
Moxley started off the podcast by thanking WWE for the time that he spent there. He acknowledged the fact that he joined the company as a kid and left it as an adult.
He also stated that being a part of the Make A Wish program was also something that made him very happy for obvious reasons. However, the best part about his time with the company was finding his wife Renee Young, who is still employed by the WWE.
He labeled Young as his best friend and that if nothing about WWE was good, his meeting and subsequent marriage with Renee Young beats it all.
Ambrose was an integral part of WWE programming during the 2010's. He impressed as a part of 'The Shield' setup along with compatriots Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins.
The faction proved to be a landmark move for all three superstars who went on to have stellar careers in the WWE, winning multiple championships and headling Wrestlemania.
#4 He didn’t want to be distasteful on Reigns
Remember that promo where Dean Ambrose stated that karma comes back to bite everyone and suggested that Roman Reigns’ deeds was the reason why he has to answer to God, indirectly insinuating that his leukemia came back because of those 'deeds'?
Apparently, he didn’t want to do that. In fact, he found it highly distasteful because Reigns is a friend of his in real life and was suffering at the time from a deadly disease.
However, Vince McMahon persuaded him to do it because it would garner a lot of heat from the fans. But that was not all – McMahon actually wanted him to make another comment on Reigns’ leukemia in another promo later but this time, he couldn’t convince him because the second one was so much worse that he didn’t even say it on air during the podcast.
The WWE has never refrained from holding back on promos that would help garner heat from the WWE universe. In order to establish oneself as a heel, the work had to be put in and Ambrose was at cross roads on whether he should deliver the promo. It would cost him more than what he bargained for and it left a bitter taste in the mouth for all parties involved.
#3 About poor writing
This is something that WWE has been criticized for a long time. Their story-writing has come under a lot of scrutiny and Moxley weighed in on it in Jericho’s podcast.
Moxley stated that there was once a time that he loved doing promos the most but then ended up disliking it because of poor writing. He mentioned an incident where a writer wanted him to use a phrase ‘p**per scooper’ but he had it changed because he found it very embarrassing.
He revealed that he was so sick of the creative process that it was a challenge for him to even get up from bed as he “stared at the ceiling” after opening his eyes.
He admitted to feeling sick, claiming that he had a “physical sick feeling in my stomach.” It's safe to say he didn’t really like the content given to him.
Creative teams are often known to make or break brands and the wrestling industry has seen its fair share of creative duds in the past. WCW can attribute its burial purely owing to poor writing and creative direction.
The fact that it has been over two decades since and the writing is still substandard is a testament to Ambrose's claims.
#2 About Vince McMahon
This is where things took a controversial turn. It seemed like Moxley didn’t really think very highly of Vince McMahon, going as far as to claim that their pairing was like “mentos and diet coke” that created an “explosion of goofy nonsense.”
He revealed that he almost always had to go to Vince’s office to debate about the promos he had been handed. He also added that the Chairman has a “million dollar man complex, he has to be able to buy,” which is “why he pays Brock [Lesnar] millions of dollars” because, according to Moxley, “he [McMahon] wants to own Brock” as his attraction.
He claimed that “Vince is the problem” and that the infrastructure that he created since 2002 is not helping. Moxley then went on to challenge the Chairman to change the creative process because it “sucks.”
Even though Triple H and Stephanie McMahon are the onscreen bosses, it is still good old Vince McMahon at the helm. He calls the shots and that's the bottom line.
#1 Unrecoverable promo
So after all of this, what was the tipping point for him? Well, remember that promo when he was getting inoculated by a doctor? That was a promo from which he never recovered, according to Moxley.
He revealed that he really didn’t want to do it but ended up doing it in the end due to Vince McMahon. In the end, it turned out to be the breaking point.
Such was Moxley’s determination to leave WWE that he claimed: “If there were no other promotion to work for in the world, I still would have left WWE. If there were no other wrestlers, I would have started my promotion, started my own training school and trained my own opponents.”
All in all, it is safe to admit that Jon Moxley will not be going back to the WWE for a while – or at least until Vince McMahon still runs everything at the company.
Moxley jumped ship to AEW and hasn't looked back since. He is a one-time AEW world champion.
