Jon Moxley interview circuit ahead of Cincinnati Dynamite

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AEW champ Jon Moxley is on a mission to eradicate complacency: ‘I feel a responsibility to these people’

Jon Moxley is in his fourth reign as AEW Champion. He's also become one of the biggest advocates for elevating the wrestling promotion and all involved with it.

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“Storytelling is always needed, it’s essential, it’s non-negotiable. It’s a vital element to wrestling,” Moxley tells Uncrowned. “You need a hook. How much more do you enjoy sports when you have an investment in who the person is or the story of the season? Wrestling is no different. You’re not going to pick up a book that has a bunch of descriptions of random objects or events — there has to be a story or a thread that will take you on a ride.”

“I’ve always thought Cincinnati was an underserved market as far as wrestling is concerned,” Moxley says. “This city is a great sports town, a great entertainment town, has a ton of wrestling fans and history. It’s a great community that I’m very proud to be a part of. I could literally walk to the show.

“To a lot of people, they might just say, ‘Oh, that’s the guy we see all the time.’ I’m pretty easy to find around here. I don’t want to be one of these guys who moves to a city and are 'part of the community' when the cameras are out but actually live an hour away in a gated community. It’s pretty important to me to show people here that I am in it with them every day. I work out at the [YMCA] downtown. They’ll recognize me, I just might be strangling someone.”

“We’re building. It’s about a lot more than what happens in the ring,” Moxley says. “Building something sustainable for the future that we can take pride in, we’ve been doing that for the past few months.

“It’s about a mindset and an approach of taking pride in what we do. We have a lot of guys and girls that are part of it. I’m pretty proud, but it’s a long game and it’s little tiny victories every day and a constant learning process. It’s really exciting.”

“Any time you step into the ring, any time you get the camera pointed at you with the light on, any time you do anything, it’s going to be whatever you make it,” Moxley says. “Everybody’s a good wrestler at AEW. I don’t know if there’s ever been a roster assembled of this many purely great, get-in-the-ring-and-wrestle pro wrestlers. There’s so much more to it though, to put yourself in a position to use those skills and capitalize with them. You can see some guys evolving to the next level beyond just being good wrestlers. It’s very gratifying to see.

“That thing with Orange, he’s one of those guys where you see him growing and evolving. You see this larger-than-life aspect coming out of him. You see it right before your eyes. You don’t even have to look at him, you can see it in the audience when he comes out, you see it happening. That kind of thing that’s hard to put into words, but you know he’s ‘got it’ — that’s the thing we have to foster and cultivate. We can’t just throw him out there. It’s a seed that has to be watered and grown.”

“It’s the way I have been operating for years and years,” Moxley says. "You constantly have a net open to everything you see and hear. That’s what’s great about wrestling, it’s a little bit of everything. Therefore, you can take from anything. My ears are always open and my brain is constantly filing away things. If there’s something I read in a book, a scene I see, a look an actor makes, a lyric in a song — literally anything I experienced with my eyes and ears will be filtered and filed for if it’s ever useful. When you’re creating, you have this giant bin of stuff that you take from. It’s years and years of this filing cabinet of stuff.”

“It’s not, ‘Oh, I’m wrestling tonight so I just go in and do yada, yada, yada,'” Moxley says. “I’m looking at everything from a higher up vantage point and having to learn about things beyond just myself and the people directly next to me. Everything I touch, whether it’s people directly involved with me, everything that has to do with what I’m doing on screen and everything that affects, I take a personal responsibility in all of that.

"Not all of that happens in front of your eyes on the screen. I’m learning a lot about the most efficient ways to make things work, learning ways we are doing things that are inefficient and figuring out how to improve them. Ways we can not let things slip through the cracks, areas we can improve, getting in there and trying to dissect. Not leaving any stone unturned. Peeling back the whole onion beyond what you see on the screen in two people locking up inside the ring.”

“I don’t work for AEW. I work for all of the people that need this place to succeed, that’s the way I look at it," he says. "For this place to succeed, we’ve got to operate at the highest level at every level. That’s what we accept if you’re going to be a part of this team. I feel a responsibility to these people because to be successful in wrestling, they’ve given and sacrificed their lives for the pursuit of this, as I had. I am but a servant to the pursuit of helping the whole thing, raising it up and bringing along as many people as we can. It’s making me better and helping me learn a hell of a lot.”

“It’s one of the most rewarding times in my career right now,” Moxley says. “Where I’m at in my career, it’s rewarding every single day and I look forward to every single day for a different reason than I used to. It’s not just go out, get a big pop, flex, throw a t-shirt, sign an autograph. It’s the pursuit of something much greater than that. It’s fun, man.”

https://www.citybeat.com/arts/from-cincinnati-street-rat-to-world-champion-an-interview-with-wrestler-jon-moxley-18846714

CityBeat: Welcome home, Jon. What is it like to walk through those metaphorical curtains in the Queen City?

Jon Moxley: You always get a little bit of extra energy when you’re in your hometown. For me, it’s always extra cool because I used to work downtown at the arena when I was like 16, 17, just doing event staff stuff and I’d just stand there during Cyclones games. By that point, I was already on this nebulous journey of becoming a pro wrestler — I used to visualize walking around backstage and then walking out and the building just being full of fans, imagining the ring and creating the whole circus in my mind.

I’ve done so many shows here in every bar, community center, fucking barn and children’s birthday party, whatever the hell over the years in this town, but it always feels the same. Cincinnati is a great community and I’m proud to be part of it.

CB: How did the upcoming event at the Andrew J Brady Music Center come together? It’s a bit different than the typical wrestling venue.

JM: Two nights of AEW came together really quick, which is cool to show what a market like Cincinnati can do on kind of a short notice. It’s a great sports town and with this new building — I don’t think it’s had anything besides concerts. It’s a good vibe and it’s going to look different for wrestling. I think it’s cool if AEW starts presenting wrestling in different venues — give it a different look and different feel. We’re going to adapt to the environment of the building. Wrestling is all about the environment and the fans make the environment. The energy the fans bring? It bounces back and forth to the wrestlers. This whole crazy carnival circus of entertainment. There’s not going to be a bad seat in the house and with that setup, you’re very likely to be on TV if you come down to either of the nights.

CB: You’re a hometown boy. You went out west to the desert, lived in Vegas for a little bit, but now Cincinnati’s pugilist son has returned. What brought you back and how are you and Renee Paquette (his wife and AEW backstage interviewer) getting acclimated to the city?

JM: Oh, it was the best decision I ever made. It's funny because you always kind of, no matter where you live, you’ve got to leave. You’ve got to go on an excursion, so to speak, because you need to go out and see the world. I’d recommend that for everybody.

Over the years, I really appreciated how cool and unique of a place Cincinnati is. I'm very much molded in the personality of Cincinnati. Renee being a Canadian, she’s from Toronto, there are a lot of similarities. Nice people and a city you can walk around in. All different types of people and restaurants, an eclectic community, cool architecture. She fell in love with it immediately. She’s a busybody, always out doing stuff, so she immediately assimilated to being part of the Cincinnati community.

When we had a kid for the first time, it was just a very natural thing to come back. There was a bit of a feeling of a triumphant return because when I left, I left here with nothing, less than nothing. I was a scourged street rat with nothing to my name and to come back with family and all the spoils of conquest. I had gone out and conquered the world. I want to bring the kind of things that I found out in the world and bring them back here so others can experience them. I wanted to bring AEW to Cincinnati.

I’ve always felt that Cincinnati has been a little bit of an underserved market for wrestling and to bring AEW to Cincinnati and be somebody around that kids, students, young athletes, whatever they want to do — that it’s not just reserved for other people in other places. It’s for everybody. You can go out and grab it. Like he’s just that fucking dude walking down the street we see every day and he went and did it and so can I.

CB: Watching your AEW career and your New Japan Pro Wrestling appearances, it’s been like watching a man reborn. I can’t believe it’s been five years. How have those last five years been for you?

JM: It’s been an absolutely crazy Wild West five years. Unpredictable! And I’d say the next five, ten years are probably going to be just as unpredictable. With the emergence of AEW in 2019, a shift happened. The landscape of the business of pro wrestling completely changed. There are more opportunities. Guys are making more money. AEW has been very good for the wrestlers and it’s just shaken everything up at all levels in every organization.

We’re in the middle of the history books right now and we have our hands on the controls and we have the pen. We can write whatever the fuck we want and it’s very exciting.

CB: You’re the record-holding four-time World Champion of AEW, which means that you’ve got the biggest target painted on your back. When you’re at the top, what goes into your defense of the title? How is retaining different than the chase?

JM: There’s always this hunger and it’s true for any endeavor you’re chasing. Getting there is always different than staying there. You have this release of ‘oh, okay, I got here’ and then you realize you have to keep that energy up and now everybody’s trying to knock you off that hill. It takes a lot more discipline and mental strength and patience and fortitude.

I’m defending the AEW championship on Wednesday against Powerhouse Hobbs. He has the opportunity of a lifetime. He won a lottery ticket and he has absolutely nothing to lose. He’s physically bigger, physically stronger. He’s not a scared kid — he’s a mean, terrifying adult man. He can hurt you and he can knock my head off. He can change his life in three seconds. I’m going to be shot at with all the firepower in the world. So the difference in energy in being a champion on top of the hill, I have to stay calm and not get rattled by someone that’s shooting all of their artillery at you.

CB: From Blackpool Combat Club to Death Riders, an ally is both an important and precarious thing in this business. What do you look for in a team? Who earns your respect?

JM: I like to surround myself with people that are better than me or smarter than me or bring something to the table that I don't have — knowledge that I don’t know or a skill set that I don’t have.

The power of association is a big thing. If you surround yourself with clowns, you’re going to be a clown. I surround myself with the best people and I try to learn from them and grow. The number one prerequisite is integrity.

This is a business built on carnival sideshows. We’ve got to take out a lot of this old carny business — you know, the ‘brother this, brother that’ kind of bullshit carny attitude because that attitude is how they’ve scammed fans out of money. That is not what this sport is nowadays. We grew up wanting to be wrestlers — this is all we’ve ever wanted to be.

This is our craft. This is our life. We take it very seriously and we take pride in it. Getting rid of that attitude in the industry is a big part of what we’ve been trying to do here at AEW.

Integrity and no bullshit. I have no time for bullshit. When it’s time to work, it’s time to work. I make mistakes every single day but those are all opportunities to learn and grow and evolve. I don’t want to be the same today as I was five years ago. I want to be around people who push me every day. Anybody can be a part of my team, but just know that I expect nothing less than your best every single day.

We’re coming to give everything we have to this pursuit. Drop the ego at the door and let’s all learn and make each other better. Let’s make this a great experience for us and the fans and keep growing the whole thing so that when it comes through town, you’ve got to buy tickets to AEW because you want to be a part of it.

Out of the ring, AEW stars Jon Moxley, Renee Paquette call Cincinnati chili a 'food group'

AEW World Champion Jon Moxley talks Cincinnati chili and Patrick Mahomes' "little red pants" with his wife, Renee Paquette.

www.cincinnati.com

When All Elite Wrestling World Champion Jon Moxley steps into the ring to defend his title in Cincinnati on Wednesday, he expects to be cheered on by his hometown fans.

After all, that Jan 15 episode of AEW Dynamite will be filmed in an intimate setting at the Andrew J. Brady Music Center, which has a capacity of fewer than 5,000 people. (Collision will be filmed there Jan. 16.) It’s likely that Moxley’s biggest fans will have been first in line for the best seats in the house.

“I think it'll probably be pretty regular because I'm just the guy they see on the street corner every week now at this point,” Moxley said.
Jon Moxley is a pro wrestler and All Elite Wrestling champion.

But he’s also made a lot of enemies during his current run as the AEW World Champion. On screen, Moxley is a malevolent psychopath. He has attempted to maim and end the careers of his rivals with the help of the Death Riders, a dangerous stable of wrestlers dedicated to doing his bidding. Moxley has done little of late to endear himself to AEW fans, many of whom are hungry to see the world championship around the waist of someone else. Whatever reaction Moxley gets next Wednesday is likely to be mixed at best, and the boos are likely to drown out his supporters.

Love him or hate him, Moxley’s reputation precedes him wherever he goes. He held the top spot on the annual Pro Wrestling Illustrated 500 rankings in 2020, and hasn’t been ranked outside of the top 20 since 2018, his final year performing as Dean Ambrose in WWE. Moxley and his wife, AEW backstage interviewer Renee Paquette (known as Renee Young in WWE), are among the best-known, most high-profile power couples in professional wrestling.

We caught up with the Queen City’s resident wrestling royalty at their Mount Auburn home, a Civil War-era Italianate house with a breathtaking view of downtown. Here’s what they had to say about their Cincinnati experience thus far.

On being part of the community

When he was young, Moxley didn’t want to be like the adults in his life. He wanted to go see the world while he did something he loved for a living. As he visited more places, he realized more and more how much he had taken the city for granted.

“Cincinnati is really sick as f---,” he said. “It’s like all of the big city stuff, but it’s still small enough to get around and you’ve kind of got a little bit of everything. It’s just got a flavor. This city is very much me, and I can’t imagine being anywhere else or from anywhere else.”

Moxley likes city life. He enjoys walking around downtown in the middle of the night. He likes working out at the YMCA on Central Parkway. He doesn’t want to be like athletes in other sports that claim to be a part of the community while living 45 minutes away in a gated neighborhood a county over.

“They’re not in the thick of it,” Moxley said. “They don’t know what it’s about or anything. And like, what good is that?”

You might not find Paquette lurking in the streets at night, but she does enjoy the city in her own way. Findlay Market and Washington Park are both walkable from the couple’s home, as are several of the city’s best restaurants.

“One of my favorite things to do is driving through the neighborhoods,” she said. “I love all of the architecture – there’s so many beautiful homes. I feel like that’s something I’ve always been drawn to.”

On Cincinnati chili

When she and Moxley first started dating, Paquette attempted to make Cincinnati chili as an early Valentine’s Day gift for him … without ever having eaten it before.

“I did not know what I was doing – I wasn’t sure if it was right, if I was doing things accurately,” Paquette recalls. “I’m adding chocolate, I’m adding all of these spices.”

If you want to see Paquette’s attempt at Cincinnati chili, it’s in Paquette’s cookbook, “Messy in the Kitchen.” Fortunately, she took a liking to the stuff. Her Skyline order today? A four-way with onions.

Of course, Moxley’s been eating Skyline since before he laced up a pair of wrestling boots. “When you grow up here, it’s like a food group,” he said.

Once his career took off, Cincinnati chili became a must-have treat that he craved during the rare occasions he came back through his hometown. Now that he lives here again, he has to stop himself from eating it every day. But that doesn’t stop him from finding other ways to scratch the itch.

“I've experimented with ways to … make meat with the (Skyline and Gold Star seasoning packets from the grocery store),” Moxley said. “So I’ll make a pork chop that tastes like Skyline, or like chicken or steak, or whatever.”

“Skyline pizza is good,” Paquette added. “We’ve done some experimenting around here.”
Jon Moxley, right, puts his wife, Renee Paquette, in a pretend headlock.

On the Bengals connection

Paquette had never had a rooting interest in professional football prior to moving to Cincinnati, but she wasn’t immune to the hype of the 2021 Bengals and the excitement of their AFC championship run. She watched the games, interacted with the team’s social media accounts, and before she knew it, the Bengals had invited her to work for the team. The "Renee All Dey" podcast was born.

“It was a ton of fun,” Paquette recalls. “It was a blast going down there. They have … such a family atmosphere to the way that they run their entire organization. They are all so prepared, so respectful of each other, I just had such a great time working with them.”

Paquette’s duties with AEW prevented her from doing "Renee All Dey" in 2024, but that hasn’t stopped her and Moxley from making it down to Paycor Stadium for Bengals games, including a slightly controversial appearance by the couple as Rulers of the Jungle.

“Why don’t you talk about being Ruler of the Jungle and how much you ruined it for anybody else’s experience moving forward?” Paquette asked Moxley to begin the story.

“I think they took away a live (microphone) from anybody going forward,” Moxley replied, perhaps a bit sheepishly. “I didn’t even say anything that bad. They asked me to pump up the crowd.”

“You said, ‘Patrick Mahomes is going to piss his little red pants all the way back to Kansas City,’” Paquette said.

“Yeah, and that’s not that bad,” Moxley defiantly retorted. “It’s not that bad at all. Get out of here, dude. It’s Sunday. This is football. It’s not Sunday School hopscotch. It’s the NFL. But yeah, they got all upset about it.”

Dear reader: If you are ever selected to be the Ruler of the Jungle at a Bengals game, do not expect to be handed a microphone. And now you know who to thank for that: Jon Moxley, arguably the world’s greatest trash talker.