Trivia / Jon Moxley

• Breakup Breakout:
  • After The Shield broke up, Reigns got pushed as the next top babyface, Rollins went on his way to become a top heel, and Ambrose, after losing several matches to Rollins due to interference, was put into a brief feud with Bray Wyatt before becoming just another midcarder. While he seemingly started to subvert this after he defeated WWE World Heavyweight Champion Rollins on the May 4, 2015 episode of Raw to be added to the Triple Threat match at Payback 2015, and later pinned Rollins cleanly at Elimination Chamber 2015 to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, the latter match's result was overturned. It was officially subverted at Money in the Bank 2016; Ambrose won the case and (with some poetic irony) cashed on Rollins to win his first WHC. Thanks to his victory at SummerSlam 2017, for the Raw Tag Team Championships with Seth Rollins, he is currently the only member of the Shield who is both a Grand Slam and Triple Crown champion, and was the first member of the Shield to make Grand Slam Champion.
  • Far more successful than his partner in the Switchblade Conspiracy, Sami Callihan. Sami did get signed to NXT as Solomon Crowe, but for whatever reason officials and/or bookers never got behind him. He was rarely used and eventually requested his release as a result. The irony is that in Dragon Gate USA/EVOLVE the two acted as foils with Callihan declaring he was sick of independent wrestling and trying to get the attention of Dragon Gate proper while Moxley was defending the honor of independent wrestlers against the Dragon Gate regulars and their fans.
  • Promotion-wise, he is by far and away the most successful CZW alumnus, alongside Adam Cole. He is the first and currently only major CZW wrestler to become world champion in WWE (every other major indy star that has won a world title in WWE came from ROH) or AEW. Furthermore, he's also the first to get the Grand Slam achievement at WWE.
• Career Resurrection: Good's return as Jon Moxley after leaving WWE in 2019 is widely considered this. After tolling away in the upper midcard ever since he became a huge Ensemble Dark Horse in 2014 and losing his edge as a character and with his popularity steadily over the years, his runs in AEW, NJPW and other various independent promotions in just 2 years has garnered him much critical acclaim, causing fans to see him in a different light not just as a goofy prop comic but as a skilled in ring wrestler and story teller. Much discussion has been made about him cementing his success by being completely unrecognizable as his past character of Dean Ambrose, not to mention the praise and slew of awards he's won since he's returned as Moxley, something he was never seriously considered for as Ambrose. ^note  He was given his first 5 star match by Dave Meltzer in the Summer of 2019 only a few months after he left WWE, awarded Wrestler of the Year in 2019 by Sports Illustrated, was Number 1 on Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Top 500 Wrestlers, and named Wrestler of the Year also by PWI (the last two in 2020) as well.
• Creative Differences: Led to his departure from WWE in April 2019, after he turned down a five-year multi-million dollar contract renewal. His exit was so surprising (WWE took the unusual step of acknowledging the rumors of his departure as true three months before his contract expired) that many wrestlers backstage and even some dirt sheet reporters were convinced it was a work. There was hope following Roman Reigns' return from his leukemia-related hiatus that Ambrose would stay, but he had already made his decision by then. Any doubts of him actually leaving were then dashed when he showed up unannounced at AEW's Double or Nothing event. He further elaborated to Chris Jericho his reasoning for his departure on the Talk is Jericho podcast following his AEW debut. In the interview, Ambrose stated that he began considering leaving while he was out for injury. He had been working hurt for many months prior to the injury that nearly ended his career (and his own life as he got a steph infection), and had gotten so miserable during the time off that he realized that he needed to jump ship as soon as he could. Following that, Moxley complained that WWE's writers were forcing him to do promos he found as ridiculous, and one promo he outright refused to do was alleged to have mocked Roman Reigns' leukemia.^note While Ambrose did make a potshot towards this on-camera, the specific promo he refused to do contained a line that was so controversial, he believed it would have cost WWE to lose their relationships with cancer-related organizations, and him and the writers responsible for the line to be fired outright. Moxley refuses to divulge what the line is in public, and stated that he and the few people he has told in confidence will take the secret of it to their graves. He went to explain that even if AEW had not gone into business, he was still leaving WWE to wrestle elsewhere because of the backstage strife — a point which he stressed by remarking that even if WWE was the only wrestling company in existence he would start another one himself.
• Creator Backlash: In his autobiography Mox, he revealed that he too thought his final heel run in WWE was really awful and poorly done.
• Doing It for the Art: The biggest reason why he left WWE if you've listened to his episode on Chris Jericho's podcast, despite being offered millions to resign. He even stated that he would have left WWE and created another place to wrestle himself if AEW hadn't come into existence.
• Funny Character, Boring Actor: Out of character, Moxley can come off a bit stilted and socially awkward compared to his animated and quippy on screen persona. That said, it is possible to get good interviews out of him if his personal life isn't brought up.
• Real Life Writes the Plot:
  • Ambrose finally won the title and got his main event push because Roman Reigns violated the Wellness Policy. Many speculate that his house show income was also a factor.^note Ambrose was drawing almost the same as Reigns during his reign. The difference is that Ambrose was doing so while main eventing the B-show circuit without the title, while Reigns was on the A-show circuit with the title. The difference in population of those cities numbered in the hundreds of thousands. That said a lot about his drawing power, and Reigns' lack of it.
  • Ambrose's Face–Heel Turn in late 2018 was moved up by at least several weeks^note reports and rumors indicate he was supposed to turn at Survivor Series thanks to Reigns' leukemia returning. In fact, they moved it up to the night Reigns' announced it to the world, both to take advantage of the vulnerable atmosphere (as had Ambrose turned on any other night, he would've unquestionably gotten cheered), and so he and Seth Rollins could immediately fill the void that Reigns was leaving as the new top heel and top face^note a massive injury epidemic had hit WWE around this time; with Reigns' departure, the only bonafide main event talent on RAW were them and Braun Strowman, and Ambrose and Rollins had been relegated to the midcard and the tag team division since the Shield reunited in 2017. It's also been rumored that he was supposed to turn heel during the Shield's initial reunion run during the Road to WrestleMania in early 2018, but his injury towards the end of 2017 had to delay it to late 2018.
  • A match between Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley was meant to happen at All Out 2019. However, Moxley later announced on social media that he would be unable to compete at All Out due to an elbow injury. PAC would later be announced as his last minute replacement after AEW and Dragon Gate settled their creative differences, which had kept PAC from competing at Double or Nothing 2019 and subsequent events. Omega/Moxley would later be rescheduled at Full Gear 2019 instead.
  • Jon Moxley won the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship at the beginning of 2020 with the intention that he would be able to defend it on a semi-regular basis, but pandemic-induced travel restrictions prevented that from happening. This puts Moxley in the awkward spot of being the longest reigning US Champion of all time, even though he spent almost an entire year unable to defend it. Eventually, thanks to the Forbidden Door opening, he was able to start defending it in AEW, even finally dropping it back to the man he won it from in the first place, Lance Archer, in a Texas Deathmatch on an episode of Dynamite.
  • Jon Moxley vs. Brian Cage was pushed back a week to July 15, 2020 to allow Moxley to self isolate after his wife Renee Young^note now known in AEW by her birth name of Renee Paquette tested positive for COVID-19 due to WWE's lax testing and social distancing policies. This also had the knock on effect of extending Fyter Fest to a third week to allow that to be the main event.
• Real Song Theme Tune: The Misfits' "Hybrid Moments" (in Chikara), L7's "Shitlist" (in CZW), AC/DC's "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" (in post-WWE Indies), X (US Band)'s "Wild Thing" (in AEW).
• Reality Subtext: In hindsight the entirety of his WWE Chronicle episode which covered the time of his return from injury in 2018 and the first few weeks after his heel turn. That was around the time he decided he wasn't going to resign with the company being fed up creatively. With the special showcasing his gradual breakdown stemming from various hardships including Roman Reigns' departure because of his second battle with leukemia but also showcases the performer breaking down from the strain of WWE and their writing of his character.
• Reclusive Artist: Jon Moxley is known for largely avoiding talking about his life outside the ring; most of what we know about it comes from his more outspoken wife, Renee Paquette. As an illustrative example, when he was with WWE the company gave him a verified Twitter account to use, which he didn't even touch for years until he left the company and needed a way to hype up the return of Moxley.
• Romance on the Set
  • He dated another wrestler, Hellena Heavenly, while working for NEPW.
  • Dated Paige for a short time whilst they were both in FCW.
  • He married Renee Young. They even appear on Total Divas together.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Jon Moxley had a tryout for TNA back in 2009. It really makes you wonder what would've happened to him had he gone there, especially when you consider that Tyler Black (Seth Rollins) also had an offer from them around the same time.
  • Perhaps the biggest of his career: His big WWE debut was due to involve him feuding with Mick Foley, which just about everybody agrees would be a fascinating dream match for both men. This fell through when it became clear that Foley's physical health was no longer good enough to have extended bouts in the ring. Had Ambrose vs. Foley happened, the biggest side-effect is that Dean would likely not have joined The Shield (his relatively late inclusion into the trio on NXT is fairly apparent on-camera). Jon Moxley himself also feels that in retrospect, having Ambrose vs. Foley right from the start would've been a Tough Act to Follow, and that he wouldn't have been able to have the creative freedom he wanted for the feud.
  • CM Punk tweeted a planned card for WrestleMania 30 that showed Dean Ambrose wrestling Roman Reigns for the United States Championship. This suggests that The Shield's break-up was supposed to happen sooner, with Ambrose presumably being the one turning on the group. The break-up ended up not happening until the summer.
  • Ambrose was not the original planned opponent for Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 32. That would be Bray Wyatt. However, a plethora of injuries that year severely damaged the card, which was distressing because they were planning to sell out the Cowboys Stadium. As it goes, the main event of Fastlane 2016 was a triple threat between Ambrose, Lesnar, and Roman Reigns for a world title shot at Mania. The focus of the build was on Ambrose and Lesnar, so much so that Reigns was almost a non-existent third wheel, even though every fan with the slightest hint of savviness knew he was winning because that was what the company had been building up to the last two years. That being said, Ambrose and Lesnar/Heyman turned out to have great chemistry, and many fans expressed a desire for them to have a one-on-one match, more so than the original planned match of Wyatt/Lesnar. Ambrose was also starting to get mega hot thanks to his performance at the Royal Rumble, including his stellar program with Kevin Owens, and his interactions with Lesnar. With all the injuries and the lack of star power, the company couldn't afford to push him down the card. Hence, Ambrose was switched to being Lesnar's opponent at Mania the week of Fastlane.
  • He revealed in an interview of Inside the ropes that he planned to go back to CZW after he recovered from injury in 2018. He also asked Joey Mercury to take him to Ring Of Honor after hearing that they just sold out MSG (Though Moxley eventually does go to New Japan even becoming it's US champ).
• You Look Familiar: Ambrose was well-known in the indies as Jon Moxley. His biggest pre-WWE claim to fame is being a two-time CZW World Heavweight Champion, though they might as well count as one reign seeing as they were a week apart.

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