Jon Moxley on Carrying the Torch of AEW Through a Dark Time, Says He Enjoyed WrestleMania 36

– Fightful recently interviewed AEW World champion Jon Moxley. During the interview, he discussed being the AEW World champion during a time when there are no crowds in wrestling and shows are held in empty arenas. He also shared his thoughts on WrestleMania 36, revealing he watched both nights of the event. Below are some highlights from the interview via Fightful.

Moxley on his matchup with Josh Barnett at Bloodsport getting postponed: “Yeah, I think we’re at 2, Tony [Ferguson] and Khabib [Nurmagomedov] are at 5. So we’re not the most cursed match-up in sports just yet. Maybe in sports entertainment. But, yeah, maybe next time we just won’t advertise it. We’ll just, whenever me and him are in the same city we’re just gonna have to set up a mat and just do it. Film it with an iPhone and just get it in the can.”

On how the quarantine and shutdowns have affected wrestling: “That’s just one of many matches and many events like [AEW] Blood & Guts, 14,000 tickets in Newark down the drain; Philly, Boston, all down the drain. All these promotions, all these [independents]—it especially sucks for the independent guys just aren’t working right now. That sucks. I mean, WrestleMania had to take place in front of nobody and that’s not ideal for all those guys and girls who wanted to have their big WrestleMania moment, they had to do it in front of nobody. So, everybody got affected by this. Pro wrestling is such a small part of the world even though it dominates my life, there much more important things. People are suffering through way worse financial times and stuff. It sucks for everybody.”

Jon Moxley on wrestling in empty arenas: “It’s not ideal. I won the World title on a Saturday, that Wednesday, a few days later, was my last time in front of an audience. So, that’s not ideal timing to say the least. It’s not for everybody. Yeah. Because it’s a dark time in the world. So, it’s a little weird. But, I have a task of carrying the torch through a really, really dark time. I’m not gonna complain about it.”

His thoughts on WrestleMania 36: “I watched the whole thing. Both nights. I enjoyed it. I thought it flowed nicely and a lot of people really worked their ass off and put on great performances. I enjoyed the Boneyard Match, I thought that was cool. I thought that was really cool, too, because the Undertaker is a really beloved character. He’s like a comic book character. He’s a beloved character from our childhood. Same as John Wayne or John McClane or any action movie star you can think of, so it was really cool. I think everybody really enjoyed that.”