Jon Moxley On Being Uncomfortable Around People In The Shield’s Early Days, WWE Helping Him Learn Social Skills

Jon Moxley had a difficult time dealing with The Shield’s early success and discussed the matter during the debut episode of Renee Paquette’s Oral Sessions. Moxley was the first guest on Pacquette’s podcast and discussed his early days in WWE, talking about how The Shield’s rapid rise left him feeling uncomfortable in talking with fans and how those experiences helped him develop better social skills. You can check out highlights and the full audio below:

On being uncomfortable around people in the early days of the Shield: “When we first started doing meet and greets and stuff — like we went from being, by ‘we’ I mean the Shield — we were in FCW, in an island [of] literal nobodies; nobody knew who we were … We were absolute nobodies, nobody knew who we were. We were making gas money. Came onto the scene, a matter of months later all of a sudden, we’re the f**king Backstreet Boys. We’re like a f**king boy band all of a sudden. We’re going to malls, there’s chicks going crazy. And I’m meeting all these people, and like, I didn’t know how to talk to people. So it was very weird to me, people were like, ‘Oh my God, I love you so much!’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t know you. Thank you, but–‘ I just don’t know to behave in this scenario.”

Jon Moxley on WWE helping him learn how to deal with people: “Being in WWE kind of helped me learn, as strange as it sounds, kind of helped me learn better social skills. I learned how to talk to people I don’t know, and especially in some of these Make-A-Wishes, the person is shy. You have to make this a good experiences with them. But I got it down to a science. They’d give me the details, I was like ‘What’s the kid’s name? Where’s he from?’ That’s alI I need to know.’ I learned how to be a person in the public eye. It took actual work. It was like, a skill to develop. The difference between me in 2011 and me now is totally different.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Oral Sessions with Renée Paquette with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.