Jon Moxley on Refusing a Line in WWE About Roman Reigns’ Cancer, Discusses Vince McMahon Still Trying to Get Him to Say It, How They Could’ve Lost Sponsorships Over It

– In the latest episode of Talk is Jericho, Jon Moxley spoke about the promos that really caused him to decide to leave WWE, including the infamous rabies shot promo, and his promo where he referenced Roman Reigns when he was actually getting treated for leukemia. Moxley revealed that the original version of the promo had a line in it even he wasn’t willing to say and put his foot down when speaking to Vince McMahon, who Moxley claims still tried to get him to say it. According to Moxley, this line relating to cancer was so bad it could’ve gotten someone fired or caused WWE to lose sponsorships. Below are some highlights of Jon Moxley speaking about the issue.

Jon Moxley on the day he knew he was going to leave WWE and almost walked out: “This is the day I knew I 100 percent knew I was gone and there was no turning back. I actually almost walked out, not really. I’m glad I didn’t because I could’ve ended up in some legal stuff, whatever. I mean I knew I was gone in July but I’m thinking, why rush it? It’s only eight more months or whatever from September to April, what’s eight months? And who knows, maybe everything will change. So, this day, Monday Night RAW takes place in Milwaukee. I wake up in the morning and I get a text from a writer, Icepick, my man, good guy, explaining to me what I’m gonna do that day and it says, ‘So you have a backstage where you’ll be with your own personal doctor who’ll be injecting you with rabies shots and all types of inoculations,’ however he explained it. To inoculate yourself against the disgusting fans and I replied, ‘I f***ing hate that,’ and he replied, ‘Yeah, I know’. So I get to the building, and I’m like, you can imagine the mood I’m in when I get to the building. Now the word just from my response is already circulating that I might not be very excited about this, so Michael Hayes coming up to me, ‘How ya doing Dean? Heard you might not very excited about your promo?’ And I’m like, ‘No, I’ve been talking about this for months. Why am I always doing this goofy crap?’ This has been me and Vince butting heads on this since February. So they hand me this sheet, and it gets as bad as you can imagine, right?”

Jon Moxley on his conversation with Vince McMahon about the rabies promo: “And then I remember I got hurdled into some sexual assault-harassment meeting that we all had to do or whatever so I’m just sitting in this meeting while they’re talking, and I’m just staring at this promo and just seething, and I’m like, ‘Soon as this meeting is over, I’m gonna bolt right to Vince’s office.’ So as soon as I get out of the door of the meeting, the writer is already in front of me and he’s like, ‘Hey, Vince wants to talk to you about this promo. He wants to make sure you know it’s not comedy.’ So Vince anticipated that I was gonna come storming in there and go, ‘Why am I always doing this prop comedy all the time?’ Because I’d been having the same argument with him for like a year now. So anyway, I go into Vince’s office and he’s like, ‘Hey pal! Anyway, so this promo. I want you to know this is not comedy.’ He’s got the promo in his hand, and he’s pointing at it and he’s like, ‘This is such good stuff. It’s so well written. It’s gonna get you a ton of heat.’ That’s exactly what he said, ‘It’s so well written, and it’s going to get you a ton of heat!’ And he’s explaining it to me — you’re gonna get rabies, and of course, distemper, which of course people don’t know it’s for dogs, and he’s laughing and I’m thinking, ‘How does this–?’ — and I just remember saying something like it’s just more of this Carrot Top prop comedy and he’s like, ‘There’s no props,’ and I’m like, ‘Then what is the actor we hired to play the doctor and the giant syringe? Is that not a prop?’ And I had the feeling in my head that this was gonna be the last time I was gonna say this to him, and I had to say this to him a bunch of times. I went, ‘If this is what you want, on your show, I am the best man for the job,’ because like I always do, when you throw me these crazy curveballs, I pull this stuff off, if I can. So I’m gonna do what I always do, and I’m gonna give this my absolute best effort to make this good. If anybody can, it’s me.” And I kinda had the feeling like this is the last time I’m gonna have to say this to him. And he’s like, ‘I know you will! Get out of here, you scamp. Get to work!,’ whatever.”

Jon Moxley on this being the moment he couldn’t recover from: “So we go do the thing. It’s awful. I can’t save it. We were able to pre-tape that before the show, and it got greenlit by Vince. Everybody’s high fiving, ‘Vince loved it!’ I’m like, ‘Great.’ So, I got a Southwest flight, and I was able to get out that night. I couldn’t have gotten out that building any faster. Earlier in the day, I had been thinking, ‘I gotta walk out.’ I remember having a feeling of like dizziness, like a weird pit in my stomach feeling dizziness and talking to some of my friends, ‘I gotta get — I can’t work here. What is this? What are we doing? It’s so embarrassing.’ Like actual dizziness. You know what I mean? Like I can’t even believe what’s happening. So I bolt out of there, I get out of the airport, and I just like — I just sat down at the bar of the airport. I was just like so depressed. That might be the thing because I was always kept waiting for — when would be the thing that I couldn’t recover from? Because you do have some stupid segment where everyone’s like, ‘What is that? Ketchup and mustard? What is he doing? Whatever,’ but then I’ll recover. I was always able to recover. I stood there thinking that just may be the one I can’t recover from.”

Jon Moxley on refusing to say a line in a promo about Roman Reigns when he was actually going through leukemia: “And remember what I was saying about the line in the previous promo the week or so before. This promo also had a line regarding my actual friend who’s going through actual leukemia that Vince wanted me to say that he tried to talk me into saying. This is where I absolutely drew the line. Like I was like, ‘Absolutely not.’ [Vince] actually tried to talk me into it a little bit, but I was like, ‘Absolutely not.’ He was like, ‘Oh, OK. If you feel uncomfortable, that’s fine,’ you know, I’m like, ‘No.’ That’s where I had to absolutely put my foot down.”

“It is the worst line. You cannot — I’m not going to say it on air. I’ll tell you after we’re done, but I’m not even gonna say it on air. That’s how bad it was. It would’ve been like a thing where like somebody would’ve had to get fired. Maybe me. They would’ve like lost sponsorships — like the Susan G. Komen and all that — and I don’t know who wrote it. I don’t know if it was Vince himself or if it was a writer, and if you’re listening right now, you should be ashamed of yourself. Like you wouldn’t believe it, you know? But if I had just said it, if I had just been like, ‘OK,’ and read the script, I can’t imagine, you know? But it would’ve been on me not on Vince. Anyway, so that’s that day. So, those are just two examples of a day in the life of me.”

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Talk is Jericho with an h/t to 411mania.com.