Jon Moxley

AEW scored another ratings win over WWE NXT on Wednesday night with its special Beach Break edition of Dynamite. 

According to Bryan Alvarez of F4WOnline, Dynamite averaged 844,000 viewers during its two-hour broadcast on TNT, while the two-hour episode of NXT on USA Network averaged 610,000 viewers.

The main event of Dynamite was a six-man tag pitting Jon Moxley, Pac and Fenix against AEW World champion Kenny Omega and The Good Brothers.

Omega, Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson won the match, but it was what happened afterward that truly had the wrestling world buzzing. After Lance Archer ran down to help Mox fight off Omega and The Good Brothers, New Japan Pro-Wrestling star KENTA showed up and choked out Moxley.

Moxley, who is the IWGP United States champion, recently appeared on NJPW programming and agreed to put the title on the line against KENTA. Wednesday marked the continuation of their rivalry.

Another major happening on Dynamite saw Chris Jericho and MJF win a tag team battle royal to earn an AEW World Tag Team Championship match against The Young Bucks at Revolution.

Also on Dynamite, Sting cut a promo with Darby Allin, Britt Baker beat Thunder Rose, Lance Archer defeated Eddie Kingston in a lumberjack match, Hangman Page and Matt Hardy beat Chaos Project and both Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor crashed the wedding of Kip Sabian and Penelope Ford.

NXT featured an appearance by 2021 men's Royal Rumble winner Edge, who interrupted a promo segment between NXT champion Finn Balor and Pete Dunne.

Edge told Balor and Dunne that he would be watching their title match at NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day and would consider facing the winner at WrestleMania 37.

The Rated-R Superstar also had a run-in with Karrion Kross, who vowed to win the NXT title and perhaps be the one to face Edge on The Grandest Stage of Them All.

The main event of NXT was a Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic quarterfinal match that saw Tommaso Ciampa and Timothy Thatcher beat Adam Cole and Roderick Strong of Undisputed Era in a hard-hitting, entertaining affair.

Additionally, Raquel Gonzalez and Dakota Kai beat Kacy Catanzaro and Kayden Carter to advance to the finals of the women's Dusty Cup, Legado del Fantasma defeated Lucha House Party in a men's Dusty Cup quarterfinal, Austin Theory beat Leon Ruff, and Cruiserweight champion Santos Escobar defeated Curt Stallion to retain the title before having a tense confrontation with Kross.

      

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).

There's nothing Jon Moxley hasn't accomplished in his storied wrestling career, but the former All Elite Wrestling world champion still has a lot of gas left in his tank. 

Moxley has been one of the key figures in the growth of AEW since his debut at Double or Nothing in May 2019. He became the second world champion in company history when he defeated Chris Jericho at Revolution last February. 

Prior to joining AEW, Moxley spent seven years in WWE as Dean Ambrose. He debuted on the main roster alongside Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns as The Shield. The group quickly rose to superstardom, both together and individually. He won seven championships in WWE, including the WWE world title in 2016. 

Moxley took a break from his life inside the wrestling ring to sit down for a B/R AMA to answer questions about everything from his all-time wrestling Mount Rushmore, dream opponents and much more. 

The following is the full transcript from the AMA session.

     

@acgcharger: What do you believe is the professional wrestling Mount Rushmore in your personal opinion? And who do you believe will be the man to carry the industry for the next 10 years?

The way I do it is I like to say who my personal Mount Rushmore is. These are my guys that helped me fall in love with the business. Mine would be Bret Hart, Dusty Rhodes, Minoru Suzuki and Cactus Jack.

     

@BBBRAND02: Sting or Undertaker who wins?

I guess it depends on the when and where and the how. Both in their prime, WWF was booked a lot better, so assuming Sting is the good guy in this scenario because he's pretty much a career good guy. If it was booked by WCW, they'd somehow screw it up and it would be horrible. I'd have to go with Sting because he's on my team. Always good to see him around. Never got to work with him but maybe we'll get to do something someday.

     

@rgarcia312: Do you still talk to Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns?

Very occasionally. Seth's about to have a kid, so that's cool. You just get in this world and you get really busy, especially in a pandemic world, everyone is in their own little bubbles. That's the good thing about wrestling: it's never goodbye, it's just see you along the way. When you go through certain things with people, you're always bonded.

    

@HippoDUDE43: Do you miss being part of The Shield?

Not so much miss it, because I'm onto new things and it's a new chapter. But I definitely look back on that all fondly, and it ended perfectly. That chapter ended on a nice little bow. 

     

@deitymakaveli: What do you think has been your biggest accomplishment inside a wrestling ring?

Probably just the accomplishment over the years of building a connection with fans all over the world, and getting them to invest in you is the hard part. Anyone can go out and be the hot new thing for a week or a month or whatever, but over the long-term you get people invested in you as a character and a person and that follow you from promotion to promotion and stick with you during the bad times and stuff. So many fans have come up to me over the years, like parents, and been like 'I wanna thank you for what you do because me and my son watch every Friday night and that's kind of our time to sit and spend time together.' So now you're almost coming into their homes and creating memories with these people. Forging connections that will stick with you forever—that's the best thing I've been able to do.

     

@Glitichy_K: Who's your dream opponent in the wrestling business today?

There's a bunch of people I've never been on the screen with in AEW, let alone been in matches with. There's a lot in the future over the next couple years so I don't want to show my hand too much here.

     

@tito_santana: Would CM Punk be a good fit for AEW?

If he wanted to be, that's still really up to him. This is a place where a lot of people who love to wrestle come to wrestle. This is a great place to be.

     

@KTM_SPORTS: Would you come back to WWE on the right terms?

You gotta say never say never, because you don't want to run back what you said years later because you don't know what'll happen. Just the creation of AEW was so vital to the wrestling industry, and that's part of the reason why I'm so proud to be a part of it. I wouldn't rule out ever doing business with them again, we had a mutually beneficial relationship for a long time. If they called I would listen, but I highly doubt we would ever be on the same page. I'd be open to an idea. I don't not like money. I got a kid on the way and gotta put it through college so ya know. I would take a phone call, but I highly doubt anything would materialize.

     

@StealthSymphony: What's it like working or formally being in all of the 3 major promotions in wrestling (WWE/AEW/NJPW)?

They've all been different and rewarding in different ways. WWE is where you dream to go as a kid, but in AEW it's a totally different thing, getting to be a part of something that is on its maiden voyage. It'd be cool to look back and say 'I was there at the beginning.' The top nucleus here has already made it, and we're working together to make something new. Before Dynamite started, this was all just an idea. Now it's arguably the hottest promotion in the world right now. It's not too long ago that this was just a theory, almost too good to be true. But now it all actually happened and we're making it succeed.

      

@CtheMan07: What is your dream 5v5 matchup. Any wrestlers from any era?

Just to get one team out of the way: Five members of The Hart Foundation that had that one match at Canadian Stampede. We'll just make them the first team. Other team is Terry Funk, Jeff Hardy so he can jump off the roof, Kazushi Sakuraba just to get weird, and prime Nick Bockwinkel to class that team up.

     

@BR_Wrestling: Why should you win the B/R PPV Moment of the Year award?

If I had to make a case for it I would say it was the last great moment in all of pro wrestling before the pandemic hit. Packed arena, walked back up through the crowd all sweaty and bloody with people touching me and it wasn't even a thing. Had my wife and my mom there, family and friends there. We all hung out and everything was normal, the world was regular. That Wednesday was the last time we were in front of people. A week after that the whole world went to craziness. That's why it's stuck in my mind, because that was the last shred of normalcy before everything got a little bit more challenging.

     

@JudyBagwell: Have you wrestled buzzed or drunk?

Oh 100%. I wouldn't do it now, but back in the younger days, especially in CCW, it was as much a monthly party as it was a show. Especially when you're doing death matches and crazy stuff...certain things you put in your body can put you in the right mindset. I wouldn't recommend it, but it's a good combination sometimes. Sometimes you just need a shot of whiskey to calm your nerves.

      

@ma011: Favorite sport other than AEW?

Fighting is really the only sport I really follow. I like going to hockey games, I used to go to Flyers games when I was in Philly, and those were insane. I really only follow MMA closely though.

     

@22222: If you could challenge any hall of famer, who would it be?

Bret Hart for sure. 

     

@JoshPellegrini: What is your favorite finisher/signature move that isn't your own?

That's a good question. Off the top of my head, probably the RKO...it can be quick, it can be dramatic. It's very malleable.

      

@cheyanneurrutia: Would you ever want to face Darby for the TNT title?

I love competing against Darby because he's such a unique and innovative guy, not trying to be anyone other than himself. There's really no limits to his brain. He has a very artistic mindset that I can appreciate. He's not seeking approval or seeking validation from anyone. He's an artist that's painting the paintings he wants to paint and he's unapologetic about it.

     

@fordman14: Who in your opinion is the most underrated talent in AEW today?

It's hard to say because so many people here get to show what they can do without any limitations. I'd say Lance Archer is a guy who can do anything, I love getting in a ring with him. He can walk into any main event and compete tomorrow. Dusty Rhodes is still going, the fastest man in wrestling still. He can jump in and surprise you on any given night.

     

Rapid Fire Questions:

Favorite movie ever?

Point Break

     

Favorite food ever?

Green Nature Valley granola bars

     

Weirdest interaction with a fan?

When people come up to you and say they got a tattoo of your name or face on your body. Those aren't weird in a negative way, just weird in a 'What kind of life am I living?'

     

Favorite sneakers?

I wore Payless shoes for the majority of my life. I got a size 14 wide, and those are hard to find. And they're like $20. There's a Nike outlet that's by my house that has size 14 that I'll check out sometimes.

*

Moxley has been wrestling professionally since he was 18 years old when he debuted in Les Thatcher's Heartland Wrestling Association. He honed his craft on the independent circuit with Ring of Honor, Dragon Gate USA and Combat Zone Wrestling. 

For the past decade, Moxley has established himself as one of the biggest stars in the sport. In addition to his time in WWE and AEW, he is a two-time IWGP United States Championship in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. 

Moxley still holds the IWGP U.S. title after defeating Lance Archer at Wrestle Kingdom 14 in January 2020. He's been unable to travel to Japan to defend it because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the fact NJPW hasn't stripped him of the title yet would seem to indicate there are plans for him to return at some point. 

In the meantime, Moxley will continue to make his presence felt every Wednesday on AEW Dynamite. 

AEW Dynamite narrowly defeated WWE NXT in viewership this week as part of the Wednesday night wrestling war.

According to F4WOnline's Bryan Alvarez, the two-hour episode of Dynamite on TNT averaged 662,000 viewers, while NXT's two-hour show on USA Network garnered 641,000 viewers.

Wednesday marked the first night of AEW's two-week New Year's Smash and featured a pair of title matches, with Kenny Omega defending the AEW World Championship against Rey Fenix and Hikaru Shida defending the AEW Women's Championship against Abadon.

Omega beat Fenix in the main event to retain, but Jon Moxley ran out and hit Omega with a barbed wire bat when Omega attempted to attack Fenix. Impact Tag Team champions Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson then made a surprise appearance to make the save for Omega.

The Young Bucks then showed up in an apparent attempt to keep the peace, but they did the "too sweet" hand signal with Omega and The Good Brothers instead, which seemingly signaled the reprisal of an alliance between the five men that began with Bullet Club in Japan.

Shida was victorious in the other title match, as she beat Abadon with a running knee to continue her dominant title reign.

Another one of the most memorable moments of the night saw rap legend Snoop Dogg accompany Cody Rhodes to the ring for his match against Matt Sydal. After Cody's victory, Snoop hit Serpentico with a hilarious dive off the top rope.

BIG SPLASH FROM @SNOOPDOGG!
WATCH #AEWDynamite NOW on @TNTDrama. pic.twitter.com/6W4CbVwBB0

— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) January 7, 2021

NXT branded its show as New Year's Evil, and it featured a stacked card, including a main event that pitted NXT champion Finn Balor against Kyle O'Reilly. While O'Reilly pushed Balor to the limit, Balor won and retained the strap.

NXT also featured Raquel Gonzalez beating Rhea Ripley in a hard-hitting Last Woman Standing match, Karrion Kross defeating Damian Priest, Santos Escobar retaining the Cruiserweight Championship over Gran Metalik, Xia Li winning her return match and the team of Kushida and Shotzi Blackheart beating Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae.

Additionally, it was announced during the show that the next NXT TakeOver event will take place on Feb. 14.

     

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).