10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Jon Moxley
The Paradigm Shift.
All Elite Wrestling dropping the news that Jon Moxley and Kenny Omega would co-headline their huge ALL OUT show this August may have been leaked to ensure the rapidfire sell-out, but served too as yet another reminder of how far the former Dean Ambrose has come so soon after his WWE departure.
At the start of this year, he was licking the wounds left wide open by the disastrous Seth Rollins feud - when he wasn't so concerned with getting a disease that he required comedy injections. He was trying to time an arrogant swagger with the sounds of sirens ill-fitting to his popular entrance theme. He was readying himself for a house show match with Nia Jax. He was becoming a circus act.
Physically he was relatively well after rehabilitating extensively from his first ever major injury layoff, but emotionally he seemed to have checked out. He had. Rumours ran wild as early as January that he was off, and though the following months were clouded with misdirection and miscommunication, the only person with the answers never uttered a word on the matter beyond the hard truth - he was leaving.
The character of Dean Ambrose followed through one last time, and five minutes after he was completely free of WWE's clutches, Jon Moxley returned to wrestling. Not that they could, but the company haven't been able to keep a lid on him since...
10. He's EVERYWHERE Now
WWE remains as successful as it is in part due to its omnipresence. Vince McMahon has managed to make his company as recognisable as Disney in his industry whilst trousering the same sort of fortune that brand leader makes too.
The positives are obvious - most casual fans or uninterested parties conflate all wrestling with WWE, whilst those that follow the industry in general can't really avoid the goings-on in the company. Jon Moxley has cashed in on his hype to attain similar level of visibility within weeks.
Via extremely well-timed leaks of his new character through an otherwise-unused Twitter presence, his immensely satisfying run-in at the climax of All Elite Wrestling's Double Or Nothing and especially his burgeoning New Japan Pro Wrestling run, Moxley has gobbled up the column inches and headlines literally since he walked away from WWE.
The power of that mustn't be understated - this won't displace Vince McMahon's empire from the top of the wrestling tree, but the more fans go looking for Jon Moxley, the less they'll find Dean Ambrose, The Shield or anything WWE. His immediate separation from that particular trifecta has made his exit one of the most remarkable in recent memory.