10 Greatest Promos In Modern Wrestling History
3. Jon Moxley Holds It Down
Jon Moxley couldn't salvage the bleak vibe that swept through All Elite Wrestling following the events of Brawl Out. Nobody could.
But he could tell you that it wasn't going to last forever.
On the subsequent episode of Dynamite, after telling MJF to leave the ring, Mox didn't insult the intelligence of the audience, but he deftly transitioned into fiction in the same breath. "I am pissed off, I am embarrassed, I am off pissed off about a great many things - but none more so than the fact that I'm standing here without the AEW World championship."
He spoke of how the title represents the dream of what AEW was before it was AEW: an elusive idea that didn't have to be elusive if the passion could make it happen. It represents the freedom that wrestling can be great as people can dare it to be. In addition to seamlessly putting over everybody in the Tournament of Champions over, he put over the sheer graft required to be champion. Every day he worked on himself, even if nobody noticed. He was still the champion in that moment; he just didn't have the belt.
And while the mood couldn't be lifted, as disarming as ever, he lightened it: "I was supposed to be on vacation right now, until, like, two days ago."
"Winners all want the ball when the game is on the line," he concluded. "And I want the ball."
The guy was at his screenwriter best under the most pressure. Tony Khan gave him the ball. There was nobody else to give it to.
If it seems naive to buy into a billionaire-funded passion project, because it's both an oxymoron and ultimately a marketing fairytale, it's easy to fall under the spell when Mox casts it.