How WWE Missed A HUGE Opportunity With Jon Moxley
Big Match Jon.
On the Wednesday 28th October edition of AEW Dynamite, Jon Moxley cut an incredible promo to offer further reason and rationale for his Full Gear Heavyweight Championship defence against former friend Eddie Kingston.
In it, he boxed every prior and hard-fought title defence off as a business decision. One made simultaneously for the industry of Jon Moxley and the health and wellbeing of All Elite Wrestling. This point itself was belaboured so that he could then deliver the old "this time, it's personal" mantra as a not-that-veiled threat to the 'Mad King'. It's not the first time Moxley has played with cinematic cliches, but nor is it the first time he's made them feel so incredibly earned. Through the marriage with great visuals (here, he was working himself to the bone physically. Previously it had been in a bar spinning coins and slamming shots, or in literal isolation from the world as his wife recovered from a bout of the you-know-what), he delivered the line with such deep-rooted self-belief that you forget anybody ever said it before he made it his own.
Who else does that sound like?
Who else batted back challenger after challenger, taking everything in his stride whilst waving the flag for the initials that adorned his belt? Who else could then switch to being fiercely true to himself regardless of whatever that self was? And whose words mattered the most on the weekly wrestling show as a result?
There is enough evidence at this point to support the most inconvenient of truths for WWE - after years of trying to make a certain member of The Shield the next John Cena, it turns out that they let the actual one slip through their fingers...
CONT'D...