How WWE Missed A HUGE Opportunity With Jon Moxley
Despite their obvious similarities as babyface headliners, it is interesting to observe how AEW are booking Jon Moxley with what appears to be the literal opposite motivation to how WWE handled 'The Champ' during his peak years.
John Cena was box office beyond anybody in his era - a ticket seller, a merchandising machine and and a man that maintained ratings even if he couldn't always grow them - but he was the strong jaw at the front of an enormous philosophical shift that exists to this day. With Cena saluting front and centre, WWE became about the brand more than "the boys". Tell people you love "WWE" rather than "The Rock". Buy a ticket to WrestleMania eight months before the first match is announced. Turn up at a house show because they're in your town, not because you want to see a star.
Cena was a generation's Hulk Hogan or Stone Cold Steve Austin, but their departures from the company a decade apart drilled the message into Vince McMahon that his company initials needed to be on the marquee rather than a performer's face.
As a nascent and upstart organisation that understands the need for this to be reversed, AEW has made a conscious effort to bring the stars back to the business. It is this that makes the most of a man like Moxley in a way WWE seemed almost stubbornly determined not to do.
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