Jon Moxley has been one of the most famous stars in the Independent promotion back in the 2010s. He showed a lot of promise which made WWE’s approach towards him in 2011. From the same year, he joined WWE and he was named Dean Ambrose by the promotion. He was one of the three members of the Shield which was one of the most famous WWE stables of all time.
Later, the Shield was disbanded and he started his solo run. It was not that WWE did not give him a main event push or anything like that. He won the WWE Championship once and also won the Intercontinental title three times along with the United States Championship once. There are other successes listed by his name in WWE too.
Why AEW Is A Better Stage For Jon Moxley
But something was missing. By his performances, everybody knew he was capable of a lot more and under WWE he is not getting enough space to spread his wings. So finally he decided to part ways with WWE. He joined AEW in the same year and he got his previous name back; Jon Moxley.
Since his first day in the All Elite Wrestling, he has been a huge star. It could easily be said that the previous year was his year. PWI ranked him #1 on the PWI 500 last year. Dave Meltzer also listed him as the Wrestler of the Year in Wrestling Observer Newsletter last year. He was the biggest wrestling star of last year.
Clearly, something changed drastically. John Moxley proved to the world what he is actually capable of. Earlier this month when he was asked by DAZN about the same, he clarified that AEW gives him a lot of creative freedom that WWE never gave him and would never give him. He said;
There are some things you can’t do on regular television, but that’s about it. As long as I’m not going out there swearing or whipping my d– out, I can pretty much do whatever I want creatively. I wouldn’t need to anyway. You’re getting the best version of Kenny Omega, the best version of Jon Moxley on a weekly basis on Dynamite.
I don’t think anybody’s doing it at a higher level than me and Kenny are right now. We’re both in our prime, both at our peak, both just really hitting on all cylinders. We’re in a position with AEW where we just get to go out there, be given the ball, and get a chance to score touchdowns on a weekly basis. Nobody’s doing it at a higher level than us two right now.
It is not the first time that WWE failed to recognize a real talent or they intentionally tried to bury someone. Being the best promotion ever also gave them a dictator-like attitude. The majority of wrestling fans still love to recognize talents through WWE. We hope one day WWE will start promoting wrestlers by their talents and not by choice like they did in the Attitude era or before.