In an interview with Andrew Grevas for 25YL, Jon Moxley talked about how he feels the indie scene has changed since he left for WWE many years ago. He stated that there wasn’t money in the indie when he wrestled, which forced him to trade his well-being for a paycheck. “Oh if you want light tubes, that’s an extra $200. If you want a bunch of blood, that’s an extra $100. If you want me to take a bump on barbed wire, that’s $500.”
As he sees it, the landscape has completely changed. “Indy wrestling used to seem so bottom of the barrel. You would so rarely see a huge show but now I feel like you see a huge indy show every week.” Even with WWE buying indie stars left and right for NXT, Moxley sees the industry as growing. “It’s amazing that even though they bought up the indys that it has repopulated itself stronger than ever. Makes you very optimistic about the future of pro wrestling.”
That optimism carries over to his appearance at Double or Nothing, which had an extra little bit just for the live audience.
When I was standing on that poker chip at the end of Double Or Nothing, I didn’t know when we were going off the air. I stayed up there but for some reason, I just wanted to take a fucking victory lap. Security did not appreciate it but I took a giant victory lap around the arena, off the air and I felt like I was with 12,000 teammates. We are all AEW. We have that common bond.
