AEW star Jon Moxley recently was interviewed on the Bleav in Pro Wrestling podcast. Scroll down to watch the full interview. Moxley talked about the damage traveling takes on his body over the year:
“Nothing to me is worse or does more damage than traveling. For years, it was like traveling was my job. The wrestling part was kind of the reward at the end of the day. Your life becomes traveling at certain points in this game. It’s really amazing how that adds up on your body and your joints and stuff. The doctor last year told me that I have the arthritis of a 70 year old man and that was quite humbling. That was a year or two ago so by now it’s like a 72 year old man.”
Moxley on being a guy that Tony Khan can rely on:
“We take a lot of pride in our work and our work ethic and our standard that we set ourselves to and the way we do a job. To be one of those guys, that’s like, reliable, kind of always there. The downside is it’s very easy to take you for granted. The last conversation I had with Vince McMahon, like real conversation, straight up told me, ‘We took you for granted.'”
Moxley on who he feels is the greatest wrestler of all time:
“Off the top of my head right now, I have three GOATS, greatest of all time. I gotta hate using the word GOAT. I feel like everybody uses it. They’re all equal stature because they’re all three of the greatest of all time in completely different ways for completely different reasons. Obviously Terry Funk. I don’t see how you can call him anything but the greatest to ever do it. He’s so inherently Terry Funk and so versatile. Terry Funk was not playing wrestler. Terry Funk was 100% real about everything he was doing and all the choices that he made in the ring and everything he did and there will just never be another one quite like him. Terry Funk is just the man.”
“The other two I work with currently, one being Chris Jericho who in his own way I think is the greatest of all time because he just has this ability to be there and in the mix and important and a big star at these pivotal times and he can hang and deliver in any situation. He’s almost like a time travel of wrestling. He was in the 90s Junior Heavyweight scene Super J Cup and all that in New Japan. He was in WCW when it was cool. He was in ECW in the mid 90s in like ’96 when it was at its coolest. He was in WWF when it was like, as most stacked as it’s ever been like, 2000 or so. Then through the whole, you know, Vince era of WWE, he was around and a player. Now today in AEW. He was in New Japan when New Japan business all of a sudden kicks off really big. Now he’s here in AEW and you see him mixing it up with guys of all shapes and sizes and styles. So he’s got this like time traveling ability. Other guys of his generation, you know, they had big rounds that were like, two or three years? Jericho is going on, like, 20-something? When the story of Jericho is gonna be written at the end, it’s just gonna be ridiculous. So in his own way, I consider him a greatest of all time.”
“Bryan, I consider maybe just the greatest pro wrestler that ever lived, which is a very humbling thing to be able to say that. I get to be tag partners occasionally and work with him. To have somebody like that on your side to bounce ideas off of or to play that real role and tell you this sucks or whatever or change that, that’s an immense tool that I don’t take for granted that I have in my toolbox that I get to pick his brain. Bryan is like the greatest pure pro wrestler of all time. If you just picked him up and stuck him in any ring in the world, whether it be a parking lot of auto parts store in Tijuana, or the Tokyo Dome, or the main event of WrestleMania or AEW Dynamite, you put him in any ring against any opponent with no context whatsoever and just ring the bell, anybody watching he will suck into that match and they will feel like they’re watching a real struggle and just be completely sucked into this match for the duration of it against anybody, anywhere, anytime. He’s just like the most perfect PR pro wrestler that I think has ever lived and I’ve taken a great deal of influence and inspiration from him as I’m sure many wrestlers. I find it hard to imagine a world where a healthy Bryan Danielson stops wrestling at all, but I do think he will definitely be, I think he’s 100% serious when you know he wants to wind it down and not be wrestling as frequently and be on the road and deal with his kids and so forth every week. I 100% buy that as true. I find it hard to imagine like, inactively being like, healthy and deciding he’s for sure never going to wrestle again. I find that hard to imagine. I’m not saying it couldn’t happen, but we’ve seen people be here one day and their careers are over the next. I could go there and get choked slammed by Big Bill through the friggin ring and not get up and you can never see me wrestling again.”
“So every time you get to see these greats wrestle, you know Terry Funk was here a couple of weeks ago and now he’s not, so anytime you get to see these great wrestler, you should really really stop and pause and think of how fortunate you are to be seeing this because once Michael Jordan retires, you can’t turn on the TV and watch Michael Jordan play basketball anymore. When you get a chance to see Bryan Danielson wrestle on Dynamite, you know, stop and pause and really enjoy it while it’s here because you’re watching something really special.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Bleav in Pro Wrestling with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
