Tony Khan has heaped praise on Jon Moxley following a landmark year for the former AEW World Champion. Following his Continental Classic victory at Worlds End, fans have begun rallying behind Moxley for the first time in years. This marks a shift for Moxley, who had spent much of the prior year as a hated villain before slowly establishing sympathy following his title loss to ‘Hangman’ Adam Page at All In in July.
Speaking with Case Lowe of Q101 for a new interview, Khan reflected on Moxley’s 2025 campaign, calling it his personal favorite year of Moxley’s career thus far. Khan emphasized Moxley’s importance to the company’s foundation and highlighted a staggering statistic regarding his attendance.
“I absolutely agree with that,” Khan said. “Jon Moxley is one of my all-time favorite wrestlers and one of my all-time favorite people. Jon Moxley is so important to the foundation of the company. From the very first show, he’s been here, and he has delivered this year. I agree with you, this has been my personal favorite year also. I know he’s really enjoyed this year, and that makes me very happy. He’s also somebody who takes wrestling very seriously and works very hard. The only person who has been at every AEW event this year besides myself is Jon Moxley.”
Khan continued to highlight Moxley’s leadership, noting that he is proud to have built the company over the last seven years with Moxley as a cornerstone. However, Khan noted that the journey wasn’t always smooth regarding fan reception. He pointed out that some in the “hardcore wrestling community” failed to grasp Moxley’s character arc early in the year.
“At the beginning of 2025, and it’s all opinions, but I felt like from some of our tape trading brethren, some of the hardcore wrestling fans, I didn’t feel like enough people in the hardcore wrestling community understood what Jon Moxley was doing at the start of 2025 and nobody could’ve known how banged up he was,” Khan explained.
Khan elaborated that fans misunderstood the “mission of the Death Riders” and the physical toll Moxley was enduring. Surprisingly, Khan revealed that Moxley actually got healthier as the year progressed and he continued to wrestle.
“The chase of Jon Moxley, I felt, made everybody better,” Khan said. “I think that now in hindsight, so many fans can see that and look back at how captivating it was to have two fan favorites like Hangman Page and Will Ospreay fighting for the love of the sport but also the opportunity to fight Mox and fighting with that honor and the promise that I’ll have your back after this is over if you have my back after this is over. Then, to see them all come together, it was a really incredible moment.”
The arc culminated at Worlds End, where Moxley, once a heel who suffocated Bryan Danielson with a plastic bag a year prior, found himself cheered by the entire arena.
“To have Jon fight from behind and have the entire arena — and it’s the same arena just over a year ago, where Mox suffocated Bryan Danielson with a plastic bag and betrayed his best friend,” Khan said. “After everything Mox did and seeing how unpopular as a villain he was, to have an entire arena coming and cheering for him, it was amazing.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Q101 with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
