Jon Moxley is leading a revolution within AEW. His Demise Riders faction is laying waste to all that stands earlier than them. Orange Cassidy, Daniel Garcia and Darby Allin are main the small regime making an attempt to cease his assault from inside.
Since getting back from his hiatus, throughout which he was rehabbing a hip damage and likewise made a quick cease in Japan, Moxley has been on a mission. He has persistently spoken of his need to rid AEW of its malaise and eradicate those that wish to preserve it the identical.
Throughout a recent interview with Joseph Staszewski of the New York Post, Moxley shared his ideas on the present revolution taking place inside AEW. He labeled his return as a “onerous reset and full restart” for the corporate.
Nevertheless, Moxley’s imaginative and prescient goes far past the Demise Riders and their present storyline. For him, that is about returning AEW to its former heights and surpassing them.
“Every part that has occurred up till this level doesn’t matter,” Moxley mentioned. “That is Day 0. We start from right here, and it may not look a lot totally different proper now, however it should, and issues are achieved by small incremental steps, doing little issues persistently. And that’s how huge modifications are remodeled intervals of time.”
Moxley is considered one of wrestling largest stars. He’s among the many biggest draws on the AEW roster and helped present early legitimacy to the younger firm when he selected to depart WWE whereas being a prime expertise throughout the promotion. Now, he is aiming to be a cornerstone of AEW’s new section, the place they embrace setting their very own guidelines and redefining what wrestling may be.
“It may be regardless of the f— we would like it to be; there’s no guidelines,” Moxley mentioned. “Any guidelines we’ve … ‘Oh, we acquired to have, you understand, interviews on the set that appear to be this so we acquired to have this in time, we acquired to place this up.’ Any of the foundations we’ve are simply issues we placed on ourselves. It’s professional wrestling, man, and it’s at all times evolving. And even you gotta keep evolving with it, otherwise you get left behind.”
AEW wanted this. Its numbers have been in sharp decline for the previous 12 to 18 months. Even a gentle inflow of latest expertise, together with Will Ospreay, Mercedes Mone and Adam Copeland, has didn’t halt the slide. These struggles additionally translated to ticket gross sales. Earlier this 12 months, it turned commonplace to see an virtually empty enviornment throughout episodes of Dynamite or Collision.
Moxley is bringing a brand new vitality and a brand new really feel. His present storyline showcases homegrown AEW expertise, and he is dragging them upward by placing them in one of many hottest storylines in skilled wrestling.
Solely time will inform if Moxley can obtain his aim. However proper now, AEW programming feels totally different. It has an edge to it. There are twists and turns, and there are causes to tune in each week. There’s nonetheless lots of work to be finished, however Moxley is clearly placing the foundations in place.
