Jon Moxley on Signing New Deal with AEW, Planned Vacation Being Cut Short, & Indies Status

As noted before, Jon Moxley recently signed a five-year contract extension with AEW.

Sports Illustrated held a recent interview with Moxley. One of the topics discussed included Moxley’s reasons why he decided to sign a new deal with AEW to remain in the company for the foreseeable future.

“I don’t plan on going anywhere else. It’s the best job in the world, and I’m very lucky to have it. In AEW, all I worry about is wrestling. That’s my focus, and that’s a joy. I love storytelling, I love promos, I love wrestling. I love coming up with ideas for other people, I love learning. For me, it’s a perfect fit.”

Moxley also stated that he did not feel the same way a year ago but credits his stint in rehab for making his life better and changing his view on wanting to stay in AEW.

“A year ago, I wasn’t in the same head space. I was all f—ed up. I hated traveling. I was living in Vegas, felt like I was always in an airport, flying coast to coast, and I was sick of leaving my family. I thought about freelancing when my deal was up. Not that I would leave AEW, but I didn’t want to be there every week. I was in a bad place.

Then I went to rehab and all that, and now I’m in a totally different headspace. We’re living in Cincinnati, too, which is great. I look forward to going to TV every week. I get to see my friends in the Blackpool Combat Club. I’m not f—ed up. I have a clean headspace. My life is completely different than it was a year ago, and all for the better.”

Moxley also gave his thoughts on the vacation that he was originally scheduled to take following AEW’s All Out 2022 event this past September that ended up getting cut short due to CM Punk’s backstage fight incident.

“Going into All Out, I was thinking, ‘After I get through this match, that’s it for a while.’ I wrestled the match, and we kicked each other’s ass. I was happy, Chicago was happy, everybody was happy. I went outside to smoke a cigarette with Eddie [Kingston] in celebration. That vacation lasted about 30 minutes. By the time I went to bed that night, I was pretty sure we were going to pretend that vacation was never going to happen. But it’s all good; you just roll with the punches.”

Moxley also gave his thoughts about still being interested in working in the indies alongside his AEW career.

“If there’s something I want to be part of, I’ll find a way to make it happen. That’s tougher now—I have my family, AEW and New Japan. But I love supporting independent wrestling. So you never know when or where I might show up.”