AEW’s Jon Moxley Rips WWE Creative in New Book: ‘I Was in a Living Hell’

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It’s no secret Jon Moxley was miserable in the latter part of his tenure in WWE.

His autobiography, Mox, is making it abundantly clear just how miserable. Moxley writes that he was “in a living hell” with WWE and categorized himself as depressed and angry, according to an excerpt from the book: 

“I had nothing even close to heat. I was once one of the most popular performers in all of WWE, and now I was lost in the ring in front of confused or apathetic audiences. I was Fn dead in the water, irreconcilable, a dog to be taken out back and shot … and I knew it. I was fully aware of it through every slow and excruciating second, yet my objections went ignored or refuted, like that movie where the guy is still awake but paralyzed during open-heart surgery. If you sat through any of my segments on TV during this timeframe, you know what I’m talking about … unless you blocked it from your memory. If you thought you were confused, imagine what it was like being me? S–t, at least you had a remote control. I couldn’t just turn the channel on my own life. I was in a living hell. Gee, it’s fun reminiscing.

“I wasn’t just depressed, I was angry. It’s not like I don’t like money. I don’t WANT things to be this way. Why do they have to make it impossible? Why does everything have to be so Fn stupid? They’re really gonna make me walk away from all this money, aren’t they? They can’t just write one good angle, let me cut one good Fn promo? F–k! I can’t believe it’s come to this. There was a time I thought I’d be a lifer with WWE, but this whole place has gone Fn MAD, and I feel like I’m the only one who can see it … buncha MFers just playing violins while the ship sinks and Vince continues to lose his mind. ‘F–k ’em, I’m just gonna go to Japan or something,’ I tell Renee, while sipping on my third stiff drink. ‘I’m telling you, April thirtieth, I’m Fn done.’ I had been talking about leaving for months and my mind was long made up, but when I was in a bad mood or three drinks in, I would feel the need to reaffirm it for some reason, as if I suspected she didn’t believe me.”

Moxley spent eight years in WWE before leaving in 2019. He signed with AEW later that year and became the promotion’s second champion, defeating Chris Jericho at the 2020 Revolution pay-per-view.

AEW has also allowed Moxley to wrestle for several other promotions, including New Japan and GCW. He is currently GCW’s world champion.

It’s clear that Moxley basks in the freedom afforded to him by AEW, both in his on-screen persona with the company and in terms of being allowed to work in other companies that interest him. 

WWE barely acknowledges the outside wrestling world, preferring its own style of scripted promos and a universe unto itself. Some wrestlers thrive in that environment. Moxley, it seems, hated pretty much every second of being told what to say and when to say it. 

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