My Mom's Basement - QUARANTINE MINI-POD: JON MOXLEY

Episode Date: May 22, 2020

Robbie and Carrabis are joined in the Basement by AEW World Champion Jon Moxley today, and the trio discusses Moxley's title win (and the angle that built up to it), his personal favorite moments from his career, the level of thought he puts into his character's finest details, and more!!!You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey My Mom's Basement listeners, you can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. I see this name come up all the time on my Twitter feed. People are always asking for me to get him on the pod. And thankfully, the wonderful talent relations team at Barstool Sports were able to get him for us. He is the AEW World champion, Jon Moxley. And before we get into this interview, let me just remind you about one of our favorite sponsors, Fleischman Salon. I have been getting my hair cut at Fleischman Salon for years now, literally, and it's been a game changer for my hair. I know I wear a hat all the time, whether it's the beanie at home or backwards hat. That's just because I get a lot of hair. It's thick. Listen, and I don't have like Erica and Mackenzie and all the ladies at Fleischman to help me

out with it. So I really need all the product. Listen, I'm going to tell you about the product. All right. Fleischman Salon just launched their new damn good hair product line with everything you need to keep your hair healthy, clean, and styled. They got the shampoo, conditioner, the sea salt spray, the paste, hair cream, and even a gummy vitamin. I got the early

release a few months ago I've been using them all they're all awesome they smell great like I've said and since nobody can get haircuts right now you need these products now more than ever like I said to keep your hair clean healthy and styled so you look good on all your zoom meetings and your facetime calls whatever you need all four of Fleischman Salons are still closed due to Corona and Erica's 25 person team is not able to work. So she is using the net proceeds from these sales to pay her staff while they are out of work. Check out their online store at FleischmanSalon.com where Erica has videos up on how to use each product. She'll teach you guys how to do it properly. I'll spell that out for you like I do every week. This is always a challenge for Bob here. F-L-E-I-S-C-H-M-A-N-S-A-L-O-N.com. Wow, that was a smooth read there. Fleischmannsalon.com. Like I said, Erica's got videos up. You watch those, you'll be looking like Brad Pitt in no

time. All right, you can subscribe and save 10% using whatever frequency you want, two month, three month, et cetera. You don't have to worry about running out of product. So use the promo code MOM. You'll get 20% off there at FleischmanSalon.com. Now let's get into this interview with AEW world champion Jon Moxley. All right. Welcome back to My Mom's Basement. This is a special From the Top Rope edition of My Mom's Basement.

I'm here alongside Jared Karabas, as always, and we have a very special guest that has been one of the most requested in the history of this show, I would say, easily. The AEW World Champion himself, Jon Moxley. Jon, how you doing? I don't care, complain, man. What's up? Not much. We are just one day out from AEW Double or Nothing, and you have an AEW World Championship match. you got to be excited for it even though it's under weird circumstances you are one of the few places that people can find entertainment right so it's kind of a cool escape for a lot of people what are your thoughts going into this match uh yeah that's kind of the situation we're in you know this would have

been in front of you know 20,000 people going bananas at MGM Grand in Vegas and instead it's going to be under some weird safety restricted protocols obviously and that that makes it different obviously not ideal for anybody but for you know for wrestling it's like at during these you know people are going through so much stuff right now and the world is in, you know, a crisis. So, at best, we can be, you know, a distraction or entertainment or, you know, but also sometimes, you know, wrestling can be inspiration and can keep something for people to look forward to. You know, Saturday night you can order this pay-per-view, invite all your friends over.

I'll sit six feet apart, get as many people over as you can get in the, you know saturday night you can order this pay-per-view invite all your friends over i'll sit six feet apart get as many people over as you can uh get in the you know even if your friend has to like sit outside and watch through the window you know somebody can draw straws and somebody's got to watch the window you know whatever it is so you know we can tell stories and inspire people and at very at the very least you know give them a distraction so it's uh it's cool to have the kind of uh responsibility to be able to do that for people yeah and uh for you winning the AEW title that was probably one of the last like mass gatherings of fans anywhere and you got to win the title and you got to celebrate in front of an AEW crowd have you thought at all about what that moment would have been like for you if you had to do it in front of an empty arena?

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, you know, a lot of the plans changed and things got all screwed up. I'm trying to move. Nothing under different circumstances. But, you know, so like what if that had got screwed up, you know, it was me and Jericho. I thought about that.

Cause like me and Jericho had a perfect eight week program that was like perfectly designed and executed over, over two months and peaked at exactly the right time. And then, then there was a whole was a whole new set of plans. So I got to thinking, I was like, man, if that had happened like 10 days earlier, that whole moment might've never happened. It seems like a lifetime ago.

I was like in a sea of fans, everybody's sweating on each other, high-fiving, beating on people, nobody gave a shit. So I won the title on a Saturday. That Wednesday was the last time I was in front of people. So like, in the very, because that was in Denver. So Saturday and then Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, we're in Denver on Wednesday, Broomfield, and packed house, place going nuts.

I get thrown off the stage. That night, me and Tony Khan and a couple other people were in a hotel up until 4 in the morning talking about what we're going to do for the next eight weeks and all these cool ideas and cool plans and I'm getting all excited and like, yeah, you know. Very next Wednesday was it. That was like when everything started going weird. I remember it too.

It was like the first episode of Fear the Walking Dead when things start getting weird, but you don't really know why yet. Because we're in Salt Lake City, which is a 30-minute flight for me from where I live in Vegas. So I was like, finally, on the West Coast, I don't have to travel all the way to the other side of the country. This is finally going to be an easy travel situation for me.

I had a sit-down interview with Jim Ross that we're going to do on Tuesday night. So I was like, all right, easy 30-minute flight. You know, be back, no problem. Then my flight got delayed. And then it got delayed again and delayed again. And then I searched alternate flights and then other airlines. And then it got to the point where I was like man i'm not gonna make it in time to this interview i just gotta drive so i just hopped in a car and drove seven hours of salt lake city speeding the

whole way pretty drive actually and then i was started hearing all this stuff on the radio about all this stuff that was happening with uh you know all the closures and the virus and all that and i was like that was when i first started realizing like, oh, something's like about to happen. And I think there were like, maybe Jericho was in the ring that night in Salt Lake. And at that point we're still doing Blood and Guts at Newark. And that was going to kind of tie in, not just those 10 guys, but a bunch of other stuff too.

It was, you know, but I think by the time, I think he was talking about it in the ring. And by the time he got back to the backstage, the show was canceled. So it was like that day was like when it hit, you know, and it hadn't been the same since. But, you know, it's not an ideal situation to become world champion, and then the entire bottom drops out of the business 10 days later. You know, that's like, that's not an ideal situation. But like, what could I do about it? of the business 10 days later you know that's like that's not ideal situation but like what could i do about it you know i just gotta uh you know be an example of you know uh being adaptable

and uh you know not uh you know having any uh fear about what i had to face in the ring and just uh you know a lot of people are going to have a lot of holes to dig themselves out of and are going to be faced with unideal circumstances be uh be they financial otherwise you know people lost their businesses they're going to have to with unideal circumstances, be they financial or otherwise. People lost their businesses. They're going to have to learn how to adapt their businesses to a changing world. They're going to have to think creatively and how to get out of whatever bad position they're in when things aren't ideal. So that's kind of the example I have to set.

So I'm not going to complain about anything. Yeah, absolutely. And I heard you talk about that AEW championship win as one of the most gratifying moments of your career. You said it was probably the most gratifying title win you'd ever have because it really felt like a perfect program. Like you said, eight weeks, it seemed like everything was executed just like you guys wanted it to be. What would be the other moments in your career that you rank with that one, though? You know, what's funny is like in WWE, at least the way the schedule was when i was there you know your uh first two years on the road the shield me in a shield we did friday saturday

sunday monday tuesday every week for two years straight sometimes twice a night yeah like you're on the road yeah a lot of times i was single back then a lot of times i wouldn't even go home because i'm like why even bother going home for 12 hours just it's not even worth it i was going to the next town you know i would spend weeks on the road you know but loved it because i was living the dream you know but uh say you work friday sunday do tv on monday all year the the three days a week are house shows that are uncelebized that we pretend don't exist on television so 75 percent of your career nobody sees that's kind of how i feel about a lot of moments i have like some of my best moments and most memorable moments like in wwe you know wrestling like aj styles in front of sold out uh in Manchester and all these different

Spain and Madrid like these great electric and I always enjoy the house shows more because there's not as many producers and people up your ass and there's no time limits and you can just kind of go out there and work and uh those are always my favorite so it's like all these all my favorite moments you know wrestling like Triple H in Brussels in front of a packed house, and we just went out there for like 25 minutes and worked. And all these great memories in a row. And great moments with the Shield and, you know, having crazy six-mans, you know, like that were electric.

But like 75% of them are like they weren't televised. The stuff that was televised, it's like I can pick my favorite stuff out of that, you know, like wrestling Triple H, first time we wrestled in singles. We had a bunch on a Europe tour after that, but the first time we ever wrestled in singles was in Toronto like a couple weeks before WrestleMania, and we had like a

world title match kind of thing. I can't remember exactly what the angle was, but I was going to try to sabotage WrestleMania in the last two weeks. It was like a really unique old school kind of old school wrestling match. Like because it was a wasn't a regular pay-per-view. It was like one of the like a network special. So it's basically just like a beefed up house show on a Saturday night.

They just brought in cameras, brought in some lights, maybe one extra producer. And, you know, that was it. So, you know, one light over the ring. It had a real, like, old NWA mid-south feel to it. And, you know, I'd always heard so much about, you know, how he's the great ring general and all this and that. And, you know, I worked with him in, like, six mans and stuff before, but never just gotten in a ring with him and didn't say a word

and just see what happens yet. And the way I was taught, if you got caught going over a spot in the ring before the show, like by like Wes Thatcher, it was like looked at as a weakness, which is the exact opposite of how the business is now. But like, that's the way I was brought up. Like you got called in a ring, just work, build it from the ground up. And you know, it takes a different level of patience, this different style of match. So like, I think I'm pretty good ground up. And, you know, it takes a different level of patience. It's a different style of match. So, like, I think I'm pretty good at that. And this guy's supposed to be, like, the Harley Racer. And Ric Flair is to say that this guy is, like, the new top ring general.

So, I'm like, okay, dude, let's see what you got. Let's go to the ring. So, I remember I showed up really late. And there's, like, this weird gamesmanship that goes on with, like, old school worker type stuff. It's kind of like playing chicken or having a stare off. Like nobody wants to be the first guy to blink. Nobody wants to be the first guy to look like.

So what are we going to do? What are our spots? What do you want to do? I don't know. What do you want to do? Let's just call it out there. Whatever. Nobody wants to be the first guy to blink, you know, like and be like, I'm the inferior worker of the two of us. There was something going on there, you know, like, and be like, I'm the inferior worker with the two of us. But there was something going on there, you know, and so I got up there really late and

I just hung out in the locker room. And then it was finally like 530, 6 something. And Michael Hayes comes looking for me. Hunter's locker room won't stop or whatever. I'm like, okay. So I go down there. And then he's like, what do you want to do? I'm like, whatever you want to do.

He's like, oh, okay. And it was just about that deep friendship. And basically we came up with like a finish, done like a table spot I had done before and was like, oh, we came up with a finish and like a cool false finish. And the rest of it just basically called in the ring. And that was a really, like for me,

that was like one of my, I'd rather have that than a WrestleMania in a forever stadium. I'd rather have that like unique WrestleMania in front of a stadium. I'd rather have that unique, old-school setting where I'm in control, and it's just working, and it's fun. That was so unique. One of the last really old-school matches you'll see in WWE, probably,

I'll take that over any 70,000-seat stadium like whatever created moment that we overproduced or whatever like that was just a pure wrestling moment like to me that's the pinnacle that's what I grew up wanting to do I wanted to be a pro wrestler I didn't want to be like some fancy thing so like that that's a great moment for me that that was televised you know uh other than uh the Chris Jericho thing. But yeah, it's been lucky to have a lot of opportunity to have a lot of great, a lot of great moments throughout the years, you know. That exact match you're talking about was, I know the one you're talking about because the Dirty Deeds false finish in

that got the entire arena to believe that you just, you know, completely ruined WrestleMania. That was, man, an unbelievable false finish. Yeah, it's like you start slow. And I remember at the beginning, the crowd has never seen a match like this. They're not used to it. They're getting a little impatient. They're chanting things, chanting whatever.

But then if you just have patience, then you slowly reel it in and reel it in. And then by the end, the place is going bananas and like that's a gratifying feeling when people are like come on do something you're like hold on it's coming just relax because you put yourself in the mindset of a competitor not a performer see what i'm saying yeah right right and then uh like you mentioned like you've always wanted to be a professional wrestler which means you grew up being a wrestling fan. How cool is it for you now to have your matches called by Jim Ross? that a bunch of announcers that are great that I love, but he makes it feel like important, brings like a level of credibility to it.

And he's the voice of our childhood. And I never got to really have matches announced by him. So I got to AEW. I've won the final match, the final broadcast of FCW was a culmination of me and William Regal had been feuding for a year. And so it was like kind of a special event and really kind of 200 people in the building, but a real electric kind of atmosphere. It was the final FCW broadcast and it was Jim Ross,

but it was Jim Ross and Dusty Rhodes and a third guy. Wow. That was really cool. Yeah. To go back and watch that and listen to like JR and Dusty Rhodes like talking about me. And Regal, like having Regal opposite you. Yeah, exactly. So that was really cool. I remember the first time watching that FW match in here and Jim Ross' soundtrack over like what I'm doing in the ring was like, whoa. And now I get to do it every single week.

I had a match a couple weeks ago with Jake Hayer where it was when shit was starting to get weird, and they were making sure only 10 people were in the building, and it felt really, really awkward. Like, literally only 10 people in the building. There was no announcer. But I insisted that JR voice it over because it's a world title match. It brings credibility to it, and he was happy to do it. It made it so much better. He's like Joe Buck, basically.

It doesn't even have to be a big game or a big match. If Jim Ross' voice is on it, it sounds like a big match. For that to add, like you said, the credibility to AEW, I think it's it sounds like a big match so for that to add like you said the credibility to AEW I think it's awesome uh we actually had Chris Jericho on like a week or two ago and I was asking him about uh how WWE has done away with color and their matches and then you uh with the patch on and like you you got some color in that like how important do you think it is for the storing storytelling aspect of professional wrestling for that to still be a thing you you got some color in that like how important do you think it is for the storing storytelling aspect of professional wrestling for that to still be a thing uh for me like it infuriated me

and uh frustrated me you know when like in WWE when you get a little cut like by accident and it's like stop and put the gloves on and it's's like, you're not going to – it's not – you're not going to heal the cut. Like, it's not – like, what are we doing? Like, maybe put a towel on. But it's like, I don't know. To me, I'm okay with – okay, we're a public company. We have sponsors. We're eliminating the barbaric practice of blading.

That's old. i understand if aw wanted to do that tnt turner look we're not going to cut ourselves anymore i understand that i'm cool with that but if i accidentally get cut open it happens this is the simulated combat sport like it's and it only adds it blood is almost never a bad thing maybe if it's like super egregious and it's not necessary in that match like it's i i've never you know i don't know like i think it always adds it's just when you're watching a ufc fight if somebody gets busted open you're immediately like you know but like it's not like oh my god this is barbaric you know if a basketball player takes the you know takes the elbow and a rebound and he's

bleeding it only adds to the drama it's not gory i think blood's only uh but it's not necessary but it can add but sometimes it might be but like it wasn't necessary uh necessarily with uh my match with jericho i already had a gouged eye out yeah but like that i but what happened was we're just uh fumbling around ringside i took a post which is something you see in every single match and it doesn't even register any reaction it's just a generic thing we're just fumbling around brawling i hit the post and i headbutted it and it doesn't even register any reaction. It's just a generic thing. We're just fumbling around, brawling. I hit the post, and I head-butted it, and it's like a – it's a corner. It's a square.

I head-butted the corner just straight on my eyebrow, and it's what – and I knocked myself like silly. I was like seeing triples. Totally just – it was like – it's one of those things people take for granted how dangerous this stuff can be. Like something can go wrong just like that. Yeah. Oh man.

One of the biggest messes of my life. And I just went headbutt of the post. Now I can't see what's going on. I already have an eye patch on. So I immediately feel like the hot gush of blood. And I'm like, oh, here we go. And then it's pooling in my eye. So I was trying to stop it.

So I got put through a table and i grabbed a towel from the referee and was just pushing it to my head trying to stop the blood because i was like i don't know i already can't see i already got an eye patch on it so i'm like oh god but then so it was it was a little frustrating in the moment but then when you watch like the highlights back and like holding the belt up and all that it makes it so much better yeah just a little bit of blood it makes it so much better but that wasn't intentional at all it's just one of those accidents that happen like people take for granted man like this stuff is dangerous man like you can get seriously hurt on the smallest

thing you know like uh you know you got to have you know respect for anybody that puts their body on the line you know and uh it can at any moment things can go wrong yeah and talking about just the freedom that AEW affords wrestlers you talked a lot on Chris Jericho's podcast when you initially left the WWE that you left for freedom basically you wanted more creative freedom you wanted to be like you said a professional wrestler like you grew up being and now that you've been in AEW for a while you've been there you've gotten to experience a lot of it have you felt very creatively like uh I don't know what the word is liberated fulfilled yeah liberated or are you are you thrilled are you so happy is this like basically what you wanted it 100% like the feeling of like i painted a picture and i put it

on my wall and i'm looking at it or i took a good picture of my camera and i framed it i'm looking at it or i wrote a song or whatever and you're like or you want other people to enjoy it but also you enjoy yourself and just uh like art to me the whole thing with jericho wasn't one ax or one promo it was eight weeks It was an eight-week painting that I can hang on my wall and look at. People can go back and watch. You can do a DVD, the Jericho Moxley story, and just watch it

from beginning to end. Really, it started, basically, if you really look at it, it starts at double or nothing last year. Definitely. It's a long story to tell. And the cool thing about AEW, too, is, like, our fans especially, like, wrestling fans can be, like, really sophisticated.

Like, they can be very, pay attention to every little detail if you give them credit. And if you add in little tiny details just place something right here seems innocuous at the time and then six weeks later oh that uh i didn't even put those together so just now i'm like the young bucks and kenny especially are really good at that you know uh putting things in you know kenny especially like in his matches would be very very detail oriented like so just little stuff. In my mind, an element of that story was like,

okay, he's going to talk all this trash. He's got all these guys interfering in the matches. I can fly off the handle from time to time. We've wrestled before when I was younger. And he's the greatest of all time. And he's the smartest gamemanship guy there is. So for me, it's well maybe when I was 25 Sam McVar interfered in the match or you uh insinuated that you're hitting on my mother maybe I would freak out and get mad and chase after Sam McVar and chase him

around the ring and slide in and walk right into a juice event and I would beat myself now I'm more mature I'm a veteran I've been I've been I've wrestled everybody from Triple H to Minoru Suzuki to Chris Jericho to Kenny Omega I've been in G1 I've been in a tournament of death I've basically seen it all there's no need to freak out just stay composed no matter what he says or no matter how much he tries to get into your head just come prepared and execute on the day so like another so my point is like come prepared okay well what's his move boxing crap well let me just make sure i don't get caught in that so like we were doing like uh the training countdown thing and uh where i train at is renee consort owns the gym and uh he was able to be in that that day. So we were like, hey, man, you want to, like, help us out with this or whatever? And it was, like, one of the greatest submission mines in the world.

So it turned into, like, I'm like, yeah, so I'm wrestling this dude. And, like, his move is like a Boston Crab. Like, I'm trying to explain it to him. And he goes, oh, like a Boston Crab position? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's an old catch wrestling thing. You know, he goes, actually, I was was gonna try to do that to James Toney when we fought. And we took...

And then he just... Then we just had, like, an hour seminar, like, for real, on the Boston Crab position. And they just filmed it. And, like, two of the specific things I was drilling... So, like, if you watch the countdown show, I specifically did those things to get out of the walls so i made sure to put those in there so if you watch like dark countdown show bte dynamite if you follow every bit of everything you have like so much more content and detail but it's

all gonna pay off you know in on the pay-per-views and stuff like that like it's just really fun to be able to do stuff like that. Yeah, that's awesome. The psychology of it. What's, really quick, what's one thing that you've already been able to do with the Jon Moxley character that you wanted to do but were unable to do for whatever reason

with the Dean Ambrose character? I mean, there's just so much. I mean,'s just so much that's so much stuff is it easier to tell you the opposite I just pitched so much stuff that fell on I pitched at Hell in a Cell

with Seth I wanted to take a box cutter and cut through the ring and peel off the mat and expose the boards, which had not been done in WWE at that point, which I was very excited about. At least that's my knowledge. I've been the first to do it on WWE TV. And I've seen a guy named Asada do it in Germany. I think Bully Ray had done it in TNA. You know, the indies and stuff, you see it.

But I think it's cool, you know. I'm trying to explain it to Vince and he's just like, he doesn't get it. He's like, they're not going to understand. I'm like, dude,

I'm telling you. When I box cutter that ring, I expose those boards on ring. I was like, they're going to go bananas. I'm telling you. He's just, nah,

I don't get it. You know, like, so there was an opportunity to do that in another match. So I was like, oh, can I do this? They're like, sure, sure whatever you know like no big deal so like just popped into my head i was like oh but like there's

so many so much stuff you know it's just basically just you know being able to just relax and be yourself and not not have to worry about you know looking like a geek because it's nice you know yeah yeah the littlest things. All right. This was awesome. As two giant fans of yours, this was really cool getting to sit down and kind of dive into like your mind when it comes to wrestling.

So everybody check out AEW double or nothing on pay-per-view tomorrow night, Saturday nights,