Jon Moxley Says His AEW Debut Was Bigger Than Winning The WWE Championship

Secrets and surprises are quite hard to keep in today's world of technology and social media. Last Saturday, AEW was able to keep the surprise appearance of Jon Moxley under wraps until his debut at the end of the show. The wrestling world is still buzzing and Moxley sat down with Flip the Strip on 840 KXNT for his first post-Double or Nothing interview.

For Moxley keeping the secret was not hard at all. He chalks it up to being professional.

"It was top secret, only a select few people knew," said Moxley. "It was not hard for me to keep the secret. I'm pretty good at staying silent. My ethics as a performer, even if I want to tell you, even if I know you know, I cannot tell you. I got to wait for you to be surprised. Loose lips sink ships."

Moxley entered the arena walking through the crowd, much like he did in his WWE days. The way he described could be asserted as a near out of body experience.

"Kind of blur, it was very surreal, it was a great feeling, probably the best feeling of my career," Moxley recalled. "It was the inverse of being uncomfortable in your own shoes, your so comfortable your almost not used to it. I had to get my bearings a little bit. It's like putting on a well fitting pair of pants. Definitely the highlight of my career thus far."

To make it the highlight of his career is saying a lot. Moxley was a multiple time tag champion, and won multiple singles titles in WWE, including the WWE championship. While that was a lifelong dream, his AEW debut trumped that.

"Growing up all I wanted to do was win the WWE title and I did that across the street at the T-Mobile Arena," Moxley stated. "This totally trumps winning the WWE title. To stand on my own two feet with no WWE involvement, they obviously made my name. Jon Moxley was not a famous name, but 12 thousand people chanting Moxley was a satisfying feeling"

When he first started wrestling, he was known as Jon Moxley. However, once he signed with WWE, they switched his name to Dean Ambrose. But now he is back to Jon Moxley and he is getting used to that adjustment just fine.

"I'm just getting used to it. Because I was Dean Ambrose for so long and it was so weird changing my name originally," Moxley said "I was so used to Dean Ambrose. But, I'm getting used to Jon Moxley again after a week. A lot of people still called me Moxley, who knew me before. However, you were first introduced to someone in the wrestling business, that's what you know them as. A lot of people still called me Mox in WWE."

Moxley's AEW debut was one that he was looking forward to. He was so amped up, he worked himself into taking a nap before the show. But once he arrived, he felt the difference between WWE and AEW.

"I was looking forward to that day for a long time, that was a long day. I woke up early, pacing around my house, I had to take a nap because I burnt myself out with anticipation," exclaimed Moxley. " I was like I need to take a nap. The show was just starting, and I was still at my house. I got there during the battle royale. I was hiding out watching the show. It actually went by so fast. A three-hour RAW, especially when your there, takes forever. Your like 'Oh my God' we are only an hour in, we have three hours left. The time flew by (with Double or Nothing)."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Flip the Strip and 840 KXNT with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.