Jon Moxley is atop the mountain in All Elite Wrestling, but it's not a one-man show.
After making his way to AEW, Moxley glowed when speaking to us in January. The world has changed as a whole since then, but even though the company's plans were drastically shifted, you won't hear the same sense of frustration out of the AEW World Champion as you may have in years past.
"It’s all collaborative," Moxley told us. "We get on the phone. I was just on the phone with a two or three guys the yesterday, talking about what we’re gonna do going forward and when and how everything’s up in the air right now. All our plans obviously got screwed up. We don’t know exactly what the future holds for the world, nobody does, and safety is obviously the number one priority. But, it’s all collaborative. It’s dudes standing around talking. One guy has a general idea. If you don’t like it, we’ll think of something else and then we all build on the general idea. It’s all just free flowing ideas and collaboration. It’s really fun to just have that, it’s real chill. Nobody’s gonna get mad at anybody for not liking their idea or changing their idea. Everybody’s just got freedom to throw their two cents in and maybe this way, maybe that way, different stuff. You see a whole litany of different styles and different presentations. We such a talented roster of veterans and young guys and women, and it all makes for what I think is the most exciting dynamite show in wrestling right now, [AEW] Dynamite."
Moxley had to take plenty of direction in his new Cagefigher: Worlds Collide film, which isn't as collaborative as working in AEW. Much of the same could be said about WWE, which he's openly criticized, however he did point out some points of influence as far as the producers that helped him out when he was there.
"Joey Mercury for me was a huge influence in my early years in WWE and Jamie Noble was, I think, he’s probably the best producer at putting together matches," said Moxley. "He can see it from a wrestler’s perspective because he’s had so many amazing matches. Jamie Noble’s one of the most underrated workers, in my opinion. I watched him and Daniel Bryan from Ring of Honor the other day, it was on TV and I was like, “I forgot about that match. Man, Jamie’s so good.” Jamie Noble is definitely one of the best. Michael Hayes up there, he’s got such a knack and an eye for TV and what works on a big stage, on live television. A lot of times I would be certain that I was right and then Michael made it very abundantly clear, and I got proven wrong many times, he’s just so smart. There’s a lot of great minds."
