Jon Moxley got started in wrestling with Cody Hawk, Les Thatcher, and the Heartland Wrestling Association in 2004. But before he could make his in-ring debut as a teenager, he needed a ring name.
Appearing on AEW Unrestricted, Moxley discussed his early days in wrestling and origin behind his name.
"There was another kid at the school, named Jimmy. Since I was literally high school age, they wanted us to be stoner football players. They ended up giving [Jimmy] the same thing and they gave us a female cheerleader named Jackie. I still had a practice football jersey from when I played football in high school, so that's what I wore to the ring. We'd do comedy stuff. We were buffoons and would run into each other and do football nonsense. When you're starting, it's easier to have a gimmick to rely on rather than jumping in and having 20-30 minute matches. Then you figure it out as you go on."
He continued, "I didn't have a name. I'd probably been thinking about it for years, but had no idea. The day we had our first match, I had no idea I was going to have a match that day. They're like, 'you're in the third match.' I remember being so nervous, there's like 14 people in the crowd. For that day, I almost immediately shit my pants. Right before I'm about to go out, Cody [Hawk] goes, 'what name did you come up with?' I was baffled and froze up. But we had the football uniforms on and this other wrestler was like, 'He looks like the 'Varsity Blues' guy, Jonathon Moxley.' I was too nervous to say yes or no. I was just like, 'okay.'"
Moxley would correctly point out that James Van Der Beek's character in the movie was named Jonathon "Mox" Moxon, not Jonathon Moxley.
Elsewhere on the podcast, Moxley discussed his relationship with Renee Young and how they are a power couple in wrestling. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
Moxley is set to challenge Chris Jericho for the AEW World Title this Saturday, Feb. 29 at AEW Revolution.
You can check out Fightful's exclusive interview with Moxley in the video below.
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