"Does not work"- AEW's Jon Moxley recalls one key aspect he learned when he faced former WWE Superstar
AEW's Jon Moxley recently recalled his match against Jake Hager, which went down last year during the pandemic era.
The former Shield member had a considerable AEW World Championship reign that lasted 277 days. In his first successful title defense, he faced Hager in a No Holds Barred stipulation. It wasn't the most memorable bout, despite both men leaving no stone unturned to put each other down in front of an empty arena.
Speaking on the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Moxley described it as an uphill task, with no audience to make their fight look stiff and tight. In hindsight, he loved exchanging some cool stuff with Hager and felt impressed with the way it panned out:
"I did make a serious effort to be like, ‘How can we do this? What can be done?’ Legitimate wrestling, technical wrestling, can actually work in this environment. Everything has to be stiff, tight, and physical because you can’t rely on the crowd. Everything has to be like a real fight. I had a match with Jake Hager when it was first going down where we were like, let’s just build the whole world title program in three hours. Jake is a shooter, let’s just have a fight. We did some really cool sh*t. I love that f*cking match."
Jon Moxley gets the victory and retains the AEW World Championship against Jake Hager after hitting the Paradigm Shift onto a steel chair.
That match was physical, stiff and an absolute war. Hager has his first AEW loss.
#AEWDynamite https://t.co/MwcOlPEDnd
Given that their fight was pre-taped, Jon Moxley was disappointed with the way it had four commercials when the company aired their match. Later on, he also learned that brawling in an empty arena wouldn't work at all:
"What f*cked it up was later, when they played it, there were four f*cking commercial breaks, which made it endless long, but we did cool tight wrestling shit. I learned later that brawling in an empty arena does not work. We taped that match a month ahead of time and by the time I learned that, we had already taped the match. Ah, kinda f*cked up there. Brawling around the building in an empty arena does not come off well on TV." (H/T- Fightful)
Jon Moxley is steadily clawing his way back into the AEW world title picture
Watch me get beat up this Wednesday.
@aew
@AEWonTNT
#AEWDynamite https://t.co/xHxsnK8QOu
Jon Moxley is laser-focused on winning the ongoing AEW world title eliminator tournament. The former WWE Superstar has advanced into the semi-finals where he will collide with Orange Cassidy on the upcoming episode of AEW Dynamite.
Given his current momentum, fans can expect Mox to walk out victorious. However, anything can happen, given that we're on the road to the Full Gear pay-per-view.
Do you remember the match between Jake Hager and Jon Moxley? If yes, let us know your thoughts about their clash.