WWE News: Jox Moxley fka Dean Ambrose reveals when and why he decided to leave WWE
What's the story?
Speaking in a wide-ranging interview with Chris Jericho on ‘Talk Is Jericho’, Jon Moxley discussed his time in WWE as Dean Ambrose and revealed exactly when he decided to leave the company.
In case you didn't know…
WWE announced in January 2019 that Dean Ambrose was set to leave shortly after WrestleMania 35 when his contract expired.
The former Shield member continued to appear on WWE programming until April 2019 before he released a cryptic video on Twitter on May 1 – the first day after his contract expired – which revealed that he will now be known as Jon Moxley again.
Since then, Moxley has appeared at AEW’s first pay-per-view, Double or Nothing, to set up a storyline with Kenny Omega, while he has also been booked by NJPW and on independent shows.
The heart of the matter
Jon Moxley told Chris Jericho that he originally decided that he was going to leave WWE in July 2018, one month before he made his return from a lengthy triceps injury.
“I knew pretty much that I was gone in July of 2018. At that point, I was out with an injury. I tore my tricep and normally that would only be a four-month thing but it was so banged up and bruised because I had been working on it hurt for a long time. The tendon was all mangled and everything, so it was minimum six months and then I got a staph infection and then I had to go in for surgery again. It turned into nine months and it was a mess – a very miserable time in my life.”
Regarding his reasons for leaving WWE, Moxley told several stories during the podcast about being unhappy with the way in which his character was booked.
One of the key examples he gave came following his October 2018 heel turn when he was reluctant to use a “pooper scooper” line during one of his promos.
He recalled being handed a note with a memo from Vince McMahon which read:
“Notes from VKM: Dean needs to understand why he needs to insult the audience. Dean needs to read his promos verbatim and not try to rewrite them.”
Moxley said that being told to read from a script “felt like getting punched in the gut” and it made him question why he worked for WWE.
What's next?
Jon Moxley will compete in his first AEW match against an as-yet-unnamed opponent at Fyter Fest on June 29. He is also booked to face Juice Robinson in NJPW on June 5.