Tony Khan Reveals Jon Moxley Actually Approached Him About Joining AEW

Last night at Double or Nothing former WWE star Dean Ambrose, now going by Jon Moxley, appeared to attack both Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega after their hard-hitting main event. It has since been revealed that Moxley has signed a full-time, multi-year deal with the new promotion, and will be used as one of their top guys.

He is here! @JonMoxley #AEWDoN pic.twitter.com/n2ajcpkGjI

— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) May 26, 2019

It was clear that AEW would be interested in the former Dean Ambrose once his WWE deal expired at the end of April 2019, but Tony Khan has interestingly revealed that it was actually Moxley who made the first move and approached him.

Speaking to the media after Double or Nothing, Khan recalled how AEW managed to secure the former WWE Champion’s services, revealing that it was Moxley who came to him rather than the other way round:

“As soon as he was out of his [WWE] deal and wanted to talk to people, he came to me and I was really excited to talk to him when he was able to talk. I’m very excited he’s apart of the roster. He is on a multi-year contract and a full-time deal. When we go weekly, he’s going to be working full-time. But when the schedule is light, I’m going to be open about him working international and Indy dates.”

Before the event, two of the top names that fans wanted to see appear on AEW’s show were Jon Moxley, and fellow former WWE star CM Punk. While Tony Khan said he did want to see Punk in AEW, he was clearly not in the mood to talk about the former Champion after the event:

“When I sketched out a list of like, ‘Hey I want to start a wrestling company, who are the names you’re going to get?’ Everybody we got was on that list and [CM Punk] was also on that list. I have a good relationship with Phil. It’s a real insult to what we’ve done to make that the story of the show.”

Tony Khan then turned his attentions to WWE, and said he wishes that their shows are also great so fans have the ability to once again watch great wrestling:

“We don’t need a company line [on our stance against WWE]. Everybody is trying to get something different out of it but we all want to do the best shows. If the competition fuels our fire, that’s great. For me, I’m just trying to do the best show possible. I’m not really thinking about their show and I hope their shows are great because the best times in wrestling, everybody was doing great stuff.”

“There was a time 20 years ago where all the shows were great. I’m excited when we get to weekly because we’ve done a show that we can hang our hat on, that we’ve done one of the great wrestling pay-per-views but when we get to weekly, it’s going to be a better quality of life. The work is going to be better and it’s going to be like it was 20 years ago. You’re going to be able to watch a lot of wrestling and it’s not going to be a chore either. It’s going to be fun.”

With regards to WWE’s attitudes towards All Elite Wrestling, it has been speculated that the company’s officials could possibly be very unhappy with many of their stars for tweeting about AEW’s Double or Nothing show last night.

Thanks to Fightful for the transcription.

• Jon Moxley
• tony khan
• AEW
• wwe

Share this article with friends