AEW's Jon Moxley On Promos In WWE: "Pressure Is Having A Two-Page Script Written By A 74-Year-Old Madman That Makes No Sense To You"

Since leaving WWE on April 30, 2019, Jon Moxley has been outspoken about his time in the company. He has previously detailed that he used to hate doing scripted promos in the wrestling behemoth and has contrasted it with his experience in AEW where he is just given bullet points and has more creative control.  

The AEW World Champion was a recent guest on Busted Open Radio and he again discussed cutting promos in WWE. 

Moxley said: "If I had to boil it down to one thing that drove me crazier than anything was the fact that I got handed a script. Even in developmental, we were down there with like Dusty. That was one of the best times, looking back, I had in the business in FCW. I heard the term 'scripted promo,' I thought it was like a turn of phrase. I didn't realise. This is how naïve I was. No, they actually script your lines like a TV show. That blew my mind. First time they handed us a script it was like, 'Roman says this, Seth says this, Dean says this,' whatever. I thought it was like a suggestion, like they were just kind of filling in words on the run sheet. And I'm like, 'Okay,' to the writer. I'm like, 'I've got some cool ideas. Like, we could say this or that or, you know, we've got this new gimmick.' And he's like, 'Oh, no, this is what you're gonna say.' And I remember having like a feeling in the pit of my stomach like, 'Oh my god, I've made a terrible mistake. I'll never speak again.' And it’s not always like that, sometimes you get to have more of your own input. A lot of times you get a lot of input… 

"It's just so easy to just walk in and be yourself (in AEW). Anybody who's successful puts a lot of pressure on themselves every day to like be really good at what they do and that's just like the level that you're comfortable at. So like all of us in AEW there are going to be putting pressure on ourselves every day, but it’s like a really pressure-free kind of feeling because it's easy. Not that it's easy but it's like all I have to do is go out and be the best pro wrestler I can be. And if you put a mike in front of me or click the red light of the camera on, I've just got to talk. It doesn't matter what I'll say, I'll say whatever I want. It's just like I'm very comfortable at all times so it's like, it's nice, you know. 

"I'll tell you what pressure is, pressure is having a two-page script written by a 74-year-old madman that makes no sense to you. That's gonna make you look up stupid. And you're on worldwide TV live and you've got to memorise every single line and somehow try to pull it off and not look like a total jackass. That's pressure. And a lot of the time I did pull that off, a lot of the time I didn't, but I'll never have to be in that situation again. I just get to be me."