Jon Moxley Defends Use of Blood In Pro Wrestling – AEW’s Jon Moxley is know to bleed often in his matches, and that continued this week as he celebrated the Fourth of July in Japan.
Tuesday’s NJPW Strong Independence Day Night 1 event saw Moxley and Homicide lose the Doomsday No DQ main event to El Desperado and Jun Kasai. Night 2 of the pay-per-view on Wednesday featured a Deathmatch as Moxley defeated Desperado in the Final Death main event. Moxley finished both bouts covered in his own blood.
Shortly after Thursday’s show ended, a bloody Moxley returned to his hotel room and spoke with Sports Illustrated’s Justin Barrasso via telephone. It was noted that Moxley, who ruined the hotel couch by dripping a pool of blood onto it, is pioneering a different style of pro wrestling – one that’s covered in blood.
Moxley, full of adrenaline at almost 2am in his Tokyo hotel room, had no intention of sleeping, but he was ready to make the case for blood in modern day pro wrestling.
“I have a whole dissertation on my theory about blood in modern wrestling,” Moxley said. “Do we have time for that?”
Moxley then spoke on why he thinks blood belongs in pro wrestling.
“This is a combat sport,” Moxley said. “College wrestling is a combat sport, too. They have blood timeouts to patch it up. The lowest prelim bout of a UFC card or a boxing card, somebody might have a little blood on their eyebrow or blood coming out of their nose. But they’re not selling a blood sport. It’s not, ‘Tune in for the blood! Tune in for the gore!’ It’s part of the aesthetic. It adds realism.”
Moxley said he sometimes bleeds when he doesn’t want to. He explained that a much shorter answer is that he has so much scar tissue on his eyebrows and head that he cuts very easily.
“Sometimes when I don’t even want it to,” Moxley said. “But I only know one speed. That’s with my foot to the gas pedal. If we’re going to do something, let’s fucking do it. That can be detrimental when it comes to negative things, like drugs or alcohol. But that’s my mindset. If I’m doing it, I’m doing it.”
Moxley continued and brought up some of the feedback to his win over NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Champion Tomohiro Ishii on the June 28 AEW Dynamite
“When it comes to blood, it’s just going to happen sometimes,” he continued. “Like I said, it’s foot to the gas pedal. Some people say, ‘This is just a random match. Why is there blood?’ I heard that last week vs. Tomohiro Ishii. He’s one of the greatest of all time. I’m not going to let that moment slip by. I’m going foot-to-the-fucking-gas-pedal. How can I not? Then I hear that I can’t have a good match without blood. O.K., then, you made my argument for me. I’ll do it every time.”
The former Dean Ambrose of WWE also questioned whether his previous employer’s approach to blood is the right method.
“The point of the dissertation is that this is a combat sport,” Moxley said. “But we’re not allowed to have blood in a match unless it’s a personal grudge? We’re only allowed to have blood after a five-month grudge after someone slept with somebody’s wife or somebody ran over someone with a car? And then—and only then—are we allowed to have this dramatic crimson mask that looks the exact same every single time? For me, realism-wise, since this is a combat sport, that means there is the potential for blood in every match. Everything in wrestling is preposterous to some degree, but this helps with the suspension of disbelief.”
Moxley then revealed that he is actually for less blood but more often.
“I’m actually for less blood but more often. If every single match on the card had a busted eyebrow or bloody nose, it would just be part of the sport,” he said. “But some gory spectacle with blood shooting like a hose is pretty unnecessary. We’re elbowing each other in the face every single match. We’re kicking each other in the face every single match. What are these people made of if they’re not bleeding? People ask why there is blood in the ring every time I leave it. It feels unnatural to go out of my way to make sure no one is bleeding. That feels like I’m taking my foot off the gas pedal. That doesn’t interest me.”
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Jon Moxley Defends Use of Blood In Pro Wrestling
