Jon Moxley on AEW Continental Classic, Bloody Matches, Never Retiring and More

All Elite Wrestling has a massive roster filled with stars who have hit many milestones with the company, but few have been as successful as Jon Moxley.

His list of accomplishments outside of AEW includes dozens of titles from indie promotions and WWE, which includes being a Grand Slam champion and a former Mr. Money in the Bank. However, some of his most impressive stats have come during his time with AEW.

Not only is he a three-time world champion and former international champion, but he has also won the IWGP United States Championship in New Japan Pro-Wrestling twice.

Currently, Mox is competing alongside 11 other competitors in the first-ever Continental Classic Tournament. The winner will not only win the ROH World Championship and NJPW Strong Openweight Championship held by Eddie Kingston, but they will unify those belts with the new Continental Championship to create a new Triple Crown prize.

We had a chance to speak with Moxley about the tournament, mentoring Wheeler Yuta in the Blackpool Combat, battling the unconventional Orange Cassidy, blood in pro wrestling and much more.

WARNING: The videos included in this article contain some NSFW language.

The Continental Classic

Moxley is currently competing in the first AEW Continental Classic Tournament along with 11 other competitors. The winner will claim the ROH world and NJPW strong openweight titles, combining them with the new Continental Championship to create a belt that is defended across all three promotions.

While winning championships is the goal of any character in pro wrestling, Mox has always had the viewpoint that titles are storytelling devices rather than prizes.

"There's a lot of belts," Moxley said. "Belts come and go. They're what you make them. I've never seen a belt get anyone over in my life, personally. I've seen people get belts over. They come and go, and they're devices. If you treat them as important, they become important. If you treat them like a joke, they become a joke. People don't pack arenas to look at shiny pieces of metal and jewels."

The Continental Classic is a round-robin style tournament, which means a loss does not necessarily eliminate someone. NJPW has been using this format for the G1 tournament for years, but it might be a new concept to some fans. Moxley is hoping that this tourney can become something unique in its own right.

"Maybe this will be the only one, maybe it's a Brawl for All situation that only happens one time, or maybe it becomes an annual thing," he said. "There are those things like G1s and stuff like that. Those prestige tournaments that build up a reputation. King of the Ring used to be like that where it was a destination to prove yourself for young guys.

"Being the first one, I think everybody involved in it wants it to be good. You'll always be connected to it, being the first one to win it, so that would be cool. Especially if it becomes a big important thing people look forward to in the future.

"I think there's a little bit of competitiveness and a little bit of pride-in-your-work kind of thing. Even though we're all competitors against each other, there's almost like a team spirit attitude. Everybody is going in to bust their ass and make this the best tournament possible.

"The main comparison is going to be the G1 because, at its core, it's basically the same idea. It's a round-robin tournament. We have to be different from what the competition does, what WWE does, what everyone else on TV does. We have to always be different and give things you can see nowhere else. We don't want to do the same thing as the G1 so whenever we can do something that will make it different, we should, especially for a Western audience."

Moxley went into more detail about how AEW can differentiate the CC from the G1. You can hear his full comments in the video above.

Mentoring Wheeler Yuta and the Blackpool Combat Club

After a couple of years in AEW, Moxley suddenly found himself surrounded by friends he has known in this business for years. William Regal, Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli joined the roster, and that is when everything was set in motion. Moxley spoke about how the Blackpool Combat Club came together and why it works so well.

"It's been pretty cool and one of those things that was never really planned," Moxley said. "Things just kind of happened naturally, me and Bryan wrestling each other. We're kind of two sides of the same coin. People like to categorize him as a technical wrestler but when you look at it, he's surprisingly violent. People like to categorize me as a violent wrestler and when you look at it, I might be surprisingly technical.

"The thing that links us together in the middle is that we both spent years and years training with William Regal. Even if we're not working in the same place, every day we are still always in contact and always communicating and sharing ideas.

"If you look at Regal's style, some people might categorize him as a technician and some people might categorize him as a violent, slugging, elbow-you-in-the-face brawler. It depends on where in the match you're watching. You might see a super technical display from William Regal and say 'It's the Queen's style. Fantastic.' And then you fast forward 15 seconds later and he's snarling and elbowing a guy in the face. If you watch a William Regal match, you see Bryan Danielson and Jon Moxley in the same guy."

The group of veterans quickly became one of the most popular acts in AEW, but it wasn't quite complete yet. That is where Yuta comes into the picture. The 27-year-old earned his spot in the BCC the hard way after a bloody fight with Moxley.

"I just happened to have a couple of matches with Wheeler and it kind of grew organically," he said. "I beat the f--k out of him and he just kept coming and coming. He's kind of the test subject. We put our stamp on him, so he has to be good. We're not going to let him not fulfill his potential or then I look bad"

"He's a guy that had all of the technical ability and could do all of the moves, had good timing and footwork, but he's not a big guy, so we have to bring out the dog in him. Bring out some evil in him. It was good for him to come with us. He's in the best spot.

"With BCC, we're always going to be in the mix, so he is always going to be around. Winning and losing isn't really a big deal for him right now. He gets a chance to be around and always be in the mix. When I came into WWE, we got to work with top guys every single night for the first couple of years, so we were in the mix. And then all of a sudden, we turned around one day and we were the main eventers.

"I think it's going to be like that for Wheeler. One day he will look and me and Bryan won't be there. Claudio won't be there. And all of a sudden, it will be him. I don't want the BCC to be a typical wrestling stable. I see it more like a stamp of authenticity and it brings credibility. That's what I want it to be. If you have the stamp of approval from us, you're going to have a good future."

Moxley spoke more about the BCC and why Yuta is in a great position to succeed. You can hear his full comments in the video above.

Facing Orange Cassidy

The former AEW champion has battled many foes over the years, but one of his most unique opponents was his recent rival, Orange Cassidy. Mox has faced him twice for the International Championship. Their first encounter ended with OC losing the title, but their second encounter at Full Gear saw him retain the belt in a hard-fought match.

"I love wrestling Orange Cassidy," Moxley said. "I kind of had it in my head that I wanted to for a while. A lot of times, I'll see things or have ideas or visions and just keep them tucked away in my brain until the time is right.

"They gave [the international title] to him and he took it upon himself, it was all him choosing to wrestle people who normally wouldn't get a shot on TV and have a bunch of badass matches every single week, and do this super workhorse, take-on-every-challenger, underdog, babyface, '92 Bret Hart kind of thing that he did.

"He turned that International Championship into a thing. He made it into something. And I think I took it to the next level. At a certain point, somebody at a different level has to go after it. So when I put my sights on it, two weeks later, now it's main eventing a PPV. I gave it maybe that extra step, but Orange put all the work in to get it there.

"He put in so much work, so I wanted to make sure that this particular chapter ends perfectly. It had to have the perfect ending and I think it did and I hope he would feel that way."

"There will always be room for a recurring comedy character who is beloved. There's job security in that. That's a good spot to be in because you'll always have that job, but that's your job. You're stuck there. {Cassidy} has gotten over enough that even the people who would criticize him have become tolerant of him.

"He continued to evolve and that was the interesting thing to me. He had the guts to try to push forward and show that he could be a main eventer and could have real, serious, gripping encounters, and real serious gritty fights. He showed that he could bring something different out of himself without betraying his character. I'm very impressed with Orange Cassidy.

"There's a few guys like that who are sort of AEW homegrown guys. Cassidy, Hangman Page I think is another one. Darby. There's a certain kind of connection with our audience at AEW where they definitely see them as their guys. There's something very important there and I think we need to treat these guys like gold because there's something very valuable in that. I don't think that's a thing to take for granted at all."

Moxley spoke in depth about what makes Cassidy unique, how he has evolved his character and why he is a fan of his work. You can listen to his full answer in the video above.

Blood in Pro Wrestling

One of the things Moxley is most known for is his penchant for violence. Whether he is fighting a random opponent on Dynamite or a bitter rival at a PPV, there is always a good chance it's going to be the most violent encounter on the show.

The use of blood in pro wrestling has often been a point of contention among fans. Some prefer their pro wrestling to be as realistic as possible while others want it to be the exact opposite. For Moxley, even though these wounds don't go away overnight, they are part of the story.

"I can't tell you how many times in the last year or two, I'll be at jiu-jitsu on the mat training and I just start bleeding all over the mat," Moxley said. "Or I'll wake up and my head is sticking to my pillow. When you keep the kind of schedule that I keep, s--t is just going to open up sometimes. But it doesn't really bother me.

"Part of the BCC doctrine is 'We're going out there to hurt you. This is not a dance recital. This is not a joke. I'm trying to win this match as efficiently as possible and I'm trying to split your face open and snap your arm off if I can.' If the guy goes down and it's over, cool. If the guy doesn't go down easy, it's going to turn into a mess.

"Every match could be my last, so I am going to go 100% every single time. If I headbutt a guy and split his head open, it is what it is. It doesn't bother me that much."

Even though every match takes a physical toll, it's also a performance. The 38-year-old isn't just thinking about how he can bust his opponents open. He is also constantly working on ways to improve his game and make each match feel unique.

"I like to experiment," he said. "I could do stuff I know worked for the rest of my career and it would be perfectly fine. A lot of the basics of standard pro wrestling were made in the '70s or '80s before the general public knew what real fighting looked like. Now, you've grown up your entire life with MMA in the mainstream. I'm not saying every match should look like Pancrase or anything like that. I'm saying the opposite.

"If people want to watch real fighting, they can go watch MMA. If they want to watch pro wrestling, they want dives to the floor and piledrivers and flippy s--t off the top rope. Some of the fundamentals could maybe use a software update for 2023. So I'm always trying to find little s--t like that.

"For me, personally, wrestling is self-expression. It's the thing that I do. It's the thing that I found that lets me be a human. I don't even remember a time before wrestling. It's the only thing I have ever been able to use for self-expression and to get feelings out and show the world who I am and be a person, if that makes any sense."

Moxley spoke about evolving his style, working with people like Josh Barnett and why he is not playing a character when he is in the ring. You can hear his full answer in the video above.

Fatherhood

Having kids can change a lot about a person's life and make them examine who they are and who they want to be for their children. It can sometimes change a person's whole outlook. For Moxley, having a daughter with Renee Paquette gave him a greater appreciation for both life and professional wrestling.

"By the time I had a kid, I was already a veteran of this," Moxley said. "I was already paying the price physically for a lot of the s--t I did in my younger years. I was already at the stage where I was telling younger kids 'You might not have to do that move every single night because you're going to pay for it in 10 years.' I already became the kind of guy who was aware of my own mortality by the time I had a child, so it really didn't change anything. If anything, it made me appreciate it more and want to do a better job.

"Now everything I'm doing, I'm setting an example. I have a lot of young people that I coach and people that I work with, and I got young kids in Cincinnati I teach wrestling to. I've got a lot of people that are looking at me, so if I go out there and don't work hard or take anything for granted or don't take the kind of advice I would give to my daughter, if whatever I would tell her doesn't match up with what I did, there would be a problem there.

"If anything [fatherhood] just made me appreciate life more and made me want to do this for as long as I can. I don't know if she will ever get to watch me do it live and in person. She's two and a half. When I look at some of my main rivals like Chris Jericho and Minoru Suzuki, they're still going hard and still at the top of their game, so I think I've got a lot of years left. I don't plan on ever retiring. At some point, I will just get too old to do it."

Moxley spoke more on fatherhood and his views on pro wrestling. You can hear his full answer in the video above.

TV Show Review: Titans

Moxley's character has always blurred the lines between being a heel and babyface, so it probably comes as no surprise to find out he is a fan of anti-hero characters. Specifically, he is a big Batman and Red Hood fan. When asked to close out our interview by reviewing a movie or TV show, Mox chose to talk about Titans.

"I just watched that show Titans," Moxley said. "It started out ok. I read some of the books so I was familiar with the characters. I liked that it was violent even though Robin, when you put him in a real-life live-action scenario wearing the stupid f--king little mask, like, how do we know that's not you? It's so dumb. Just putting a little thing over your eyes is not hiding your identity. And the yellow and all that s--t. It's hard to look cool and badass in a live-action scenario in a Robin outfit.

"It got pretty good in season 2 and then the third season just went all to hell with all this voodoo and supernatural powers. It started to lose me and then it was over. I'm a big Batman fan and that whole world, and I'm a big Red Hood fan. He's probably my favorite comic book character. The kid that played him in the show was a little too young. The helmet was bigger than him."

Moxley also talked about why he wasn't a big fans of the Zack Snyder Batman films, his issues with Batman's moral code and how he would solve the problem even if he was a hot dog vendor. You can hear his full thoughts in the video above.

You can follow Moxley on Twitter/X @JonMoxley and you can follow Chris Mueller on Twitter/X @BR_Doctor