The man, the myth, the relatable Jon Moxley

Someone once told me in pro wrestling you always want to feel and relate to a wrestler on television. Well, this sentiment could not be more true when it comes to the AEW World Champion, Jon Moxley.

Moxley is the living embodiment of when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. At the peak of a worldwide pandemic in 2020, when nobody was sure what to do or what was next, Moxley reminded us tough times don’t last forever and most notably, to call your grandmother. In that moment, Moxley was a human and related to the audience like one.

In late 2021 as the world was attempting to go back to normal, Moxley had the realization he needed to get help with an alcohol addiction. Moxley endorsed he wasn’t giving up on a fight, but admitted he needed a new strategy to win. As a man in his 30s, I’ve had experiences where asking for help is the hardest thing, but it’s also the most courageous thing someone can do. Again, relatable in every sense.

When Moxley returned to AEW in January of 2022, he assured the AEW audience that he would take them on a wild ride and grab professional wrestling by the balls. Safe to say Jon Moxley has done that and much more. Moxley is a babyface within the AEW ecosystem and delivering on promises is another humanistic and relatable quality that is attractive.

After welcoming the challenge of being the pandemic champion in 2020, it seemed pretty fitting that 2022 would be the summer of Mox. With AEW stars like CM Punk, Kenny Omega, Adam Cole, and Cody away from the company, Moxley was old reliable there to hold the fort in place. Moxley reminded fans he’s not just a guy in this business, but that he’s the guy in this business and in AEW.

After the All Out PPV and amid AEW’s most significant challenges to date, Moxley took the damn ball, too. It’s one thing to understand the severity of a situation, it’s another to deliver each time and genuinely want to be in the leadership position that takes the heat and carries things away from the controversy. When Jon Moxley picked up the microphone after the embers of distrust and conflict burned about in AEW, he cultivated a sense of normalcy and balance. Seeing Jon Moxley express himself profoundly about pro wrestling during that promo was genuinely inspiring and relatable.

The phrase living the gimmick gets thrown out a lot when it comes to pro wrestling. Moxley does and that’s inspiring as well. I don’t know if I would ever want to compete in a barbed wire death match or get suplexed on my head through three pieces of glass, but if I could incorporate Jon Moxley’s relatability into my life? Why not.

Moxley shows that relatability and wears it on his sleeve like the badge of honor and star-making trait that it is.

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