Featured image by @IssitaMarie
Regardless of opinion, Jon Moxley has defined himself as one of the most important American pro wrestling main eventers of the century. Even up to now, Moxley has something of a divisive reputation in basically every circle of pro wrestling fandom. In the eyes of the broader, mainstream audience, he’s either a WWE burnout who fell from grace or an active and key contributor to the shifting American wrestling landscape. It goes deeper than that though, as even in more discerning circles, reception to Moxley can vary just as widely from “one of the greatest ever” to “cheap Onita cosplay.”
Anyone familiar with my work over the years, especially over the last decade or so, probably knows that this piece skew closer to the former than the latter.
The Greatest Wrestler Ever 2026 poll is just around the corner, and while I certainly don’t expect Moxley to take over the majority of the ballots, I think he’s done more than enough work throughout the years to not be dismissed out of hand from the discussion. I feel his divisive work (especially within the last calendar year) along with the gut instinct to correct against recency bias has done him something of a disservice among some voters. I will, of course, concede that the former is a stronger factor though and that a matter of informed taste will just leave Moxley off many ballots.
In this piece, I’m hoping to outline the strengths and weaknesses of his case, with a focus on arguing for his potential inclusion on a Top 100 list. The last few months have solidified my appreciation of his work, and I think that a macro perspective on his career might yet prove convincing to voters on the fence.
I. Methodology
Similar to my For Your Consideration piece on Meiko Satomura, I’m taking a more informal approach to this overview of Mox. What this primarily means is that I’m relying far more on memory and documentation of past opinions to inform my conclusions as opposed to a motivated research period such as I’ve done with Danielson, Jericho, Cassidy, or even Mox’s own pre-WWE run. In preparation for this piece, I did revisit several matches from his time in the WWE, but not nearly enough to be called comprehensive.
That said, I’ve closely covered Moxley in real time for six years now, with a general fandom for his work extending further back to the start of the 2010s when his famous indie promos began circulating online.
I encourage those interested to peruse my writings on Jon Moxley on this website, my videos covering his work on my YouTube channel, and other supplementary writings over on BIG EGG. I’ve written a lot about Moxley in this decade, hence why I feel comfortable coming to this piece without the dedicated study period. Through the course of the piece, I will attempt to be fully transparent about any gaps in memory or perceived blind spots.
II. Longevity
Jon Moxley debuted as a pro wrestler on June 20, 2004, which marks this as his 21st year as an active in-ring competitor. In that 21 year span, 14 of those years have been spent as a contracted wrestler to a nationally televised promotion, from the developmental level all the way up to the highest peaks of the main event scene.
Mox’s career is still being written as we speak, and it’s arguable that we’ve yet to see the end of his prime. When appraising his career though, I think one can break it down into two distinct peak periods. I don’t think Moxley gets actively great as a pro wrestler until 2008 with his extended feud with Drake Younger helping awaken the better aspects of his work. Conservatively speaking, we can point to 2009 and his sustained push in CZW, and other American indies, as the start of his first peak and then ending it around mid-2014 alongside the dissolution of The Shield in the WWE.
There’s definitely scattered greatness during his post-Shield WWE run, especially if one looks to his initial singles run, the 2016 WWE World Title matches, and Shield reunions in basically every permutation. That said, the dissolution of The Shield is about as clear a demarcation as any given how much gets lost in the direct aftermath. It becomes very clear, very fast that Ambrose is the least favored of the three in the WWE’s eyes, and that affects his booking, presentation, and his individual performance to varying degrees up to the end of his time in the company.
The second peak is far easier to define, especially since we’re still living in it.
The end of Dean Ambrose’s time in 2019 was something of a creative nadir. Rehashing the Seth Rollins feud, with a Rollins well past his own peak and with far worse booking, helped nudge Ambrose out the door. He hasn’t looked back since, and there’s a definite shift in both the tone and quality of his work. From being a massive, big-money signing at AEW’s debut pay-per-view to immediately tearing the house down in his New Japan debut against Juice Robinson, Mox kickstarted a run that has distinguished him as something of a consensus 2020s Wrestler of the Decade frontrunner. This includes 2022 being his career year that also intersects with his first Wrestler of the Year run (though many have argued for 2020 as well). With the exception of 2021—a year where Mox was lowered on the card after a year long World Title run before entering rehab in November—I would assert that Moxley has been a top 10 wrestler in the world every single year of the decade.
Critical consensus looked to turn on Moxley towards the end of 2023 and the start of 2024. The Death Riders run has been highly divisive, but even many of Moxley’s harshest critics couldn’t deny the catharsis of his Texas Death Match against Hangman Page at All In Texas. Mox would follow up said performance with back-to-back excellent TV performances against Hangman in a rematch and then Mike Bailey, once again reminding many that we are in the middle of a peak currently without any end in sight.
By my count, that’s at least 10 years or so of peak work. Perhaps not quite as much as the highest tier GWE candidates (Danielson, Funk, Aja, etc.), but certainly enough to warrant the conversation, and certainly more than some beloved candidates—I’m looking right at you Volk Han, Eddy Guerrero, Akira Hokuto, and more.
III. Moxley in-ring
A. The charisma of a street fighter
In his famous “Sick Guy” promo, Mox coins the term “poor kid street fighting” to describe his in-ring style. If nothing else, I think this properly sets the tone of the essence of Moxley’s work. His in-ring persona is aggressive, scrappy, and dirty. That’s taken on varying tones and functions throughout the years, but the core of it is Moxley using a primarily brawling and striking-based style for basically all of his peak run.
A common criticism of Moxley is that he has inconsistent striking which often undercuts the tough man persona he pushes onscreen. This rings true to me as a valid criticism of Moxley’s in-ring work, though I would argue that it’s a bigger problem in some cases than others and has generally improved through the years. I would say that it’s a bigger issue earlier in his career as he never truly reached the high level striking of even contemporaries on the indies (Eddie Kingston being a very clear counter example here), and his striking would suffer even further under the softer WWE house style.
That said, I do think his striking, as with so much else, has improved since leaving the WWE. I still wouldn’t cast him in the upper tier of workers that do so (just look at Danielson’s striking within the same promotion and time period, let alone extending this to worldwide), but his elbows land more than they don’t in my opinion. His does also put a lot more behind his worked punches than many contemporaries, often making the most of them as a heel as we’ve seen in the recent Death Riders.
I think it’s fair to say that Moxley’s case as a brawler suffers some when put against the truly high-end workers of that style. He’s no patch on one of his greatest influence in Terry Funk and he doesn’t even reach the same dizzying heights as someone like a Necro Butcher or a Stan Hansen, but I think these comparisons tend to dismiss just how much Moxley’s able to achieve with his full skillset. I can empathize with a perceived mechanical flaw shattering Mox’s mystique in the eyes of some, but I believe that his complete skillset more than compensates in this regard.
Chief among those strengths is Moxley’s charisma.
I think it is here that I would argue for Moxley being the most Funk-esque. Even under the soul-crushing constraints and pressures of the WWE, Moxley never lost the sort of frantic physical energy that made him stand out on the indies. This suits his character well at basically every stage of his career. He’s perhaps not the strongest or most polished wrestler on the planet but there’s a bubbling malice and chaos he’s able to convey that allows him to come across as a genuine threat.
Mox’s charisma allows him to create a sense of danger that really elevates material where he gets to revel in his preferred styles of wrestling. That’s why his work against the likes of Drake Younger, Sami Callihan, Nick Gage, and Jimmy Jacobs stands out during his indie run. Mox gets to indulge in the bloodlust that his character thrives on, portraying a heel both sneaky and deranged all at once. The I Quit match against Jacobs especially succeeds on this front, allowing Mox to go as far as one can go in beating the babyface before succumbing to an elder worker that mirrors his own malice.
Much like Funk himself though, Moxley tends to bring his physical charisma right up to the line between “expressive” and “cartoonish.” Mox likely finds himself on the wrong side of the line more than Funk does but if one’s tolerance for that kind of physical expression is low, I can imagine being much lower on Moxley.
It certainly doesn’t help Mox any when the WWE themselves seem especially clueless as to how to handle Dean Ambrose. The tank top and jeans feel like a nonstarter from a presentation front, the WWE gives him a lot of prop and physical comedy to work with, and a lot of this taints Ambrose’s singles run. The overall malaise around his booking and presentation lends itself to infamously poor showings against Lesnar at Mania 32 and Jericho in the Ambrose Asylum.
That said, this charisma and in-ring character work has only sharpened with time. I think the worst of goofy Moxley is pretty much behind him, and his second peak work is rife with immense-feeling and expressive performances against the likes of CM Punk, Wheeler YUTA, Orange Cassidy, Darby Allin, and Hangman Page.
This innate charisma also translates into a very real feeling of star power around Mox. He’s a big deal now wherever he goes. Whether that be tearing it up with Josh Barnett and Biff Busick in Bloodsport, having a great GCW Title defense against Tony Deppen, switching on his deathmatch instincts against El Desperado in New Japan, or basing and bullying the high fliers of CMLL both in the states and in Arena Mexico, Mox has grown into the role of being a genuine superstar across the vast landscape of 2020s pro wrestling. That “ace of the world” moniker suits him better than maybe any other pro wrestler of the last six years.
This charisma translates into great selling as well. Mox is a fun stooge bumper through much of his early career, but there’s a refined sense of selling that develops with time as well. Take his WWE World Title loss to AJ Styles in 2016 where he puts on a sympathetic and consistent leg selling performance in the final act. I don’t think there’s any stronger proof to this idea than his performance at All In Texas—manic, vicious, sadistic, and yet so incredibly giving in the finish as he beautifully portrays a coward exposed at the very brink of death. That finish left such a strong impression on viewers that many have spoken of it as a potential all-time sell to a match ender, and I’m inclined to agree with them.
B. Moxley is as versatile as they come
One of the most impressive points in Moxley’s favor is the diversity of roles he’s been able to fill throughout his career. Even just looking at his career from the broadest view possible, it’s clear to see just how much he’s changed with time. The Death Riders’ Jon Moxley is not the same as the 2020s ace of the world Jon Moxley who is not the same as “The Lunatic Fringe” Dean Ambrose who is not the same as The Shield’s Dean Ambrose who is not the same as the indies’ Jon Moxley.
From a versatility standpoint, Moxley might be one of the strongest modern candidates.
Just looking at his 2020s run alone, there’s so much variety. The current iteration of Moxley in the Death Riders heel persona might be his best heel work ever. Yes, there was a transition period there where the fans turned on his work—funnily enough coinciding with the notoriously lame AEW four-way match booking and an extended period working with “Lost My Edge” Cope—but I think the last few months has shown that the short-term investment Mox made into stripping down his style paid off in big, big ways. As already mentioned, the Texas Death Match is among the most cathartic title wins of the decade for Hangman Page, and Mox plays a big role in that. One sees it in how Mox works the build to that match as well. He runs, he hides behind a veneer of aggression, but at every turn, he defaults to taking the cheap way out or just running with his tail tucked between his legs.
Before this run though, Moxley excelled as a high-level ace figure that masterfully toed the line between conquering babyface hero and situational heel to be overcome. Sometimes, he would do this in the very same feud! He achieves this again with Hangman Page this time in their 2023 feud, leaning babyface in their February bout before becoming the final obstacle in their first Texas Death. He even does it against CM Punk with only two matches to work with, running through Punk as a dominant babyface in their infamous TV squash and then playing an oppressive situational heel for Punk to slay in front of his hometown Chicago crowd.
Something that doesn’t get discussed with Mox enough is his work in comedy settings. Or at least, the work he does in this outside the WWE’s idea of comedy. I have two key examples to point to here. The first is the IWA:MS match against Neil Diamond Cutter from the 2010 Prince of the Deathmatches tournament, where he plays a progressively drunk worker during a whiskey shots Taipei deathmatch. I will note that your mileage may vary on how funny this is depending on your experience with alcohol and Mox’s own addictions, but I think for what the match is going for, it’s a fun little story of a canny underdog outfoxing a bigger heel. A much more famous example comes from the 2019 G1 with Mox’s mini-rivalry against Toru Yano. Eating his first loss to Yano, the visual of his shocked disbelief, all that is such great comedy while still adamantly playing the straight man in the scenario.
Mox’s proclivity for blading has become a meme at this point, but we have more than enough material to prove that he doesn’t need it. The Death Riders run was primarily bloodless and took nothing away from brutal, oppressive performances against the likes of Bryan Danielson or Darby Allin. Even early in his career, we can point to things like the two William Regal matches in FCW as high watermarks that don’t rely on heavy bloodletting at all. Blood is a tool for Mox, a favored one, but not a crutch by any means.
And when the blood does flow, I rarely find it superfluous. Do some matches need it more than others? Sure. But Mox is good about finding the spots for it that make sense and also making the blood feel significant to the moment.
On the topic of blood though, Moxley is a fantastic gimmick match worker.
There’s the indie deathmatches where he gets to play a sleazy dirtbag. It’s easy to overlook some softer strikes and less than perfect offense when Moxley’s doing stuff like taking an electric carver to the face against Brain Damage at Tournament of Death VIII or selling the hell out of Gage slicing his mouth up with a pizza cutter. Even under the WWE, Ambrose is able to get a lot out of things like The Shield’s debut at TLC 2012 or even a falls count anywhere bout against Seth Rollins on Raw in 2014. One can always sense there’s a certain glee when Ambrose feels he can let lose and engage in this kind of more physical wrestling, just watch how he swings the kendo stick with abandon against Rollins or gamely takes several table and chair bumps. His hardcore work in AEW is well-document, bringing the grittier moments of violence to matches against Kenny Omega, and being a regular highlight of the promotion’s annual Anarchy in the Arena and Blood & Guts matches. Even when I don’t care for a match, if Moxley comes in with a fork in his hand, it’ll often be the best thing to enjoy in that moment.
Mox has also proven to be a great worker not just in singles but tag settings too. The Switchblade Conspiracy are an early highlight of Mox’s career and have several enjoyable tags in both hardcore and straight tag settings against the likes of The Young Bucks and The American Wolves in 2010.
A massive part of Mox’s work in his first peak is as a member of The Shield, where he contributed to both tag and trios matches. It’s hard to say that Ambrose was a “standout” of The Shield, when strictly speaking it was one of the most seamless units in recent memory. At their best, The Shield didn’t function as individuals but a well-oiled machine working in total unison. Ambrose existed somewhere at the midpoint between Rollins’ dazzling bumping and Reigns’ power and force. If anything, Ambrose brought the sense of spontaneity and chaos that really helped make The Shield thrive. A contribution of spirit and atmosphere over anything strictly mechanical, but arguably the secret sauce that helped get the faction as over it was.
With his Shield brethren, Ambrose got to play many roles. In their initial heel run, he was capable stooge to bump and feed for bigger names like John Cena, The Undertaker, even Daniel Bryan. In their various babyface reunions after the split, he can even play a very capable face in peril as seen in the SummerSlam 2015 tag against Bray Wyatt & Luke Harper.
Then later on, Mox would have a strong run as a member of the Blackpool Combat Club, and later the Death Riders. While we saw less of the BCC as a unit than I might have liked, especially with Mox slotted into tag settings, the highs are incredibly high. I’ve already mentioned Anarchy and Blood & Guts matches, but another high point for Mox would be the Homenaje a dos Leyendas main event from 2024. While it’s easy to point to Danielson’s star power or Claudio’s basing in that match, Mox does incredibly well to play the bruising rudo all throughout. Mox has also been something of a revelation as an all-talk, secret coward in recent Death Riders tags in 2025. This dynamic often adds a layer of character and grounded pro wrestling psychology to what could easily become a flashier, fireworks show all-star tag.
I think Moxley’s versatility comes from a place of constant experimentation. Not only does Mox have a clear and deep-rooted love for a variety of pro wrestling styles (not uncommon for those that came up in the super indie scene), but he’s on the record about wanting to push the boundaries of wrestling form and tradition.
Speaking to Phil Schneider for The Way of the Blade: AEW Edition, Mox said, “I like to fucking fuck with everybody’s rhythm and time signatures and shit…. I’ll do that a lot of times just to play with these fucking rules that everybody says are rules and just see what happens.”
The result is a worker who’s dipped his hands in a little bit of everything that modern pro wrestling has covered.
C. Criticisms of Moxley
Perhaps my greatest criticism of Moxley is that both his input and output rely heavily on his perceived motivation and interest in material. When WWE’s giving him comedy bullshit to do or making him wear a Bane mask, you can smell the disinterest wafting off the screen, and Mox’s performance suffers. Mox lacks the ability that many all-timers possessed of being able to rise above the bad hands he’s dealt most of the time. It’s what leads to things like wacky his CZW World Title reign ending with a whimper after he burns out on the indie scene, Dean Ambrose bumbling his way through a Chris Jericho feud, or even later ill-advised IWGP World Title and GCW Title reigns from Moxley where he isn’t given the right material and Mox does very little to go out of his way to bring it up to his own standard.
If Mox isn’t having a good time, it’s very likely the viewer isn’t either.
With very little exception, Mox is not the kind of miracle worker, chickenshit to chicken salad kind of guy that other high level GWE candidates are. If anything, he can be very prone to the flaws of his opponents on occasion. Perhaps one of the worst examples is the truly dreadful three-way match against David Finlay and Will Ospreay in the Tokyo Dome in 2024. The same can be said for being unable to get much out of Tetsuya Naito during their two IWGP World Title matches.
One of the rare occasions I’d argue that Mox got the most out of bad material was helping guide the confused and convoluted booking of MJF’s title win to a great match. By committing to playing the situational heel, Mox ended up having the only great match of a very long and very tiresome reign. But beyond that, Mox struggles when matched up against unideal circumstances. Even something that maybe should work better than it has like multiple big matches against Swerve Strickland (one in the original Continental Classic and one in a title match this 2025), don’t quite come together. One can blame booking, the opponent, or lack of chemistry, but it’s a notable flaw in Mox’s work.
I’d argue that this isn’t dissimilar to a similar problem I have with a much more beloved GWE candidate, Stan Hansen. While I don’t think Moxley has reached the same consistent high peaks that Hansen has in the ring, I think they have similar philosophies and qualities in the ring. Hansen and Mox have both spoken about preferring a spontaneity that bucks traditional wrestling structure. This notably led to Hansen’s struggle with the much more meticulous matches of the likes of Misawa in the 90s. For Mox, I think it manifests as a struggle to really get the most out of someone like Swerve who’s a stylistic clash with him.
Despite his pushback against modern wrestling formulas, at his worst, Mox can settle into his own formulas. This is standard for basically any major pro wrestling main eventer, and as with any formula, this comes with its own drawbacks. Mox often struggles with transitions between segments in his matches. Most frustratingly is how much he leans on the ever-notorious 2020s strike exchange as a turning point in matches. At its worst, it’s a lazy inclusion in matches, as bad as the double downs and instant pop-getting flash that he’s derided elsewhere. It’s rarely enough to ruin a match for me, but it especially stood out in this last heel run when a brutal cut off or a more inspired comeback for his babyface opponents might have functioned exponentially better. It’s a problem that comes up in even some his finer work—dulling some of the impact of potential comebacks in something like his final match Danielson at Wrestle Dream last year.
These are the criticisms of Moxley that I think hold the most water and affect the most of his work. Combined with matters of taste, I can understand those that will choose to leave him off their lists entirely, but to me these are minor hitches denting one of the most exciting performers of the last decade.
IV. Promos and character work
One thing that has been consistent about the reception to Mox, even amongst his harshest critics, is the quality of his promos. Unlike many on the indie scene in the 2010s, Mox didn’t make a name off great matches (though he had those to be sure) but rather great promos. The most famous of these would be his promos from IPW, notably the “Sick Guy” promo and the “Possessions” promo.
Both capture a grungy ugliness that works well for this iteration of Moxley, and lays the foundation for the scrappy street fighter persona he’ll continue to build on for the rest of his career. It’s promos like these that also allowed him to be the de facto promo guy of The Shield. Rollins was never gifted in that role, and Reigns leaned on being a taciturn bruiser in his early TV career, which meant it was up to Dean Ambrose to define the personality of the group.
Again, Ambrose suffers here from bad WWE creative, and your mileage may vary on just how much this affects his case. Many WWE wrestlers have been given much worse material than this and are still rated quite highly in GWE discussions. Divisive or not, someone like John Cena has certainly had his fair share of dogwater promos, for example, but he’s generally considered to be a much stronger candidate than Moxley.
I think the immediate switch back to pure quality since leaving does him a lot of favors though.
In AEW, there’s notable moments like his in-ring verbal confrontations with Eddie Kingston, the immediate post-match promo after the squash on Punk, the “fragile ego, fragile body, weak mind, weak spirit” takedown of Punk, bloody and fiery promos against Hangman Page in 2023, and even the brooding cryptic promos at the start of the Death Riders run. “Blood alone moves the wheels of history,” anyone? One of the best qualities of any wrestling promo too is that at any point, when Mox is on the mic and discussing his opponents, I 100% buy into what he has to say.
Mox on the mic has always felt genuine and moving. On the indies, he felt unhinged and dangerous, and on TV he runs the gamut from valiant to sadistic. His promos are as versatile as he is—screeching and manic on one hand, soft-spoken and foreboding on the other. There’s just a rawness on display here, suited to the often bloody Moxley. It’s an authenticity and intensity that few have ever matched. One gets the impression from his wrestling in the ring to the words he speaks to the camera, this is bearing his whole soul to the viewing audience.
V. Mox amidst the all-timers
At this point, I’ll show my hand by trying to position Mox on a potential Greatest Wrestler Ever ballot by directly comparing his case to other popular candidates for the list.
First of all, I’ll just skip to the obvious: I do not think Jon Moxley’s in contention for the highest reaches of this list. The flaws I mentioned are a little too glaring, and his career’s a little too short and in flux to cement him against the various frontrunners in the GWE discourse. He doesn’t have Danielson’s miracle touch, Funk’s obscene longevity, Flair’s dizzying repertoire of super high-level matches, or even Aja’s stylistic transcendence. He doesn’t have the direct gruff aggression of a Tenryu or the genre-defining run of the Pillars.
What Mox does have though is a decade and counting of great work, and an ongoing run at the top of the wrestling scene that has produced some of the best pro wrestling of the last six years or so. Mox also has the benefit of having basically his entire career, and certainly the entirety of his peaks, on tape for all to see. Just from the perspective of the availability of footage to build a case at all, Mox has this advantage over many lucha names of the 70s and 80s, joshi names that came up in the 2000s, or even high-level candidates with significant footage gaps like Nick Bockwinkel.
I’ll start with some of Mox’s contemporaries.
The obvious one here is that Mox is the best of The Shield members. I don’t think Seth Rollins will be getting too many GWE votes just based on the kind of fans that project attracts, but Roman Reigns might catch a few stray votes here and there. Mox is, by far, better than both of them especially now that Reigns and Rollins continue to degenerate in quality of work while Mox remains in his prime. This gets Mox over two fringe candidates at best, but it’s an important distinction nonetheless.
Far more interesting comparisons come with similarly beloved indie luminaries that also now share the same space in AEW. An interesting comparison here might be Eddie Kingston, for example. Kingston shares similar qualities to Mox’s case: an early peak on the indies, noted stretches of demotivation coupled with a decline in his work, and a renaissance on AEW TV. I think Kingston would likely take the win here due to a longer career and higher peaks on the indies that he would come to match or even surpass later on.
Samoa Joe was another interesting comparison that came up during discussions about Mox. Joe’s greatest strength in GWE discussions is having what I would call the highest peak in pro wrestling history between 2004 and 2005. That time period can be extended to include more of his TNA work though, making a peak of roughly 2004-2008, followed by a late career renaissance. With Joe though, I don’t think his late career ever reached quite the same highs that he set for himself, whereas Mox’s second peak saw him continually shatter the ceiling of his own capabilities. Joe may have the highest peak, but there’s a similar of consistency there without the same high resurgence that Mox experienced in this past decade. I think the last few years have allowed Mox to squeak by Joe on the list.
Now, for some more historical picks.
I think there’s a very real argument that Mox has carved out a better career for himself than Shawn Michaels. While I’m not a full on HBK-hater, Shawn’s floor of hammy acting and self-indulgence is far more insufferable than Mox’s floor of “not really vibing with the material.” If you’re a major fan of Shawn’s, the longevity case is slightly better than Mox’s, but I think after a few more years, this will be a far more cut and dry victory for Mox. Even now, I’d edge Mox over Shawn on a ranking if I had to do it today.
Foley’s another interesting comparison here, as far as gimmick match workers go. Something that works against Foley is that he just wasn’t given the same opportunities that Mox has gotten in the last decade or so. We’ll never really know what “ace” figure Foley might look like on a national stage, and while that’s probably not really what’s best for his work anyway, it’s to Mox’s credit that he had the versatility to show off that as well as the underdog brawler stuff through the years. Foley’s peak run is comparable—let’s call it 92 to 00, with the brief returns in the late 00s being a little to disconnected to count—but I imagine that Foley has higher floor than Mox. Foley certainly got way more out of Triple H, for example, but that’s with a pre-quad tear Hunter versus COO Hunter at the height of his dismissive politicking in 2016. I think Foley slips by with the win here for his capacity to truly go to deranged lengths to get the most out of any match, but it may yet be a different story in even two to three years’ time.
I think Mox’s versatility and longevity does win him the day over several beloved favorites though. Volk Han as the ultimate peaks vs. longevity and volume litmus test falls here to Moxley, and I could even argue that Mox’s highest peaks can contend with Han’s. Eddy Guerrero suffers here from just not having enough time to build up a case compelling enough to topple Mox. Mox’s stylistic flaws are infinitely preferable to me compared to Manami Toyota’s worst instincts—with Mox choosing elbows and blood over Toyota’s overinflated epics. Mox also has a much higher floor, a much higher peak, and far fewer public N-word usage than Hulk Hogan (though you can never be too sure with someone who came up in CZW). Just looking at names that made the Top 100 list in 2016, I think Mox has also easily surpassed the likes of Claudio Castagnoli (even with the added years of work), The Undertaker, and Chris Jericho.
VI. Conclusion
Jon Moxley is one of the greatest pro wrestlers of all time. Maybe not the greatest, but if we must narrow things down to 100, I say he makes the cut. He has a versatile style that has sharpened over the years, and he’s utilized his skillset to become the best American main eventer of the last decade or so.
He remains an indispensable part of AEW’s success, and has been since day 1 of the company. He was one of the major signings that granted them credibility and he’s been a passionate representative for them all over the world, all while populating their programming with storylines, angles, and matches that are memorable and highly compelling. All the while, building of a WWE career that had mixed success and the exciting flashes of his charisma from the American indies.
If you are looking to get a better handle on Moxley as a performer, here’s a set of matches to give a good sense of his best qualities:
- vs. Nick Gage vs. Drake Younger (CZW 8/7/10)
- vs. Jimmy Jacobs (DGUSA 10/29/11)
- vs. William Regal (FCW 7/15/12)
- w/Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns vs. Team Hell No & Ryback (WWE 12/17/12)
- w/Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns vs. The Wyatt Family (WWE 2/23/14)
- vs. AJ Styles (WWE 9/11/16)
- vs. Minoru Suzuki (NJPW 2/9/20)
- vs. Eddie Kingston (AEW 11/7/20)
- vs. Biff Busick (GCW 3/31/22)
- vs. Wheeler YUTA (AEW 4/8/22)
- vs. CM Punk (AEW 9/4/22)
- vs. Hangman Page (AEW 3/5/23)
- vs. Orange Cassidy (AEW 9/3/23)
- vs. Bryan Danielson (AEW 10/12/24)
- vs. Hangman Page (AEW 7/12/25)
For me, Moxley lands somewhere in the bottom half of the list. I’m being conservative here as I feel that further study will likely solidify a decent number of historical candidates for me down the line. But the feeling in these matters shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. I’ve watched Moxley’s ascent and that feeling has been nagging at me for a couple of years: the idea that I’m watching an all-timer carve out his legacy before me in real time.
