Jon Moxley Says Vince McMahon In 2019 "Doesn't Know What The F*** Is Going On"

Below is the recap of Jon Moxley's interview with Wade Keller from PWTorch.com, courtesy of Reddit user theredshoes_.

- Says the Jericho podcast was incredibly cathartic and he was doing the podcast, in his head, "for months". Always knew he'd come to Jericho with it. 

- He felt a need to "shine a spotlight" on what goes on backstage [at WWE]. Fans think they know, people (like Keller) think they know- but they don't really know. 

- Cut the post-DoN "paradigm shift" promo in one take. No writers needed, no approval needed. Told Cody to have a camera waiting for him when he got backstage. Cut three promos (one of which hasn't aired yet) post-DoN in less than 10 minutes. Said he felt like he accomplished more in those 10 minutes than his entire time in WWE. 

- Confirms he's gone "off script" before. Said he had Vince chasing him down the hallway one week in Atlanta to yell at him for going off script. Says he didn't do it often (even though, during the final few months, he knew he could get away with it) because he was afraid a writer or producer would get fired. 

- Says the wrestlers aren't afraid of losing their jobs- they know they have job security. The writers and producers, however, fear for their jobs. Creates "a weird dynamic" between wrestlers and writers. 

- Says "writers" shouldn't exist in wrestling. Their job shouldn't exist in wrestling because no one knows the characters better than the wrestlers themselves. 

- Feels his biggest weapon is the fact "he can talk", and that was immediately taken away when he got to the WWE. 

- Says, today, guys like Dusty Rhodes and Roddy Piper wouldn't have gotten the chance to sound better on the mic than Baron Corbin because of the way everyone is scripted. Everyone is on an even playing field. Says if Austin, in his prime, came into WWE in 2019 we wouldn't have "Austin: 316".

- Jon says that every performer is different in WWE. Says not everybody feels the way he does. Says they know how to book people strong "when they want to book people strong". There are probably a lot of people who are very happy. And there are probably people that feel like him. 

- Vince "is the problem" where the product is concerned. Verbatim- "I mean, everyone seems to like NXT. And what's the key ingredient that's missing? Vinny". Suggests they let Hunter run things for a month and see what happens. 

- An example of Vince changing things in a positive way: Jon wanted to take a pair of pliers and try and rip Seth's tongue out during their Summerslam match in 2014. Vince suggested that Jon curb stomp Seth instead. And both of them [Seth/Jon] had a light bulb moment and were like "he pulled one out of his hat, he's still a genius". 

- Said he always tried to give Vince the benefit of the doubt because "he created wrestling" but he didn't see a lot of that genius in his final few months. "In 2019, I don't think he knows what the f--- is going on". 

- Thinks HHH has what it takes to take the reigns from Vince- "who else is there?". He's a much better option [between Vince and HHH]. 

- Says it wouldn't be a "free for all" under Hunter, but "maybe it would be better". Says Hunter is more open and collaborative. 

- Says he was the mouthpiece for the Shield because he was the most comfortable talking. 

- When he first got to WWE main roster, he assumed that the scripts were "a suggestion". Says he felt like he'd made a horrible mistake when he realized the had to read exactly what was on the script. 

- Says he still remembers doing his first in-ring promo as the Shield. They got backstage after the promo, all hyped up and adrenaline running and, once the dust settled, they all realized that none of them understood what they had just said in the ring. 

- Said he thought the pre-Summerslam 2017 storyline between him and Seth was "pretty good stuff", even though it was entirely scripted. 

- Says (before the Shield was officially in the works), he was supposed to debut and work with Mick Foley (they had even started working together on social media). It turned out that Foley was injured and could never get cleared to wrestle- so it never happened. In his mind, at the time, he thought it was going to be the greatest angle of all-time. He didn't know he would've been given a script and, when he found out, he knew he would've reacted poorly because of how excited he was (and subsequently they would've labelled him as having a bad attitude). Says he's glad it never happened that way. 

- Jon/Dean says Vince believes you have to "tell a story" in the ring. He doesn't care about the moves or "wrestling" wrestling. He needs a story. Working over the leg etc. "You wouldn't believe some of the stuff he just buries and the people he rides so hard". 

- Says Vince is "always what he's been" but the world around him has changed. 

- 3 hours of RAW "dilutes" the product. When it's all produced and all looks the same, it gets diluted. Says he doesn't know how they fill 3 hours of RAW every week. 

- "They retread the same matches over and over. Some guys just don't ever get used". But the guys that get used, are "over-used" and they retread the same matches over and over. So you see a PPV calibre match- but three weeks in a row. Said a lot of the top stars would prefer to give somebody else a shot, rather than wrestle the same opponent three weeks in a row. Mentioned Tyler Breeze, Chad Gable and Apollo Crews as talent that doesn't get used, but should be used instead of seeing "Dean Ambrose vs Drew McIntyre" three weeks in a row. 

- He remembers the sufferin' succotash day. "Do you think [Roman] wanted to say that?". Says Roman went into Vince's office after receiving the script. Roman asked Jon/Dean after he came out of Vince's office "is there a cool way to say it?". 

- Says he's glad he's friends with Roman, or he'd "resent the hell out of him". Says there were plenty of times he felt he had a stronger connection with the fans than [Roman] did- but he was his best friend. 

- Assumed they canned the Nia Jax angle because of the press release and the fact the fans would know he was leaving (and subsequently why he believed it was happening). 

- Said he was worried how he was going to deal with being in an angle where he's throwing punches at a woman when his "Feminist hero wife" was on commentary. 

- Says it got "awkward" towards the end. They kept making him come out and say "goodbye to the crowd". Said it was strange because he knew where he was going to go (but nobody else knew), so "he didn't know what to say to the crowds". Says he remembers one of his goodbyes, just putting his head on Roman's shoulder and saying to him "this is getting awkward, dude". 

- On the night after Mania RAW, Michael Hayes told him to go out and say goodbye to the crowd. In his mind, he was thinking- "I'm not saying goodbye to them, I'm saying goodbye to you. This is the night after Mania crowd, half of them (if not more) are probably going to be at Double or Nothing."