Jon Moxley Explains Why He Loves Blood In Pro Wrestling
It’s no secret that Jon Moxley has a fondness for bleeding during his matches, perhaps more so than most of his contemporaries. As it turns out, there’s a specific reason why he’s so lax towards donning the crimson mask.
Jon Moxley cut his teeth on the hardcore and deathmatch circuit before signing with WWE. He rarely bled during his WWE career because that company shunned blood so much that unintentional bleeding oftentimes caused matches to be stopped and greyed out.
In AEW and elsewhere, however, Moxley appears to have returned to his roots. He favors an ultra-violent style and isn’t afraid of using extreme weapons. In fact, in a recent match with Jun Kasai in Japan, Moxley allowed Kasai to skewer him with multiple wooden sticks in one of the most gruesome wrestling moments of the year.
With so much violence and blood in Jon Moxley’s matches, some fans have begun asking why Moxley’s so liberal about these visual elements being added to his matches.
In response, Jon Moxley sat down with Sports Illustrated and explained his position on blading. According to Moxley, blood adds realism to what he does in the ring
“This is a combat sport. 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.
Sometimes when I don’t even want it to. But I only know one speed. That’s with my foot to the gas pedal. If we’re going to do something, let’s f—ing 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.”
Jon Moxley also commented on the specific issue of his matches having either too much blood or him bleeding too often, including in relatively inconsequential matches, to the point that doing so allegedly reduces the importance of blood in the first place.
“When it comes to blood, it’s just going to happen sometimes. 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-f—ing-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 point of the dissertation is that this is a combat sport. 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.”
Lastly, Jon Moxley also noted that he believes that going out of his way to prevent anyone from bleeding, whether it’s himself or his opponent, risks making his wrestling come across as less realistic.”
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. 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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