Major AEW Star Warns Company Must Be Different From WWE

The Continental Classic is in full swing in AEW and Jon Moxley says everyone is doing their best to make the tournament different from the competition.

The Continental Classic is AEW’s round-robin tournament that is reminiscent of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s famed G1 Climax. The AEW Continental Classic winner will win a new version of an American Triple Crown comprised of the ROH World Title, the NJPW STRONG Openweight Championship, and the AEW Continental Championship.

Jon Moxley is having a strong showing in the competition and is one of the favourites to progress to the tournament final that will take place at Worlds End.

Jon Moxley Says AEW Needs To Be Different

Speaking to Bleacher Report, Jon Moxley opened up about the Continental Classic tournament and noted that while there will be comparisons to other tournaments in WWE and NJPW, AEW must remain an alternative:

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. 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.

During Moxley’s career, he has been a part of both the WWE King of the Ring and NJPW’s G1 Climax in the past. In WWE when he was known as Dean Ambrose he lost in a quarter-final match against Sheamus in the 2015 King of the Ring tournament. Four years later he was part of the G1 following his WWE exit where he finished two points behind Block B winner Jay White.