Jon Moxley Reveals Where He Got His AEW Ring Name From

Jon Moxley was AEW's first guest on their first official podcast and relayed a story about where his AEW ring name came from. Frankly, it's quite an amazing story.

With AEW now officially in the podcast game, it makes sense that Moxley (real name Jonathan Good) would be the wrestling company's first guest. He's arguably the biggest acquisition AEW has made since introducing itself to wrestling fans and he was perhaps the most famous of stars brought in, having recently wrestled for WWE as a main-event star under the name Dean Ambrose.

Moxley explained on AEW’s new official podcast Unrestricted that the name was bestowed on him and in a manner of just a few moments before he had a match in his hometown of Cincinnati in 2004. Still a high-school student at the time, Moxley said another aspiring wrestler at Les Thatcher’s wrestling academy was teamed up with him to be a“stoner football players” tag team.  They hadn’t come up with a name, but he was about to go out in front of a live audience and needed one fast.

"I’d probably been thinking about names for years and years, but I had no ideas," he said. He explained, "So, right before I’m about to go out the ring announcer said, ‘What’s the name?’ I didn’t have one. I was baffled. I froze up. I didn’t have a good name." Another wrestler told them they looked a bit like the cast of the famous football film Varsity Blues and that he personally looked like the character Jonathan Moxley. He said, "I was too nervous to say yes or no."

No one actually realized until later the character's last name in the film is actually Moxon.

Amazing How A Name Can Be A Happy Accident

Saying, "It wasn’t my idea at all. It was just foisted upon me," the name stuck. Even though he dropped the football gimmick six month later, "I just kept the name, locally. I’ve always kept it. I don’t mind it. It works."

Now, Moxley is one of the biggest stars in wrestling and his name (or nickname "Mox") was one of the most talked-about names over the past year. The video he released on the night his WWE contract expired is a major contributor behind his newfound success and can be argued a key factor in AEW's early praise.

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