AEW World Champion Jon Moxley battled Jake Hager in an Empty Arena No Holds Barred match on the April 15th edition of AEW Dynamite.
Moxley spoke about the experience during a recent interview with SEScoops to promote his new movie Cagefighter: Worlds Collide. You can hear his comments below.
“You know it was a thing where I just got to Jacksonville,” Moxley began. “We had no real plan we just knew we had to film stuff. We were only allowed 10 people in the building at that time. So we didn’t even have anybody dotted in the audience to make any energy whatsoever.”
The match was set up when Moxley attacked Hager at the March 25th edition of Dynamite. AEW hyped the bout for several weeks before delivering on April 15th. Moxley says they went into the 3/25 show without much of a plan and decided on the spot to film the angle and the match that night ‘just in case.’
“It was a thing where it’s just like, ‘Alright well let’s just get this in the can.’ We kind of cobbled together a little program really quickly, ‘You can drop me, no sell a DDT and choke me out. Then we’ll go to the World Title match, let’s just do it tonight and get it in the can.’ Because we didn’t know when we’d be able to film again.”
It turned out to be the right call. The COVID-19 pandemic quickly brought about dramatic changes to AEW’s production schedule. The company began taping several weeks of shows in advance, with most of the roster unable to appear.
Jon Moxley vs. Jake Hager
Moxley describes a ‘different energy’ from the no-crowd experience. AEW’s rabid crowds provide the performers with a ton of energy to feed off, but the champ had to get into his own headspace this night.
“We just went out to the ring and and wrestled. It was actually really fun, it’s different energy, you know? It’s obviously so awesome, the adrenaline spike and just the crazy fun of coming out with the crowd at a live AEW Dynamite; where the house is packed and they’re going nuts and walking through the people high five-ing and getting ready to get into a big brawl or whatever, you know? The adrenaline is like off-the-charts.”
“With this you have to go to a different place. To me? For some matches I worked myself up to the point where with matches or promos or whatever? I worked myself up to a point where I think ‘I really hate this guy and I really want to go out there and hurt him.’ So, I guess it’s similar in that way to a movie. You got to bring the energy from within. And then that match, add that nice Florida humidity, and I broke a nice little sweat. I got into a groove, just kind of free flowing and wrestling. And we beat the absolute hell out of each other and it was quite fun.”
Catch Jon Moxley in Cagefighter: Worlds Collide – premiering Saturday, May 16th on FITE pay-per-view.
You can see the finish of Jon Moxley vs. Jake Hager below:
