All Elite Wrestling World Champion Jon Moxley has explained how he dealt with the “pressure” of delivering scripted promos at the behest of a “74-year-old madman.”
Speaking with Busted Open Radio, Moxley opened up about how AEW gives him creative freedom on the mic. According to Moxley, the promotion simply doesn’t give him a script to work off of. Moxley then juxtaposed this experience with his time in WWE.
He shared how, “If I had to boil it down to one thing that drove me crazier than anything was the fact that I got handed a script and told what to say.”
He recalled how the first time it happened was when he was in The Shield with Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. Moxley revealed they had never been handed a script before, even in developmental. Hearing the term “scripted promos” blew his mind the first time he heard it.Â
Jon Moxley’s Script Pressure
When first going over the script, he was surprised at how detailed and specific he needed to be. At first, Moxley had assumed the writing was more of a “suggestion.”
After approaching the writer with some ideas to add, he quickly found out how he was expected to recite the lines verbatim.
“I remember having this feeling in the pit of my stomach, like oh my God, I made a terrible mistake…I’ll tell you what pressure is. Pressure is having a two-page script written by a 74-year-old madman that makes no sense to you that’s going to make you look stupid and your on worldwide TV live and you have to memorize every single line and somehow try to pull it off and not look like a total jackass. That’s pressure.”
Jon Moxley added how he felt he managed to pull it off most of the time. He did acknowledge there were plenty of times where he wasn’t able to. With AEW, however, Moxley will “never have to be in that situation again.”
