Jon Moxley Discusses Finding His Rhythm In The Ring After Getting Sober And Returning

Jon Moxley stepped away from the spotlight at the beginning of November 2021 when it was announced that he would be entering inpatient alcohol treatment. He would return to wrestling in mid-January, picking up where he left off in terms of his in-ring schedule.

Moxley recently opened up about his struggles with drinking and how he would need to drink to stay level in certain aspects of his life. 

Adjusting to life inside the ring was one aspect of Moxley’s newfound sobriety as his body had changed and his rhythm was different. 

“When I first wrestled again, I came back in January, it was weird. It felt strange,” Moxley said on The Sessions with his wife Renee Paquette. “I came back and did a promo, and that was cool because I didn’t have to do anything physical, I just got to talk. I was super relaxed. My first match back, you think, ‘Now you’re sober, you’re going to feel like a million dollars.’ It doesn’t really work like that. It was weird. It was like my legs were in quicksand. I didn’t have any adrenaline, not so much that I didn’t have adrenaline, so much as I wasn’t nervous. It’s hard to put into words, but it used to be this big, long, giant process to get ready to go out and do a match, this transformation to get ready to go to the ring. People who don’t spend their lives partying too much probably take for granted just waking up in the morning and feeling good. I feel like I’m cheating. The novelty hasn’t fully worn off. Just waking up and being like, ‘Okay.’ I don’t have to worry about being massively dehydrated or feeling like crap. For me, it’s like I have a cheat code. The first match, I felt terrible. I felt off. It was weird. I can’t really explain it, I was like chemically imbalanced and it was strange. It got a little better the next match. I finally wrestled Bryan (Danielson) at the pay-per-view [AEW Revolution], more or less went to the ring like the first time I ever met him, just got in the ring and wrestled, and then I started feeling my mojo again, but it took me like a month.” 

Moxley’s first match back took place on the January 21 episode of AEW Rampage. The bout with Danielson was March 6. 

“It was stressful. ‘Oh no, do I suck now? This sucks.’ Very quickly, got my mojo back. It’s somewhere in the middle of that match with Bryan, something snapped back, and it’s been better and better. I’m having a pretty good year. Having a ton of fun and a bunch of really good matches. Starting to put everything together as far as the style I want to do, the style I even pictured three years ago while I was hurt in WWE after I worked every night with a torn tricep and I was off,” said Moxley.

Moxley has kept a busy schedule since returning in January, wrestling for AEW, GCW, NJPW, and various Independent promotions. 

Moxley is set to headline AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door when he takes on Hiroshi Tanahashi for the Interim AEW World Title. Fans can check out the current lineup for Forbidden Door by clicking here. 

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