Jon Moxley (aka Dean Ambrose) appeared on Chris Jericho’s podcast, Talk Is Jericho, to break down his decision to leave WWE.
After WWE announced in January that Ambrose was leaving the company in January, he was booked in a segment on Raw where Nia Jax sent him through the ropes with a forearm to his back.
It looked as though the two would go on to have a one-on-one match — WWE even advertised it for a live event at one stage — but it ended up being cancelled.
Ambrose went on to lose matches against Elias and Drew McIntyre in his last few months in WWE, while his most surprising defeat came when he lost to EC3 in a brief match on the February 4 episode of Raw.
At the following weekend’s house show loop, EC3 as a babyface beat Ambrose as a heel. Fans, however, cheered Ambrose at the shows, which Ambrose feels made EC3 came off bad in the eyes of management. Ambrose feels that EC3 is now being treated unfairly by WWE because of him.
Jericho: Did you feel at any point, besides the few times you mentioned with Nia Jax, that they tried to bury you in any other way?
Mox: Well… so after that they did the weird press release, then they put me against EC3, debuting from NXT. Great talent, great friend of mine, excited to work with him. They have EC3 come in as a babyface, defeat me in two minutes. I dunno if this is before or after the press release, uh… it’s at like the same time. The crowd does not like this, because it’s transparent what’s happening and this is not a… this is not good for EC3, because now he’s gonna get the backlash.
So it was an unfair position for him to be put in. So we get to that weekend, I’m working with EC3 on house shows, now I’m the biggest babyface on the show. I’m a heel, I’m thumbing him in the eye, I’m making fun of the town, it doesn’t matter, they’re…
Jericho: Because you’re the bigger name and you’re the underdog now.
Mox: Yeah, they’re violently rejecting him as a babyface and they’re cheering the hell out of me. It’s got nothing to do with him, it’s like an anti-WWE…
Jericho: Yeah, you’re a martyr.
Mox: Yeah so… then they go, talking to the writer by text and he’s like “You’re gonna work with EC3 again, he beats you in two minutes again,” and I was like, I couldn’t help it, I was like, “Fine, that’s cool. Am I the only one that sees the inherent problem in this?” And even the writer knew, was like “Oh, that it’s making you a babyface or looks like we were burying you and that’s backfiring?” and I was like, “Yep, that stuff, that’s what I was talking about” and he was like “Yep, I know.”
But it’s Vince, “He’s got you, he’s determined!” So by the time we get to that Monday there are, from what I understand, the reports from the house shows, the producers telling him what happened, and he’s pissed. Apparently he’s like, mad about this. That like, god forbid, so sorry that the fans, who I’ve busted my ass for for years, might be upset at the fact that you want to bury me on the way out, y’know, like… Sorry, dude, y’know?
EC3 lost to Ambrose the very next week on Raw. He didn’t wrestle again on Raw until last week’s scramble match for the WWE 24/7 Championship. He mostly appears on WWE Main Event, but has lost to Cedric Alexander the last three weeks.
EC3 didn’t mention Moxley or the Jericho podcast by name, but he did tweet out this message Wednesday afternoon.
Thank you. The feeling is mutual. Good luck.
— ecIII (@therealec3) May 29, 2019
