Typically, within the wrestling world, discourse will get channeled right into a binary. You’ll be able to both like a wrestler or hate them.

With Jon Moxley, I neither hate nor love him. By all accounts, he looks like a pleasant sufficient man, and is a good wrestler with a fanbase, however then again, I’ve by no means purchased the concept that he’s an elite-level employee, worthy of inclusion into the Wrestling Observer Corridor of Fame among the many finest to ever do it. So, let’s discover why.

To start out with, let’s have a look at the work case.

What’s Jon Moxley, the employee, like? That he doesn’t wrestle in a extremely athletic fashion is not any mark towards him. Most of the best had been all about making the fundamentals look good. And that’s type of the place his case first slips up. See, I do know Moxley is an efficient wrestler, however there are specific repeating patterns: poorly laid-in strikes and sloppy offense that happens far too recurrently for the notion that he’s an all-timer to actually stick. His followers will let you know that ‘it’s all a part of the allure,’ and I should purchase that argument, among the finest wrestlers of all time weren’t polished performers. However given Moxley’s alleged premier fashion is brawling, you’d assume he’d be a bit higher at laying within the close-quarter strikes. Certainly, his run with the Blackpool Fight Membership (BCC) has led to him trying to emulate Bryan Danielson in sure respects, with less-than-pretty outcomes.

Moxley additionally holds the excellence of being one-half of what I’d name one of many worst match in AEW historical past, a majorly hyped exploding barbed wire match that resulted in a literal dud. I do know different folks rated this extremely—ending thirty second within the Voices of Wrestling Match of the Yr countdown—however from my very own rubric, while you take note of the hype, the hubris, the inspiration, the place on the cardboard and the payoff, it was horrible. Although the glint debacle was not both wrestler’s fault, even earlier than the countdown, I felt the match beforehand was a plodding affair that at one level featured Moxley DDTing himself into barbed wire. Perhaps the concept was that it was to indicate sacrifice, but it surely got here throughout as reckless and lacked understanding of the stress and artistry that made the unique barbed wire matches so compelling

For essentially the most half, nevertheless, there’s no denying that Moxley will get a crowd sizzling, and his matches are primarily good. His gimmick of bleeding in nearly each match is cute, however once more, by way of inventive benefit, it’s not precisely pushing any boundaries. I’m not arguing that he’s a nasty wrestler. He’s clearly a very good one, however can anybody actually say that by way of efficiency, whether or not on promos, match high quality, or simply as a performer that Moxley has modified the sport by way of innovation or transcendent moments?

So, it’s definitely not work that’s making the case for Moxley, so how about historic significance or draw? Because the launch of AEW, there’s been an entire raft of wrestlers that many are claiming have solidified their case as a result of success of the corporate. AEW actually is successful story, although, with notable exceptions of The Elite and CM Punk, it’s troublesome to argue that anyone wrestler has been both important to the model or popped important buyrates. After all, now, Moxley is a longtime a part of the roster and one of many high names. However there have been numerous predominant eventers on televised wrestling previously three many years. A few of them, for instance, Randy Orton, Edge, and Roman Reigns are on the Wrestling Observer Corridor of Fame poll now; others dropped off (Samoa Joe involves thoughts).

After we speak about historic significance, an excellent rule of thumb is perhaps whether or not we see somebody as contributing to the story of professional wrestling as an business/artwork kind. Wrestlers like Orton and Edge are well-known, beloved characters throughout the WWE system, however I can’t actually see them as being something to the broader story of wrestling. Sure, they got the helm at sure factors in WWE’s historical past, however to me, a Corridor of Famer is somebody who makes the model, not the opposite means round. Samoa Joe, then again, is somebody who generated an aura round himself within the 2000s, one which transcended no matter promotion he labored for. Does Moxley fall extra in the direction of the Joes or the Ortons of this world?

On the one hand, Moxley seems to be the man that AEW has known as upon as a dependable plan B when main line reserving plans go awry. I’m unsure why that is usually framed as a case for his Corridor of Fame candidacy, as substitutes, even nice ones, should not the stuff of Corridor of Fame runs. This argument usually takes on absurd ranges the place the declare is one thing alongside the strains of “Moxley was known as on to save lots of the corporate,” a line of argument that suggests that AEW was one way or the other in peril of failing till Moxley had a title reign. Arguments like this wish to have their cake and eat it: Moxley ought to get in as a result of AEW is a roaring success, and he’s one of many high guys, but in addition, the corporate was very near failing, and he stepped in to put it aside. Nicely, which is it? Is the corporate successful, or did he save a fragile entity?

I’m going to pose a query right here: What has Moxley achieved that Christian Cage hasn’t?

Cage has by no means been on the Wrestling Observer Corridor of Fame poll, however he has a storied profession in wrestling: a part of a legendary, genre-breaking, sequence of ladder matches, and a world title winner in a number of promotions. In a transfer similar to Moxley, Cage jumped from WWE to guess on himself within the premier secondary promotion of the period. It’s maybe one other article as to why wrestlers related to that promotion are routinely snubbed from Corridor of Fame ballots, but when your argument is that AEW is conveniently within the Goldilocks zone of being clearly smaller than WWE however larger than TNA ever was, and that’s why Moxley deserves to be within the Wrestling Observer Corridor of Fame, then you might be now not arguing for a wrestler, however for a promotion and the wrestler who has turn out to be a proxy for them reasonably than an artist in their very own proper.

Take that different ‘Wild Factor,’ Atsushi Onita, anybody who has seen his barbed wire matches will acknowledge they’re watching a Corridor of Fame act. There is no such thing as a want to start out combing by drawing information or speaking about whether or not FMW was a large enough promotion relative to others. So in case your argument is that Moxley is a Corridor of Fame wrestler as a result of AEW is successful, then I’m afraid that’s not ample until you may explicitly draw strains of proof. As soon as we begin entering into the concept that everybody who had title reign in particular promotions is worthy of the Corridor of Fame, then voting itself will turn out to be soulless and perfunctory.

I haven’t actually talked about a lot of Moxley’s WWE profession. As Dean Ambrose, Moxley had a powerful WWE profession as a part of the Protect and even gained the WWE title, however nobody ever stated that he was Corridor of Fame materials popping out of it. Certainly, whereas the Protect run was undoubtedly nice, his solo run there, by no actual fault of his personal, was characterised by ‘wacky’ feuds and showing weak in comparison with the S-Class of WWE’s roster, i.e. the folks we might haven’t any argument in including to a wrestling Corridor of Fame.

The primary argument we’ve seen for Moxley appears to be that he has gained the Lou Thesz/Ric Aptitude Wrestler of the Yr Award twice. This isn’t a ample argument. That a variety of followers voted for him as their wrestler of the 12 months tells us little or no about what makes him a Corridor of Famer. By way of constructing an proof base, the outcomes of fan-voted awards are secondary assets; they’re the fingers that time us towards the first proof however can not stand for major proof in and of themselves, particularly within the period the place we’ve greater than sufficient tape to work with.

There are definitely factors the place you may argue for Moxley’s case. Arguably, given his robust showings in Japan and the US indies, he has a declare to be a model of his personal and never simply an AEW determine. On leaving WWE, he demonstrated glorious public relations administration in setting himself up as an outlaw-type determine, full with artfully taken black and white photographs of him smoking a cigarette and ingesting backstage. As such, he turned a profitable avatar for all of the lapsed WWE followers. Once more, in an identical solution to Christian, as a personality, he’s beloved as he stands for the choice.

So I’m not rigidly towards the concept of Moxley as a corridor of famer, as there are definitely factors in his favor, however maybe we have to maintain the horses till we get a correct profession retrospective. The true hazard of opening up the Corridor of Fame to folks at 35, is that we get folks mistaking their present fandom for objectivity. There have been wrestlers previously who had been shortly bundled over the road on the top of their careers that, on reflection, appeared untimely. The addition of wrestlers like Moxley, particularly at this unfinished stage of his profession, would set a precedent the place the Wrestling Observer Corridor of Fame merely turns into a reputation contest for present wrestlers, which might be a disservice to pointers that had been set as much as patrol it.

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