AEW recently secured a new $185 million streaming deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, meaning it can now be found on Max as well as TBS and TNT. Despite that monetary success, interest in the product continues to decline.
Viewership has fallen significantly in recent years as has attendance. Now, it seems next to impossible for AEW to come close to selling out another stadium.
Recent months have seen Jon Moxley become AEW Champion for the fourth time; alongside his Death Riders stable, he's in the midst of a hostile takeover of Tony Khan's promotion...a storyline we've already seen when Jack Perry and The Young Bucks attacked the AEW President.
For Moxley, this run is all about eliminating complacency from a company that's struggling. "We’re building. It’s about a lot more than what happens in the ring," he told Yahoo Sports. "Building something sustainable for the future that we can take pride in, we’ve been doing that for the past few months."
"It’s about a mindset and an approach of taking pride in what we do. We have a lot of guys and girls that are part of it," Moxley continued. "I’m pretty proud, but it’s a long game and it’s little tiny victories every day and a constant learning process. It’s really exciting."
He added, "I don’t work for AEW. I work for all of the people that need this place to succeed, that’s the way I look at it," he says. "For this place to succeed, we’ve got to operate at the highest level at every level. That’s what we accept if you’re going to be a part of this team. I feel a responsibility to these people because to be successful in wrestling, they’ve given and sacrificed their lives for the pursuit of this, as I had."
"I am but a servant to the pursuit of helping the whole thing, raising it up and bringing along as many people as we can. It’s making me better and helping me learn a hell of a lot."
As for how he views his current role in AEW, it sounds like Moxley is happy to be there (closing the door on a possible WWE return where he could reunite with Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins).
"It’s one of the most rewarding times in my career right now," Moxley told the site. "Where I’m at in my career, it’s rewarding every single day and I look forward to every single day for a different reason than I used to. It’s not just go out, get a big pop, flex, throw a t-shirt, sign an autograph. It’s the pursuit of something much greater than that. It’s fun, man."
As always, let us know your thoughts on these comments in the usual place.