The following is a MOX book review. I talk about what I liked, disliked, and learned from reading these 269 pages. I’ll dive into some of the most interesting stories. For example, why didn’t Jon Moxley think it was a big deal when he dropped out of high school? What are some of his main interests when he’s away from the ring?
MOX by Jon Moxley is an autobiography of Jonathan David Good. All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and independent wrestling fans know him as Jon Moxley. World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) fans know him as Dean Ambrose. From this point forward, I’ll mostly refer to him as Moxley because he currently uses that name.
The book of zero fucks. Tales of the Titty Master. pic.twitter.com/w2Us6MD6YR
— Jon Moxley (@JonMoxley) May 21, 2021
Why Did I Buy MOX By Jon Moxley?
I saw this book while roaming around a bookstore. There was an urge inside me to buy it. I’ve always liked Moxley but he’s not on my Mt. Rushmore of favorite wrestlers. Moxley is like an unhinged Fonzie. He’s great on the mic and his character is silly enough for me to enjoy. He’s MUCH better than Ambrose eating hot dogs.
I rarely read books because I’m more into reading blogs, writing, watching videos, and listening to music. There isn’t enough time for me to read much. Something drew me to this book though so I went home and bought it on Amazon.
About The Author
Jon Moxley is one of the top professional wrestlers in the world. He is Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s 2020 Wrestler of the Year and was Sports Illustrated’s 2019 Wrestler of the Year. He was a WWE Grand Slam Champion, holding all WWE titles at least once, an IWGP Champion, and AEW World Champion. Known for his renegade style and hard-hitting interviews, he has seen it all and done it all in the wild business of pro wrestling—the sport he has loved since he was a child. He lives in Las Vegas with his wife Renee, their child, and two dogs.
Jon Moxley, MOX, pg. 269
MOX: Introduction
A vivid trip through the mind of the top professional wrestler in the business—a nobody from nowhere who achieved his ambitions and walked away with the gold and the girl of his dreams.
Jon Moxley, MOX, opening introduction
Ride alongside Jon Moxley as he retraces some of the highways traveled on his remarkable journey. Revel in the never-before-told stories about his early life in Cincinnati, Ohio; the gritty independent wrestling scene where he cut his teeth; the complicated corporate landscape of the WWE where he bucked against authority; and the rebellious upstart AEW, where he won the championship in 2020 and was finally free to achieve the vision of the wrestler he’d always wanted to be.
With plenty of pit stops and revelatory insights, including grisly ultraviolent encounters, crazy characters who became lifelong friends, and his unforgettable matches in Japan, MOX is the riveting account of the life of a brawler. It is a tale written in blood and soaked in debauchery, with a good dose of wisdom accumulated along the way.
More than a backstage pass into the arena, MOX is a ticket into the ring. Once inside, you’ll never look at pro wrestling the same again.
MOX: Prologue Summary
The prologue (page 8-9) is one full page long. Moxley claims that wrestling can be ANYTHING. It’s everything from world-class athletes, Broadway, Shakespeare, summer blockbusters, best-selling novels, soap operas, high art, entertainment, movies, music, and nobodies from nowhere who say “(bleep) you!” to the world.
Moxley questions his own identity. He places on himself a lot of negative labels. His conclusion is that, more than anything else, he wants to be a good father. He hopes that readers can learn from the 35 years of experiences that he shares throughout MOX.
MOX: My Thoughts From Beginning To End
Superhuman Or Inhuman?
Let me start with a couple paragraphs that I wrote in a spotlight blog about Sheamus‘s Celtic Warrior Workouts YouTube channel.
Wrestlers are superhuman. I’m baffled at how humans can train their bodies to take dozens of bumps a night. Diamond Dallas Page compared a wrestling match to going through four different car crashes per night. According to wrestling legend Bret Hart, there was a time when wrestlers were on the road for 300 to 320 days per year. He did this for 23 years.
How is that even possible? These wrestlers take high bumps yet I see football players whose knees explode without contact. Wrestlers often don’t sleep in their beds, eat home-cooked meals, nor have sustained relationships with their spouses and kids. They put their bodies through physical torture yet they have limited resources for recovery. I haven’t even talked about how they need to find the time and energy to fit leg day into all of this.
Joshua Huffman (me), Celtic Warrior Workouts: YouTube Spotlight Of The Best, 14
The MOX release date was on November 2, 2021. That’s almost the exact same time when Moxley entered an alcohol treatment program. That is to say that the book doesn’t go into his rehab stint nor does it cover any admission phase. You can read about that in this Marc Raimondi article where Moxley states that “I was in a living hell.”
Readers only need to read between the lines. It’s easy to see how Moxley needed rehab to fix his demons. He and most of his peers were rampant drug and alcohol users. Beer and hard liquor played a role in nearly all of Moxley’s social gatherings.
Wrestlers go through living hell. I’ll never understand how their bodies withstand the initial training without breaking down due to serious injuries. Then I read about Moxley drinking almost every night, smoking crack, doing ecstasy, and sleeping about two hours per night on the floor. I think of Ric Flair claiming to down 15 drinks every night for more than 20 years. Are drugs and alcohol the way that wrestlers can hide the physical pain from taking hundreds of bumps per week?
I could never do what these men do. If I drink four beers then I won’t want to do anything until about 7 p.m. the next day. These men can drink that before bleeding out for 60 minutes as if nothing happened. Nick Gage passed away for seven minutes after a 2009 Tournament of Death match. Gage didn’t want to go to the hospital; he wanted to get back in the ring.
Why Did Jon Moxley Drop Out Of High School?
Moxley knew at a young age that he wanted to become a professional wrestler. Those feelings intensified when he watched a Heartland Wrestling Association (HWA) wrestling show at the Red Barn Flea Market in 2003. He thumbed through the program to find “Les Thatcher‘s Main Event Pro Wrestling Camp.” The ad stated that only 18 and up could apply but the 17-year-old Moxley ignored that.
Moxley tells us about his first visit with the camp. Thatcher had a long conversation with him. Moxley couldn’t start training until he got about $2,500. The goal was to start training when he turned 18 years old. He started doing security at the arena and working third shifts at a Perkins restaurant. Eventually, he quit going to school because it wasn’t a priority. Education would’ve only delayed his dream of becoming a professional wrestler.
The Shield / Dean Ambrose
The Shield was a WWE stable that was composed of Ambrose (now Moxley), Seth Rollins, and Roman Reigns. Ambrose lets us in on some of the frustrations that he and Rollins shared before they were called up to the main roster. A lot of their matches and segments were made on the fly. Everything was day to day but never long term.
Ambrose stated that The Shield was super over because they were like the old Soviet hockey teams. Their stable was more about a system of teamwork than a collection of individual talent. Vince McMahon may have saved their stable from early humiliation because he stopped them from taking shields to the ring.
Cutting Sandwiches
There’s a chapter dedicated to sandwiches. Moxley says there are four pillars to the perfect sandwich: bread, ingredients, balance, and entry point. Readers learn that one of his favorite sandwiches is a Chipwich: Wonder Bread, potato or tortilla chips, and Miracle Whip. Moxley talks about what creates the perfect balance of all the ingredients while the sandwich maintains its structure.
Moxley says that it infuriates him when his sandwiches aren’t properly cut. Bagels are a major problem for him. He states, “…I’m not a Burmese python. How the (bleep) am I supposed to get my mouth around this?”
Why doesn’t he ask for a knife so he could cut the sandwich? The restaurant must’ve had a knife or some type of cutlery packet that he could use. Moxley says that he doesn’t want to be one of those people. There’s so much “I don’t give a damn what they think” throughout this book but you’re going to get soft with the sandwich makers?
This chapter had nothing to do with wrestling yet it was one of my favorite. Eating sandwiches may rival his passion for wrestling.
No Story Sequencing
This is my main annoyance with MOX. I’ve never read such a scatterbrained book. From pages 102-155, Moxley goes from talking about his mid-2000s HWA training days to a 2016 WWE Roadblock match against Triple H to a 2008 program with Drake Younger to the 2021 exploding barbwire deathmatch with Kenny Omega. The Deftones and the 2009 film, “Law Abiding Citizen” had pages dedicated to them.
This got quite annoying after awhile. I’m reading a certain part of his career that fascinates me but he drifts off into something completely unrelated. The book had no story sequencing whatsoever. It made it unnecessarily difficult to follow along because I had to keep recalling past and future events from 50 pages ago.
Attention to Detail…
Moxley has an uncanny ability to recall his past experiences. He describes the most vivid details about the environments that he was at and the people that he worked with. For example, Moxley explains minor tidbits such as having the windows down and the radio station that was playing in his ’97 Ranger as he drove home from the Red Barn Flea Market show. This makes it a lot easier to feel as if you’re the one who’s experiencing the events.
Kudos to Moxley for having the brainpower to do that because that’s something I can’t do. I could experience the greatest moment of my life but I won’t recall at least 95 percent of it after 48 hours. There’s no way that I would remember the scents of the arena, the sights of the wrestlers, and the sounds of the wrestlers and what they’re calling out during the matches.
…Too Much Detail?
…Or I took something on purpose, I don’t know. I would take all kinds of random (bleep) back then. I had reached a point where I didn’t care about the future or anyone else’s definition of success. I was living for the here and now, performing in electric, bright plasma-red technicolor. I wanted to tell stories loudly, aggressively and unapologetically. I wanted to revel in sadism. I wanted to shock and disturb audiences. I wanted to have filth drunk sex with every aspect of deathmatch wrestling and really put the focus on the details. That is to say, I don’t care about the model with big fake tits. I wanna smell the armpits of the cute, homeless chick.
Jon Moxley, MOX, pg. 157
Personal Tastes
Moxley randomly inserts his favorite movies and songs throughout MOX. Readers learn of his affinity for Slayer, Metallica, 1991’s “Point Break,” 1986’s “Highlander,” Lana Del Rey, 1989’s “Major League,” 1990’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” 1991’s “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” Green Day, 1995’s “Crimson Tide,” The Game, Deftones, 2009’s “Law Abiding Citizen,” Jenny Lewis, Shooter Jennings, and 1993’s “Jurassic Park.” Moxley goes into detail about why he’s drawn to these musicians and movies.
The Most Relatable Story
Moxley tells a story from when he was dating his now-wife Renee Paquette. She told him that, “I can’t believe how comfortable you are with making people uncomfortable. I don’t know how you can just sit down at a table full of people and not say anything.” Moxley claimed that he didn’t have anything to say and that he learns a lot more from listening. Paquette says that this made people feel very uneasy around him.
I agree 1,000 percent with Moxley. I’d guess that 90 percent of what people ask me at social gatherings is “How’s work?” or “Green Bay Packers.” I have nothing to say about either of these things. It’s awkward because the people asking me don’t care neither. They just put on this phony charade for the sake of conversation.
Why would I want to talk about work when I’m not there? I’ll talk about work when I’m getting paid to do that. You don’t work where I do so talking about it is as useless as speaking Chinese to someone who doesn’t know the language. Talking about work when off the clock is the equivalent of using the restroom before clocking in.
Social gatherings are almost always people complaining about First World problems. I’d rather spend the time either fixing my problems or sleeping so I have the energy to fix them later. It’s not my job to start a conversation. If you have something interesting to say then say it.
I’m a big listener. I’ll go find a YouTube or podcast with an expert or fanatic who has similar passions. If I have something to say then I’ll leave a comment or a tweet.
MOX Book Review: Final
This was a fascinating dive into the mind of a professional wrestler. Many people will find MOX as an unpleasant read because of the lack of story sequencing and paragraphs that were nearly an entire page long. This definitely wasn’t the best written book from a technical perspective. That said, I still enjoyed reading it.
Let’s go back to the prologue. Moxley claimed that his goal was to teach readers through his 35 years of life experiences. The reoccurring theme from this book was to never quit on a dream. Don’t let the critics dictate your path in life. Stand up to bullies so they don’t bury you into the ground. Keep doing the grunt work that makes it possible for you to do what you want in the long term.
The prologue goal was a mission accomplished. There’s a lot more about Moxley’s life and career than what I’ve covered here. I’d encourage any wrestling fan to at least skim through it at a bookstore. This was a very good book and I’m happy to have listened to my random gut instinct to buy it.