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With the Pro Wrestling Illustrated 500 list rapidly hitting social media, fans from around the professional wrestling world have begun to debate who deserves the number one spot on the list, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Jon Moxley – who rank one, two, and three in a very The Shield-y coincidence – or another wrestler entirely.
Now, for fans of professional wrestling, especially Shieldheads from the mid-2010s, all three men have a pretty good case for the top spot, but who do Rollins, Reigns, and Moxley think deserves the moniker? Well, fans at least have an answer from the proprietor of Death Jutsu, as, on the Bleav Pro Wrestling podcast with Rick Ucchino, Mox named not just his favorite wrestler of the last evaluation period but quite possibly the “greatest pro wrestler that ever lived:” Bryan Danielson.
“Bryan, I consider maybe just the greatest pro wrestler that ever lived,” Jon Moxley said via Fightful. “Which is a very humbling thing that I get to say that, I get to be tag partners with him and work with him. To have somebody like that on your side, to bounce ideas off of it to play that Regal role and tell you this sucks or whatever, or change that, that’s an immense tool, that I don’t take for granted, that I have in my toolbox that I get to pick his brain. Bryan is like the greatest pure pro wrestler of all time. If you just picked him up and stuck him in any ring of the world, whether it be in the parking lot of an auto parts store in Tijuana, or the Tokyo Dome, or the main event of WrestleMania, or AEW Dynamite, you put him in any ring against any opponent with no context whatsoever and just ring the bell. Anybody watching, he will suck into that match, and they’ll feel like they’re watching a real struggle, and he just completely sucked into this match for the duration of it against anybody anywhere, anytime. He’s just the most perfect pure wrestler that’s ever lived. I’ve taken a great deal of influence from him, as I’m sure many pro wrestlers have.”
On paper, it's very hard to argue with Moxley's evaluation criteria, as he's wrestled with and against the “American Dragon” 105 times, according to Cagematch, and have been working together under the Blackpool Combat Club moniker since March of 2022. If anyone knows why Bryan Danielson deserves to win the Bryan Danielson award for the best technical wrestler in the world, according to the voters over at The Wrestling Observer, it would be Mox.
Jon Moxley reveals how his hard-fought style of wrestling has impacted his body.
Elsewhere on the Bleav Pro Wrestling podcast, Jon Moxley decided to peel back the curtains and reveal what it's like to have wrestled almost 2,000 matches over his professional career. After decades on the road and in the ring, Mox figures he has the arthritis of a man in his early 70s.
“I live a very physical lifestyle. But nothing to me is worse or does more damage than just the traveling. For years, it was like traveling was my job,” Moxle said via Fightful. “The wrestling part was kind of a reward at the end of the day, but your life becomes traveling at a certain point in this game. It’s really amazing how that adds up on your body and your joints. The doctor last year told me that I have the arthritis if a seventy-year-old man. That was quite humbling. That was a year or two, so by now it’s like a seventy-two-old man, so I don’t move very well in the morning. Thank god shows are at nights because by then, I’m pretty loosened up. If wrestling shows took place in the morning, like Saturday morning Superstars, if we started doing those early territory style studio TV tapings on Sunday mornings, I would retire. I’d be done. Because a lot of times I can’t even move before noon.”
From wrestling triple-digit matches each year, to the thousands of hours spent each ear in a car, bus, or airplane getting from one location to another, Moxle has put his body through a lot since he wrestled his first match all the way back in 2004. While he almost certainly wouldn't have had it any other way, as the business has allowed him to see the world, make millions, and even meet his wife, the physical toll that sort of living puts on a body will eventually catch up with anyone, especially a 37-year-old death match specialist.