Jon Moxley has arguably been the MVP of AEW for the 2022 calendar year. He stepped up to replace CM Punk as the promotion's Interim World Champion when required surgery, defeated the “The Best In The World” to unify the interim title with the proper one, and after dropping the strap in an entertaining contest at All Out, became a champion once more at Grand Slam, when his predecessor's backstage behavior caused his belt to be stripped.

Pulling double-duty as a fighting champion and a locker room leader for the folks in the back, Moxley was rewarded for his efforts with a new five-year contract that expanded his role backstage. Though he won't be competing in GCW soon, a fact that even GCW wasn't informed of before they read the intricacies of Tony Khan's press release, it's safe to say Moxley will remain one of AEW's pillars moving forward, with a unique opportunity to work up or down the card with or without a championship.

But for a time, Moxley wasn't sure if he would re-sign with AEW when his contract came due. Granted, he wasn't going to leave the promotion entirely or go back to being Dean Ambrose in WWE – much to the disappointment of hardcore The Shield fanatics – but according to an interview with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, Mox considered approaching his career as more of a freelancer, without the weekly commitment to show up on AEW television on the regular.

“A year ago, I wasn’t in the same head space,” Moxley says. “I was all f—ed up. I hated traveling. I was living in Vegas, felt like I was always in an airport, flying coast to coast, and I was sick of leaving my family. I thought about freelancing when my deal was up. Not that I would leave AEW, but I didn’t want to be there every week. I was in a bad place.”

Fortunately, Moxley famously took some time away from reverb to clean up and has returned a leaner, meaner performer who famously now only “drinks blood.”

“Then I went to rehab and all that, and now I’m in a totally different headspace,” Moxley continued. “We’re living in Cincinnati, too, which is great. I look forward to going to TV every week. I get to see my friends in the Blackpool Combat Club. I’m not f—ed up. I have a clean headspace. My life is completely different than it was a year ago, and all for the better.”

Has the absence of alcohol been the magic ticket to reinvigorate Moxley's career in AEW? That's certainly part of it, but only part of it, as later in the interview, Moxley discussed how the founding of the Blackpool Combat Club and his relationships with William Regal and Bryan Danielson helped to make AEW something he looks forward to each week.

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Jon Moxley has found a new wrestling family with AEW's BCC.

After famously beginning his time in the company as a lone wolf before forging a friendship with Eddie Kingston that began as foes but grew into something far more interesting, Moxley found himself in a right-proper faction for the first time since he worked with Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns on the regular in WWE when, after Bryan Danielson and then William Regal made their way to AEW, the trio joined forces to become the Blackpool Combat Club. Though the team didn't initially begin their run as friends, as most of Moxley's friendships seemingly don't, they bled together, trained together, and ultimately added two more performers to their ranks in Wheeler Yuta and Claudio Castagnoli. Moxley credited this group to his renewed love affair with AEW.

“It’s not like you get sober and instantly feel great,” Moxley says. “This takes time. I felt kind of whacked out when I first came back; my first couple matches felt like out-of-body experiences. Being in the ring with Bryan again at the beginning of the BCC, that’s when it all started to click again. And it became fun again. Everything, and I mean everything, became fun again. A few months later, somewhere along the line after the Anarchy in the Arena [match at Double or Nothing], I realized I was having a f—ing great year. Even though I’m working my ass off, I’m not trying too hard. I’m letting the match come to me. I’m letting the promo come to me. It’s fun as s—, and I have so many great f—ing people to wrestle. It’s so much fun.”

“Regal is in my ear after every match. I know exactly what I want to do, even if it’s just perfecting my Europeans in a match. That pumps me up. I practiced this kick for a month, and I nailed Juice [Robinson] with it [two weeks ago on Dynamite]. I felt so f—ing good about that. My goal is to keep getting way better. I want to wrestle into my 50s and become one of those crusty old-man wrestlers. It’s going to be f—ing awesome.”

Assuming Moxley wrestles out the remaining years of his new contract, he will be 41 years old. If he's still happy, healthy, and rocking opponents on a weekly basis, it's hard to imagine that dream couldn't become a possibility.