WWE News: Former World Champion Congratulates Jon Moxley For Leaving Company & Going Against Vince McMahon
May 25, 2020
WWE News: Former World Champion Congratulates Jon Moxley For Leaving Company & Going Against Vince McMahon
WWE Hall of Famer Sgt. Slaughter was among the many people who sent their well-wishes on social media to AEW World Champion Jon Moxley following Saturday’s Double or Nothing pay-per-view. However, Slaughter didn’t specifically congratulate Moxley for retaining his title against Brodie Lee. Instead, he congratulated him for leaving WWE last year and not getting into legal trouble following his exit from the company.
On Sunday night, Slaughter took to Twitter to reply to a post from Moxley, where he shared a photo of himself posing next to newly crowned TNT Champion Cody Rhodes as they both showed off their belts and gave the finger to the camera. In his reply, the former world champion congratulated Moxley for leaving WWE, noting that decades ago, he was the first person to go against “The Emperor” and fight for his freedom in the professional wrestling business. He added that the AEW star was lucky for avoiding lawsuits and court hearings after his WWE departure, concluding by wishing him “continued success” going forward.
As it seems, Slaughter was referring to Vince McMahon when he talked about his past departure from the company. In 2018, the retired wrestler looked back on his issues with the WWE chairman when he got his own G.I. Joe action figure from Hasbro in the mid-1980s. As he recalled to former WWE announcer Sean Mooney (via WrestleZone), the promotion wanted to release a Slaughter action figure of its own and feature him on its cartoons, but objected to his deal with Hasbro due to a “conflict of interest.”
“I went home dejected not knowing what to do, so that became kind of a bad situation between Vince and I. At the time, I gave him my notice. He said, ‘You’re not leaving. You can’t leave.’ I said, ‘I’ve got to leave. I’ve got to go.’ I said, ‘I can always be a wrestler, Vince, but I can’t always be a GI Joe.”
As pointed out by Wrestling Inc., Slaughter’s comments about Moxley were “interesting” because of the fact he is currently working as an ambassador for WWE.
Moxley left WWE shortly after WrestleMania 35 in April 2019. This came a few months after the wrestler — then known as Dean Ambrose — gave his notice to the promotion, citing issues with how his character was being booked. Not long after he made his AEW debut at the inaugural Double or Nothing event in May of that year, his appearance on Chris Jericho’s Talk is Jericho podcast went on air. In that episode, Moxley cited multiple instances in which WWE allegedly gave him storylines or promos he didn’t like. He also referred to McMahon as an “old man” who couldn’t understand why his creative ideas weren’t acceptable.