Chris Jericho on the transformation of Dean Ambrose wearing a "goofy mask" to Jon Moxley

Jon Moxley has had a new lease on life in his wrestling career over the last year after he departed from WWE and his success has been instant, as he's now the reigning AEW World Champion.

Jon Moxley has been largely praised in his role at AEW and it's evident that the promotion helped reinvigorate a lot of the passion for professional wrestling that he lost in the last few years with WWE.

Chris Jericho, who was once his WWE rival four years ago, spoke on a media tour (via Alex McCarthy of TalkSport) and addressed the evolution of Dean Ambrose to Jon Moxley and how nobody would have imagined that he would transform the way he did:

Jericho on Moxley: "Who would have thought 2 years ago that Dean Ambrose, wearing a goofy f****** mask, is now going to be a completely different guy. New name, character, attitude and that he’s going to be our main event player, our champ? Nobody would've guessed that. Nobody"

— Alex McCarthy (@AlexM_talkSPORT) September 7, 2020

Why did Jon Moxley have to fall to get back up?

If you followed Jon Moxley right as he exited WWE and made the transition to AEW, you could hear the audible frustration of his final couple of years in WWE and the fact that he was creatively frustrated along with dealing with the WWE office.

It was viewed as slander towards WWE by many fans, but in reality, Jon Moxley was justified in feeling burned out and frustrated, especially since he had been WWE's iron man until his injury in 2017 - taking no offs and having no sick days. At one point, he had wrestled the most number of matches in a year and his 2016 run as WWE Champion saw him become a workhorse - performing at two live events in one day at one point.

AEW seems to have provided Jon Moxley the platform that he wanted and desired for so long and we could be yet to see the best of what he has to offer. Given that Dynamite is just 11 months into its run and AEW is still fairly new in itself, there's a lot more that Jon Moxley has to show for, and hopefully, other talents get elevated along the way.

Jon Moxley most recently defeated MJF, one of the hottest young prospects in wrestling in the main event of ALL OUT to retain the AEW World Championship.