In his new book MOX, Jon Moxley recalled how Paul Heyman praised his match against Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns at WWE Fastlane 2016.
Reigns won the match to set up a WWE World Heavyweight Championship encounter against Triple H at WrestleMania 32. That year’s WrestleMania also featured Lesnar’s victory over Moxley, then known as Dean Ambrose, in a No Holds Barred Street Fight.
Moxley wrote that Heyman told him after Fastlane 2016 that the match was worthy of headlining WWE’s biggest show of the year.
“Afterward, we were in Brock’s dressing room, and Paul Heyman said, ‘That right there, that could have been the main event of WrestleMania.’ I genuinely appreciated the praise, though I doubted my paycheck would reflect that. That show was still a ways away and there was a gap to bridge,” Moxley stated.
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The Fastlane 2016 finish saw Jon Moxley attack both Lesnar and Reigns with a steel chair. Reigns then hit a spear on Moxley to win the match and book his ticket to the main event of WrestleMania 32.
Michael Hayes also enjoyed Jon Moxley's performance
Although Roman Reigns was presented as WWE’s top babyface in 2016, Jon Moxley’s Dean Ambrose character was arguably more popular than his fellow Shield member.
After making fans believe he was going to score a crowd-pleasing win, Moxley also received post-match praise from WWE producer Michael Hayes.
“That’s one of my favorite matches too. Michael Hayes told me afterward, ’You had ’em! They thought you had it won!’ I did not, in fact, have it won, but I was still pumped,” Moxley wrote.
Three weeks later, Moxley lost a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match against Triple H at WWE Network special event Roadblock. The current AEW star wrote that the match against Triple H was one of the best he had in WWE.