Jonathan Good used to search Batavia's Red Barn Flea Market to look for any professional wrestling VHS tapes he didn't have.
Tapes at the Red Barn became wrestling at the Red Barn, which turned Good from a local fighter to an eventual WWE champion under the name Dean Ambrose and an AEW titleholder as Jon Moxley.
Back in his hometown, Moxley will headline the promotion's live show debut in Cincinnati Wednesday at Fifth Third Arena.
The arrival of All Elite Wrestling to the Cincinnati market has become a "personal project" for Moxley, who views Cincinnati as a city with much to offer as a destination for professional wrestling.
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Cincinnati a stop on the loop
"Cincinnati has been an underserved market traditionally," Moxley said. "Especially being from here, we don't get the big pay-per-views or the big marquee matches and I think that's a mistake because this is a big sports city and it's a big wrestling town with a rich wrestling history and we've got a lot of wrestling fans.
"You could really make this a marquee stop on the wrestling loop along with places like New York, Chicago and Philadelphia. Cincinnati can be right there with those."
No major wrestling pay-per-view has been in Cincinnati since TNA hosted an event in 2011. WWE has not had a pay-per-view in Cincinnati since 2006.
AEW hasn't been to Cincinnati but was scheduled to make a stop in 2020 that was canceled after the start of the pandemic. The new debut comes at one of the most vital moments in the company's history.
AEW president Tony Khan said the AEW All Out pay-per-view from Sept. 5 was the most purchased in the history of the promotion and Wednesday's event at Fifth Third Arena will be the first show since.
"I've taken it as a personal mission to show AEW and the world how good of a market this can be and how good the fans are here," Moxley said.
According to Moxley, that mission includes making calls and pitches for bringing shows to Cincinnati. He hopes AEW's reception will prove him right: "I bugged the s--t out of them. I text them all the time. I was doing it before the pandemic about a year ago. I was telling them, 'We've got to go to Cincinnati. I'm telling you we'd do so good there.' I was up their a-- for months."
According to Moxley, the arena in which we worked before his wrestling career, Heritage Bank Center, refused to do business with AEW, which made the company choose Fifth Third Arena as its home. Moxley has sights for another Cincinnati location as well.
"Fifth Third Arena is the new home for wrestling in Cincinnati, but who knows, we might need to do a pay-per-view at that soccer stadium or something if we keep the momentum going strong enough."
From Good to greatness
How did Jonathan Good end up as Jon Moxley? That life began again at the Red Barn Flea Market.
"I saw a flyer on a telephone pole for a show at the Red Barn Flea Market," Moxley said. "I had no idea there were other levels of wrestling, all I knew was what I saw on TV. I was like, 'Live wrestling? I've been to the Red Barn; it's like 10 minutes up the street. I'm going to that.'"
On the show's program was an advertisement for Les Thatcher's Main Event Pro Wrestling camp. Moxley felt that was his calling and his ticket to a world outside of Cincinnati.
"It seemed like if anyone was going to be a pro wrestler, it would be me," Moxley said. "Without even realizing it, I'd been studying it my entire life."
Moxley traded letters with Thatcher and the camp. Too young to start training, he began sweeping floors and selling popcorn for the promotion's shows until he could begin training.
"Whatever they were going to throw at me in this wrestling school, because they make it really intimidating to weed out the wussies, (I could take).
"I was not going to quit. The toughness aspect of it wasn't an issue for me. I was bound and determined to not even just get through that, but to get good at this. There was no other avenue. I put all my chips into this basket. I was going to learn this and get good at this. Either that or nothing because I had no other life except that."
Moxley, who left Amelia High School to train, had his first match in 2004 and has been on the scene ever since. Moxley has seven different title reigns in WWE, including once as WWE champion and was the AEW world champion in 2020
Moxley was named Sports Illustrated's Wrestler of the Year in 2019 and was the Pro Wrestling Illustrated Wrestler of the Year in 2020.
Back in Cincinnati
Available at Wednesday's show will be a Moxley t-shirt, made as an homage featuring himself within a classic Cincinnati Cyclones logo.
It serves as another reminder of the importance of the homecoming match, featuring the AEW wrestling debut of rival and Japanese legend Minoru Suzuki.
"This is a pay-per-view caliber card and that's by design," Moxley said. "We want Cincinnati to be one of our homes."
Moxley's personal current home is Las Vegas, but Cincinnati will always be his career's home.
"It gives you kind of an extra boost," Moxley said about wrestling in front of Cincinnati fans. "It's like Superman flying close to the sun; you kind of get reenergized a bit. At least I do when I get back to Cincinnati, as soon as I pull in and get WEBN on the radio and I'm like, 'Oh yeah. I'm home. This is where I started this whole journey out.'"
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