Jon Moxley
Jonathan David Good is an American professional wrestler. He has been signed to All Elite Wrestling as of 2019, where he performs under the ring name Jon Moxley and is the leader of the Death Riders. He is the current AEW Continental Champion in his first reign, having won the title by winning the 2025 Continental Classic. He previously made appearances for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where he is a former one-time IWGP World Heavyweight Champion and a two-time IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion. Good won the Pro Wrestling Illustrated award for Most Popular Wrestler of the Year in 2014, 2015, and 2022, and was named Wrestler of the Year by Sports Illustrated in 2019. He was also ranked first on the 2020 edition of Pro Wrestling Illustrated list of the top 500 wrestlers in the world.
Good made his professional wrestling debut in 2004, and competed as under the Jon Moxley ring name in several independent promotions such as Heartland Wrestling Association, Westside Xtreme Wrestling, Full Impact Pro, Combat Zone Wrestling, and Dragon Gate USA. Upon signing with WWE in 2011, he was renamed Dean Ambrose and began competing in the company's developmental territories of Florida Championship Wrestling and NXT, before joining the main roster in November 2012 as a member of The Shield alongside Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. Ambrose won the WWE United States Championship, his first championship in WWE, in May 2013; his 351-day reign became the longest United States Championship reign since the title came under WWE's ownership. After widespread success, The Shield split in June 2014. Ambrose went on to win the WWE Championship once, the WWE Intercontinental Championship three times, and the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship twice, which made him WWE's 27th Triple Crown Champion and 16th Grand Slam Champion. He also won the Money in the Bank ladder match in 2016.
Upon leaving WWE after his contract expired in April 2019, Good reverted to his Jon Moxley character and made his surprise debut the following month at Double or Nothing, AEW's inaugural event. He started wrestling for NJPW in June 2019 and won the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship in his first NJPW match, becoming the only person to have held the United States Championships in both WWE and NJPW. He would briefly vacate the championship but quickly won it back a second time, subsequently setting a record for the longest reign in the championship's history. He also won the AEW World Championship in February of that year, making him the first person to hold championships in AEW and NJPW simultaneously. He won the AEW World Championship twice more in 2022, setting records for the most world championship wins and longest cumulative reigns in AEW history. He would also win the AEW International Championship in September 2023, making him the company's first wrestler to hold both the world championship and a secondary championship. Afterwards, Good would win the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship at Windy City Riot, becoming the first and thus far only wrestler to hold world titles in WWE, AEW, and NJPW. He has headlined 18 AEW pay-per-view events, the most in the company's history. In total, Good has held 17 total championships between WWE, AEW, and NJPW. At WrestleDream in October 2024, he won the AEW World Championship for a record-setting fourth time.
Good has sporadically ventured into acting, most notably starring in the films 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown and Cagefighter: Worlds Collide.
Early life
Jonathan David Good was born in Cincinnati on December 7, 1985. His mother worked night shifts stocking shelves at a ThriftWay store and his father worked two jobs; he first ran a machine on the shop floor of a plastics factory and was later promoted to an office job, which required him to relocate, but Good's mother did not want to move and thus raised Good and his sister alone. He grew up in Cincinnati's East End, which he later described as so deprived that shoplifting essential items was a daily occurrence for everybody he knew. He said, "Our neighborhood was just a big swath of crappy apartment buildings in varying states of decay I honestly don't think I'd have rather grown up anywhere else. We played football in the street, rode bikes, etc. We didn't spend any time indoors. Nobody had anywhere nice to go back to anyway."An avid fan of professional wrestling who idolized Bret Hart, Good used wrestling as an escape from his rough upbringing by watching videos and reading stories about wrestling's earlier days. He attended Amelia High School in nearby Batavia, but dropped out one year after beginning to train as a wrestler. He supported himself by working minimum-wage jobs in factories, restaurants, and warehouses, but was constantly getting fired because he would skip work if he was booked to wrestle a match that clashed with his job; however, he continued to do so because he knew he "could always find another minimum-wage job". He often used drugs such as cocaine as a teenager, during which time he was also arrested multiple times for shoplifting. He has said that he would have most likely become a forest firefighter if he did not pursue wrestling.
Professional wrestling career
Heartland Wrestling Association (2004–2011)
Good began working for Les Thatcher in the Heartland Wrestling Association promotion as a teenager by selling popcorn and setting up the ring. He began training to become a professional wrestler at the age of 18 under the teaching of Thatcher and HWA wrestler Cody Hawk. He made his debut in 2004 under the ring name Jon Moxley. The following year, Moxley won the HWA Tag Team Championship twice, with Jimmy Turner and Ric Byrne respectively. He captured the HWA Heavyweight Championship twice in 2006 by defeating Pepper Parks on both occasions but lost the title to Chad Collyer and Brian Jennings respectively. From mid-2007 to early 2010, Moxley continued to work in the tag team division and held the HWA tag titles once with his trainer Cody Hawk and twice with King Vu. He won the HWA Heavyweight Championship for the third time from Aaron Williams in January 2010, before losing it to Gerome Phillips six months later.Independent circuit (2006–2011)
In September 2006, Moxley teamed with Hade Vansen to win the IWA World Tag Team Championship in the Puerto Rico-based International Wrestling Association. They lost the titles to Chicano and Jeff Jeffrey in November, ending their reign at 69 days. Moxley wrestled a match in WWE in January 2007 losing to Val Venis. Moxley also wrestled several dark matches for Ring of Honor between 2007 and 2009. Moxley started working for Dragon Gate USA in late 2009. He made his first televised appearance in March, where he defeated Tommy Dreamer in a hardcore match taped for the Mercury Rising pay-per-view. At the Uprising event in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, Moxley suffered a legitimate injury where his left nipple was nearly severed during a match with Jimmy Jacobs. His last match in DGUSA was against Homicide in January 2011, which Moxley won.At Full Impact Pro's Southern Stampede event on April 17, 2010, Moxley defeated Roderick Strong to win the vacant FIP World Heavyweight Championship. He held the title for 441 days before relinquishing it in July 2011, due to his signing with WWE. Moxley also won Combat Zone Wrestling's CZW World Heavyweight Championship twice in 2010 by defeating B-Boy and Nick Gage, respectively.
World Wrestling Entertainment / WWE (2011–2019)
Developmental territories (2011–2012)
Good signed a developmental deal with WWE in April 2011 and joined its developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling under the name Dean Ambrose. Prior to his signing, Good wrestled three try-out matches for WWE in 2006 and 2007 and jobbed alongside Dick Rick against The Big Show in a handicap match on Heat in January 2006.Ambrose made his televised debut on the July 3 episode of FCW, portraying a villainous character and challenging FCW Jack Brisco 15 Champion Seth Rollins. The following month, Ambrose and Rollins had a 20-minute non-title Iron Man match; the match ended in a draw with neither man scoring a fall. A 30-minute rematch, in which the title was on the line, took place in September which Rollins won through sudden death rules. Ambrose beat Rollins in a non-title match in the first round of a tournament to crown the new FCW Florida Heavyweight Champion. However, Ambrose was unsuccessful in the tournament final against Leo Kruger. Ambrose later cost Rollins his FCW 15 Championship by attacking Damien Sandow during his title match with Rollins, causing a disqualification in the deciding fall. Ambrose later unsuccessfully challenged Sandow for the championship. At an FCW house show on October 21, Ambrose challenged WWE wrestler CM Punk, who was making a guest appearance, to a match in which Ambrose was defeated. Punk would later praise Ambrose after the match.
Ambrose then began a feud with William Regal after he targeted Regal in an unprovoked attack. They would wrestle on the November 7 episode of FCW, with Regal winning. For the next year, Ambrose would obsessively request for another match with Regal. On December 7, Ambrose competed at tapings for an unaired pilot for WWE NXT under the working title Full Sail Ahead at Full Sail University, where he was defeated by Leo Kruger.
In March 2012, Ambrose had a confrontation with veteran hardcore wrestler Mick Foley, claiming that Foley needed to be held accountable for creating a generation of imitators. Ambrose continued to antagonize Foley through Twitter. According to Ambrose, the angle was supposed to culminate in a match between the two, but this never came to fruition due to Foley not being medically allowed to wrestle. Instead, the rivalry was scrapped and Ambrose remained in WWE's developmental system. He competed in a dark match at the first tapings of NXT on May 17, in a loss to Xavier Woods. On an episode of FCW in June, Ambrose challenged Rollins for the FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship but lost. Almost a year after their first match, Ambrose and Regal rematched on the final episode of FCW on July 15. The match would conclude in a no contest after Ambrose repeatedly kneed Regal's head into a ring turnbuckle, causing Regal to bleed from the ear.