Daniel Garcia credited Jon Moxley as the driving force behind AEW‘s turnaround, saying the company had lost some fans’ trust.
During a recent appearance on Thrive with Alex Sagot, Garcia said AEW stopped feeling like a true alternative to WWE and started falling into the same patterns as everyone else. The current Death Riders member, however, believes Moxley took control of the situation and changed the company’s direction.
“AEW, I would say like a year ago or two years ago, was in an interesting spot where I feel like it lost a lot of goodwill with the fans, and a lot of the fans didn’t really feel like it was the AEW that first belonged to them.
AEW was brought into the wrestling world as an alternative as something to be different from WWE. And I feel like AEW got to a place where the fans felt like we weren’t really an alternative anymore. We were just kind of falling into the same patterns that other wrestling companies have fell into.
And Mox, in my opinion, turned the ship around, man. He turned the ship around. And I won’t share his story completely, it’s amazing, the thing that he told me about this. But he really decided that he needed to take control and turn the ship around, and he did exactly that. And AEW is in a much better place right now than it was when it was a year ago.”
The transformation mentioned by Garcia began taking shape on August 28, 2024, when Moxley returned on Dynamite with a different attitude and said AEW no longer belonged to the people who built it. Shortly after, he began his new run with the Death Riders and defeated Bryan Danielson at WrestleDream on October 12, 2024, becoming the first four-time AEW World Champion. The reign lasted 273 days before he lost to “Hangman” Adam Page at All In: Texas on July 12, 2025.
Garcia entered the storyline on September 10, 2025, when he attacked Darby Allin and joined the Death Riders. Three days later, he made his first entrance as a member of the group and teamed with Moxley, defeating Kyle O’Reilly and Roderick Strong.
The alliance is still going strong. This Wednesday, August 5, Garcia and Moxley will team with PAC and Wheeler Yuta to face Adam Copeland, Christian Cage and the Young Bucks at AEW Grand Slam: Mexico.