Background and career
Jonathan David Good (born December 7, 1985), better known by his ring name Jon Moxley, is an American professional wrestler. As of May 2019, he is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is the current AEW Continental Champion in his first reign and the leader of the Death Riders stable. He has also made appearances for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Good made his professional wrestling debut in 2004, and competed as Jon Moxley in several independent promotions such as Heartland Wrestling Association (HWA), Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw), Full Impact Pro (FIP), Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), and Dragon Gate USA (DGUSA). Upon signing with WWE in 2011, he was renamed Dean Ambrose and began competing in the company's developmental territories of Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) 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 (breaking the record previously held by Montel Vontavious Porter). 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 (both times with Rollins), 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 in April 2019, Good reverted to his Jon Moxley character and made his surprise debut the following month for AEW in May 2019. He started wrestling for NJPW in June 2019 and won the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship in his debut, holding the championship twice in total and subsequently setting the record for the longest reign in the championship's history. He has won the AEW World Championship four times, setting records for the most world championship wins and longest cumulative reigns in AEW history, the AEW International Championship once, the AEW Continental Championship once, and the 2025 Continental Classic tournament. Additionally, he is a one-time IWGP Heavyweight Championship in NJPW, and has headlined the most AEW pay-per-view events company history. Good is a six-time world champion across WWE, AEW and NJPW. Good has sporadically ventured into acting, most notably starring in the films 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown (2015) and Cagefighter: Worlds Collide (2020).
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 [but] 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.
Good began working for Les Thatcher in the Heartland Wrestling Association (HWA) 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.
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 (ROH) between 2007 and 2009. Moxley started working for Dragon Gate USA (DGUSA) 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 (FIP) 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.
Good signed a developmental deal with WWE in April 2011 and joined its developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) 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. He lost to Val Venis on Heat in January 2007 with pink hair. Ambrose would feud with FCW Jack Brisco 15 Champion Seth Rollins, facing him in a 20-minute non-title Iron Man match that 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. and costed him the FCW 15 Championship by attacking Damien Sandow during his title match with Rollins, causing a disqualification in the deciding fall. 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. Ambrose then began a feud with WWE wrestler William Regal. being defeated on the November 7 episode of FCW. In March 2012, Ambrose had a confrontation with veteran hardcore wrestler Mick Foley. 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. 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.
On November 18, 2012, Dean Ambrose made his WWE main roster debut at the Survivor Series pay-per-view event alongside Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins, as they delivered a triple powerbomb through an announce table to Ryback during the triple threat main event for the WWE Championship, allowing CM Punk to pin John Cena and retain the title. The trio declared themselves The Shield, worked as villains and allied with CM Punk, helping him to retain the title. They made their debut as wrestlers at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs in a six-man Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match. They kept winning six-man matches at events like Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania 29. Ambrose also worked as singles wrestler, making his debut against The Undertaker on the April 26 episode of SmackDown, which he lost by submission, and won the United States Championship at Extreme Rules when he defeated Kofi Kingston. He would successfully defend the title in the following weeks with the help of Reigns and Rollins. On the June 14 episode of SmackDown, The Shield was given their first decisive loss, against Randy Orton and Team Hell No, when Daniel Bryan made Rollins submit. Ambrose made his first pay-per-view defense of the United States Championship at Payback on June 16, where he defeated Kane by countout. The following month at Money in the Bank on July 14, he competed in the World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank ladder match but failed to win despite interference from Reigns and Rollins. In August, The Shield allied themselves with Triple H and joined his group The Authority. Ambrose continued to retain his United States Championship against Rob Van Dam at SummerSlam on August 18, Dolph Ziggler at Night of Champions on September 15, and Big E Langston at Hell in a Cell on October 27. At the Survivor Series pay-per-view on November 24, The Shield teamed with Antonio Cesaro and Jack Swagger to take on Rey Mysterio, The Usos, Cody Rhodes and Goldust in a traditional Survivor Series match; although Ambrose was the first man eliminated, Reigns would ultimately win the match for the team. At TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs on December 15, CM Punk defeated The Shield in a handicap match after Ambrose was accidentally speared by Reigns. At the Royal Rumble on January 26, 2014, Ambrose entered his first Royal Rumble match at number 11 and eliminated three participants, before being eliminated by Reigns. The following night on Raw, The Shield faced Daniel Bryan, John Cena, and Sheamus in order to earn their spot in the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. The Shield lost after The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt, Erick Rowan, and Luke Harper) interfered, thus starting a feud between the two factions. The Shield would lose to The Wyatt Family at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view on February 23, due to Ambrose abandoning his teammates midway through. After their feud with The Wyatt Family, The Shield moved on to a rivalry with Kane, turning into heroic characters in the process. The group defeated Kane and the New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn) at WrestleMania XXX on April 6. The feud with Kane also prompted The Shield to cease working for Triple H, who reformed Evolution with himself, Batista and Randy Orton to battle them. On April 28, Ambrose surpassed MVP as the longest-reigning United States Champion under the WWE banner. The Shield defeated Evolution in a six-man tag team match at Extreme Rules on May 4. The following night on Raw, Triple H forced Ambrose to defend his United States Championship in a 20-man battle royal, which saw Ambrose surviving until the final two before ultimately being eliminated by Sheamus, thus ending his title reign at 351 days. The Shield once again defeated Evolution at Payback on June 1 in a No Holds Barred elimination match. The following night on Raw, Rollins betrayed Ambrose and Reigns and aligned himself with The Authority, breaking up the group.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
