Jon Moxley has spoken about his enthusiasm for wrestling in Japan, saying “I need it.”
In an interview with Justin Barrasso for Sports Illustrated, Moxley made no attempt to hide his excitement for his first visit to Japan since February 2020:
I’m really stoked about going back to Japan. Now I don’t have to worry about going back and forth between New Japan and AEW. The working relationship is really good, and that makes it easy for me. I still work for New Japan Strong in the U.S., but it’s not the same as being over there in Japan. It’s been so long. I need it. There are still a lot of big matchups. I’m really excited about it.
The 37-year-old also described his match with Hiroshi Tanahashi at Forbidden Door last year as “perfect.” He explained why he would never watch the match back:
I was supposed to wrestle Tanahashi many times, and it kept getting f—ed up for one reason or another. The relationship [between NJPW and AEW] wasn’t necessarily the best before, and I was in the middle of that. Then a couple years later, we’re doing a pay-per-view together, I’m in the main event, and it’s against Tanahashi, which was the last big dream I wanted. There were a lot of people who did a lot to bring that together, but I feel like I was the goddamn linchpin of the whole f—ing thing.
It was magical. The match was so f—ing perfect. It was exactly how I envisioned it. I was in such a f—ing zone. Every single second of it was exactly how I played it out in my head. If I ever watch it back, I’ll pick apart little things because I’m my own worst critic. So that’s why I won’t. It was f—ing perfect.
Before he heads to Japan, Moxley will compete in a six-man tag match at NJPW Resurgence in Long Beach, CA, on Sunday. He will team with Wheeler Yuta and Shota Umino to take on Kazuchika Okada, Rocky Romero and Tomohiro Ishii.
