AEW superstar and former multi-time world champion Jon Moxley recently spoke with Sports Illustrated to hype this weekend’s NJPW Resurgence special in Long Beach, where he, Shota Umino, and Wheeler Yuta will take on Tomohiro Ishii, Rocky Romero, and Kazuchika Okada. The Purveyor of Violence will also be returning to Japan for the upcoming Dominion pay-per-view, his first time wrestling in Japan since February 2020.
To begin the interview, Moxley says he is very excited to be working with NJPW again, especially since AEW and NJPW have a great relationship.
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.
Moxley is later asked about his legendary showdown against Hiroshi Tanahashi from last summer’s AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door pay-per-view, a matchup that he considered one of his last dream scenarios.
I’ve never watched it, and I never will. It’s one of those things that was so perfect in the moment. 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.
As for the match itself, Moxley believes it was perfect.
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.
Moxley and the rest of the Blackpool Combat Club will battle The Elite in an Anarchy In The Arena match at AEW Double or Nothing later this month. You can check out the latest card here.