Jon Moxley Talks Matt Hardy And Brodie Lee In AEW, Returning To NJPW
As noted before, AEW World Champion Jon Moxley recently spoke with The New York Post. Moxley was asked what he was most proud of from his recent feud with Chris Jericho, and he said he was proud of the whole thing.
"I was proud of the whole thing because it was a really ? it's like one piece of work that you can like hang up on your wall," Moxley said. "The whole story started on the very first night (at Double or Nothing) last year. He was the first guy I drop with the DDT and then he went on to win the title. I was always kind of lurking in the background, kind of like the boogeyman so to speak during his little championship reign. We had a clear story. It's fun because it's like just me, him and maybe a couple of other guys throw a couple of ideas. We don't need a team of 30 writers to put together a story. We just stood by a ring, talked about what are we going to do for eight weeks.
"It starts out kind of interesting and fun. He tried to get me to join the Inner Circle. We do that whole sports entertainment bit. I smash the thing on his head, I steal a car. Then it gets serious. He stabs my eye out, then I'm stabbing his friend's eye out. Now they're bringing in assassins to take me out and I have to go through all these obstacles and then I finally get there to the day and it's kind of like Sting at Starrcade '97 except we didn't screw it up. It felt like all the work was done by the time we got to the pay-per-view. ? We kept it simple on the night and didn't overthink it and I felt like the home team won."
Moxley was also asked what it's been like to watch Matt Hardy and Mr. Brodie Lee work in the AEW creative environment.
"They have yet to perform in front of an actual AEW audience," Moxley said. "For Matt Hardy, he's probably well-suited. It almost fits him in a way, him debuting with Vanguard and holograms and so forth because that's such a popular thing. He was doing all those 'empty arena matches' at the Hardy compound that was so popular back then.
"Everybody knows he's (Lee) a badass in the ring, was in Dragon Gate in Japan and all over the world, and for whatever reason wasn't getting booked or used on television toward the end (in WWE). Now it's an opportunity for him. He kind of stepped into this kind of role that was created where I don't know, but I don't think that he was the guy in mind when that role (The Exalted One) was officially created. So I think what he'll do is take it and mold it into something that he can use that works for him or he might go in a totally different direction."
Moxley is also the current IWGP United States Champion for New Japan Pro Wrestling. He was asked about recent comments from Zack Sabre Jr., and a possible return to NJPW when they open back up from the coronavirus outbreak. Moxley said he will always work in Japan as long as he's wrestling.
"As long as I'm wrestling I'll always be wrestling in Japan as often as, maybe not so often or more often. I don't know," Moxley said. "It just depends on everything. I definitely will be back there one day. The way the world is right now, I have no idea when. I think Zack probably did that interview quite some time ago before all this insanity. There is zero timetable for me to end up back in New Japan, although it will happen eventually one day. I cannot even begin to speculate when that will be possible or even legal."