Jon Moxley is headed to New Japan Pro Wrestling

Jon Moxley’s post-WWE career continues to take shape, as the former Dean Ambrose has been announced to appear in New Japan Pro Wrestling on June 5, 2019.

On Saturday night, the pro wrestling world experienced what they call a “paradigm shift,” when Jon Moxley debuted in AEW. Following the main event of the upstart promotion’s Double or Nothing pay-per-view, Moxley — formerly Dean Ambrose in WWE— emerged from the crowd to DDT Chris Jericho and brawl with Kenny Omega, sending the latter crashing to the floor from on top of a stack of giant poker chips.

AEW however, will not be the end of Moxley’s post-asylum escapades. On June 5, 2019, the former WWE Champion will make his New Japan Pro Wrestling debut at the Best of the Super Juniors finals in Ryogoku Sumo Hall.

During its Wrestling Dontaku event, NJPW aired a mysterious vignette hyping a new rival for IWGP United States Champion Juice Robinson. In it, an unknown figure sat in a bar, watching Robinson highlights — as you do — while angrily carving a symbol that appeared to be an hourglass into a table. This shadowy figure also smashed a beer bottle, wielded two knives with knuckle dusters, and genuinely looked menacing from the waist down as the words “Time’s Up” flashed on screen.

Today, a coda was added to the vignette, in which it was revealed that the carved symbol was not an hourglass, but a fresh, new “MOX” logo. First actually utilizing his Twitter account, and now branding? Moxley really is stepping into a new era.

Given all of the context clues in and surrounding the vignette, it wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine that Moxley will be in Ryogoku to challenge Robinson for his United States Championship. After all, NJPW’s Dominion — considered the promotion’s second-biggest show of the year — will be occurring only a few days later in Osaka.

It also wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine an outsider like Moxley showing up in NJPW and immediately claiming one of its championships. Chris Jericho — who will be wrestling Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship on this year’s show — shocked everyone during last year’s Dominion, when he brutalized and defeated Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.

Who knows how much work Moxley will put in with New Japan, or what, if any, all of this means for a potential AEW-NJPW relationship. Still, it’s hard to resist already fantasy booking him into hard-hitting matches with the likes of Tomohiro Ishii or Minoru Suzuki, or even appearing in this year’s G1.

Time will tell, but more will certainly be revealed on June 5 when Jon Moxley debuts in New Japan Pro Wrestling, at the Best of the Super Juniors final.