Jon Moxley is confused about the “forbidden” nature of the “Forbidden Door” between All Elite Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling.
“I really got past that term,” Moxley said. His wife, Renee Paquette on her podcast, “Sessions”.
“Everyone uses it,” Moxley said of the term coined by Hiroshi Tanahashi. But now, it’s no longer ‘off’ because there is now a nice little working relationship.
“So, the door is not ‘forbidden.’ There are ‘forbidden doors’ but there is no door between AEW and New Japan.” Moxley explained that the two companies had a tepid relationship for a few years, but even then, the “forbidden” moniker didn’t suit him because “I’ve been in New Japan for three years and I’ve been in AEW for three years. I’ve been in all that time.”
“…the relationship hasn’t been a good one, so I’ve been a good neutral party, I think, to help bridge the gap over the past few years,” Moxley said of the time split between AEW and NJPW since his split from WWE in 2019. Because I love both and owe a lot to both.”
Moxley signed a six-month contract before signing with AEW, although he made his debut on AEW programming prior to NJPW programming. His initial NJPW contract spanned from his debut in June 2019 to two nights at the Tokyo Dome where he wrestled on two nights of Wrestle Kingdom 14. “So, I was there this whole time. I kind of thought a bunch of people would do that too.”
Although the two companies worked with Moxley, Moxley soon learned that the relationship was “not good”, making him the main channel of communication between the two promotions, making him feel very proud of the event. “I’ve been a supporter of ‘We should have some kind of relationship going on together.'” That’s stupid.
“…There were a lot of people who asked me to stop going to New Japan,” Moxley said, noting that many felt the relationship wouldn’t be really warm, but everything changed when, “Harold’s man was expelled from New Japan, that Really opened it or whatever,” referring to the departure of Harold Meg, CEO of NJPW.
“For me, the benefit was that I didn’t get such a big super show,” Moxley continued, saying that the open-door policy at the end would be beneficial to AEW’s young talents. “I’ve been saying for years that we have all these guys and we don’t have a home show schedule or anything else, and they need to gain experience.
Moxley went on to say that young talents don’t just want experience, as “a lot of times you want actors just to try things out.”
“We don’t have Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then on Monday we do TV show. We only have TV.”
Moxley went on to explain how he understood the difficult policies of sending a contracted talent to another promotion, but he felt this was ultimately to their advantage. Moxley used the example of Darby Allen.
“I understand he’s your guy, you pay him, you don’t want him to get hurt, and you probably also don’t want him to beat everyone in Japan, but at the same time, send him there. Who gives him how many matches he wins and how many matches he loses?” “
It was this mindset that led Moxley, along with his groups at the Blackpool Combat Club, to push Wheeler Yuta into the prestigious NJPW Best of Super Juniors tournament. The young wrestler had mentioned how the tournament was at the same time as AEW’s Double or Nothing PPV, and the group told him, “Go, not even a question.”
“Ten matches against the best player in the world. It doesn’t matter more than the experience. Who gifted what was his record at the end of the tournament?”
The upcoming Forbidden Door PPV looks like a moment when Moxley comes full circle after being a solo lead contracted with two less than friendly promotions. Moxley concluded, “Working in 2020 was tough for both of them, I was doing it all on my own.”
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