Jon Moxley booked for return to New Japan

AEw’s Jon Moxley is a two-time IWGP United States champion. He competed in the 2019 version of New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s legendary G1 Climax tournament. But he hasn’t been in a New Japan ring since last October — and that was on The Night Before Rumble on 44th Street’s “mystery card”. For an announced NJPW appearance from Mox, we have to go all the way back to July of 2022.

But with crossover season upon us, the Death Rider is booked for New Japan’s next show in the United States. That’s May 21’s Resurgence PPV in Long Beach.

Resurgence was already on AEW fans’ collective radar, since it features a semi-final match in the mini-tournament to determine current IWGP U.S. champ Kenny Omega’s next challenger and a one-night tourney to crown the first-ever NJPW Strong Women’s featuring Willow Nightingale (and someone named Mercedes Moné a lot of A-E-Dub faithful would like to see show up on Dynamite, Rampage and/or Collision someday).

Other than “in action”, New Japan’s not telling us much about their plans for Moxley. Give us your best guesses, after you take a gander at the announced matches for three weeks from now in Walter Pyramid:

• Will Ospreay vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi in the semi-finals of the IWGP U.S. championship #1 contender’s tournament

• Mercedes Moné vs. Stephanie Vaquer

• Willow Nightingale vs. Momo Kohgo in the first round of the NJPW Strong Women’s championship tournament

• NJPW Strong Women’s championship tournament finals

• Jon Moxley vs. TBA