With an intense, hardcore approach to his matches, and just as cutting an attitude in his interviews, Jon Moxley made an instant impact in New Japan Pro-Wrestling in June 2019, just as he has all over the world. 

Adding the IWGP US Heavyweight Championship to his collection on his June 5 2019 debut, Moxley became a two time champion at Wrestle Kingdom 14 on January 4 2020 and held the title through the COVID pandemic before losing to Lance Archer in the summer of 2021. 

Calling himself NJPW’s ‘big game hunter’, Moxley would have memorable matches against Tomohiro Ishii, KENTA, Minoru Suzuki and Will Ospreay, before facing Hiroshi Tanahashi in June 2022 at Forbidden Door. Moxley also took a shine to rising star Shota Umino, and when Umino waged a campaign against Kazuchika Okada, Mox and his Blackpool Combat Club faction joined the fight. Dominion would see Mox team with Umino and Claudio Castagnoli to challenge for the NEVER Openweight 6 Man Tag Team Championships, before the Purveyor of Violence turned his focus to Independence Day in Korakuen Hall, and a brutal pair of deathmatches with El Desperado and Jun Kasai. At Power Struggle in Osaka, Moxley was called by Ospreay to challenge the US(UK) Heavyweight title after Moxley’s protege Shota Umino was beaten by the Champion. Then, David Finlay attacked Moxley & Ospreay and declared a challenge to the title which led to 3-way title match being set for Wrestle Kingdom 18 in Tokyo Dome.

Moxley was never pinned, but left the Tokyo Dome without the title. In the aftermath of Wrestle Kingdom, he would be challenged to a no DQ streetfight against Shingo Takagi in San Jose, a match he merged successful from after a wild and violent fight. Taking the microphone after the bout, Mox would state that he had ‘one more mountain to climb’ in his career, and called out Tetsuya Naito for Windy City Riot in Chicago. On April 12, Moxley defeated Naito, and completed an unprecedented Global Grand Slam of WWE, AEW and IWGP World Heavyweight Championships.