Ahead of their IWGP United States Championship match at New Japan’s The New Beginning USA on Feb. 26, Kenta delivered some cutting words for reigning champion and AEW star Jon Moxley. In a new promo on NJPW Strong, the Japanese star called out Moxley for letting the title “rot” for nearly a full year without defending it.
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“I’m the best person who represents New Japan Pro-Wrestling to the world. I deserve to be the first-ever Japense IWGP United States Champion,” Kenta said to Kevin Kelly, before switching over to Japanese and speaking directly to Moxley. “Moxley, it took you a long time to show up, I’ve been defending that damn briefcase for months. It got broken once, too! But finally, finally our time has come. We’ll finally fight for the IWGP US Heavyweight Title that you’ve been letting rot all this time.”
Moxley won the title for a second time at Wrestle Kingdom 14, then defended it against Juice Robinson and Minoru Suzuki before the pandemic shut down international travel outside of the United States. Between the COVID-19 restrictions and AEW’s rules about its wrestlers not appearing in other promotions televised out of the US (at the time), Mox was left in limbo for nearly a full year. During that time Strong debuted as New Japan’s US-based promotion, and Kenta managed to win a tournament to become the new No. 1 contender for the title.
He spent months calling out Moxley, and the champ finally responded when he appeared on a recent episode of Strong and accepted Kenta’s challenge. The Bullet Club member fired back by invading AEW and attacking Moxley at the end of a recent Dynamite episode. Kenta then teamed with Kenny Omega to beat Moxley and Archer in an Anything Goes tag match last week.
Will Kenta dethrone Moxley and take the US title back to New Japan? Let’s hear your predictions down in the comments!
Here’s the lineup for this week’s Dynamite:
- AEW World Tag Team Championships: The Young Bucks vs. Santana & Ortiz
- Jon Moxley, Lance Archer, Rey Fenix vs. Eddie Kingston, The Butcher & The Blade
- Hangman Page & Matt Hardy vs. TH2
- FTR vs. Matt and Mike Sydal
- Orange Cassidy vs. Luther
- Serena Deeb vs. Riho (Women’s Eliminator Tournament Match)
- Sting Calls Out Team Taz for Kidnapping Darby Allin
