Jon Moxley looks set to work more dates for NJPW in 2023, after picking up his residence card before his match at NJPW Dominion 6.4.
Moxley teamed with Shota Umino and Claudio Castagnoli in the semi-main event of the show, taking on the NEVER Openweight Six-Man tag team champions Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii and Hiroshi Tanahashi.
While they lost the match when Okada pinned Umino, Moxley revealed that he now has a “residence card”, allowing him to work in Japan more frequently without visa issues in the future.
The former AEW Champion revealed this in a post-show press conference, claiming that Kazuchika Okada tried to mess with his “visa thing” to stop him wrestling that night.
This is certainly building to angle between the two, with a match between Jon Moxley and Kazuchika Okada predicted for the not-too-distant future.
In the post-show press conference, Moxley confirmed that the team would return to New Japan, and claimed that Okada tampered with his residency card to avoid wrestling him.
I wanna wrestle again. I got f***ing plans.
I’ve got a residency card, I know Okada has been f****** with the visa thing and trying to get our shit stopped up.
But I’ve got the card now, and I’ll come back whenever the f*** I want.
Thank you Japan.
According to the “Japan Guide” website, the residence card allows people like Moxley to work and live in Japan for an extended period of time. They can also bring their families to work in the country.
The residence card allows for stays from four months to five years, according to the site, and requires an employer (in this case, NJPW-owners Bushiroad) to sponsor the employee, and prove employment.
Most also require you to have a prospective employer as a sponsor. Residence permission is granted in periods of 4 months to 5 years and is extendable.
While it is unlikely that Moxley will be bringing his wife, Renee Paquette and their daughter along with him to Japan, he always has the option if push came to shove.
With the comments regarding his Japanese residence permit, it looks like Jon Moxley will be in Japan more and more, and could see the Death Rider take on Kazuchika Okada in the near future.
Okada is set to take on Bryan Danielson at Forbidden Door, so the match with Moxley will not take place there.