Jon Moxley is enjoying freedom unknown to him for the past nine years. The new AEW and NJPW star walked away from Vince McMahon's company after one last dance with his Shield brothers in late April and now seems to be having the time of his life.

Moxley has been pretty critical of WWE since he made his exit, even prompting a rebuttal from good pal Seth Rollins. But he doesn't appear too keen on letting it go just yet.

Speaking to ESPN this week, Moxley claimed it felt like McMahon and the producer were always in the ring with him as he never felt like he was free to perform as he pleased.

"[In WWE,] it's almost like Vince is in the ring with you, the producer is in the ring with you," he said. "It's like you have two little bubbles on your shoulder, like three heads in the ring.

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via thesportsrush.com

"All of a sudden when I got in the ring [in New Japan], five minutes into the match I was like, there's no chatter. There was no producer-ref-Vince chatter. It was like silence. And I didn't expect that. I was like, 'Whoa, I'm alone again. It's just me in the ring.' And then I just started beating the [crap] out of Juice and I was like, 'Oh yeah, this is what I used to do.'"

Mox will also be taking part in NJPW's demanding G1 Climax Tournament and seems absolutely ecstatic about it.

"I heard a lot of stuff about how hard this tournament is, how grueling this tournament is," he noted. "When one of the top companies in the world with such great history invites you to their flagship event - yeah, it’ll be hard, but you only get one life. What am I gonna say? No? Why would I be saying no?

“The thing with me is, most likely I’ll have the foot on the gas pedal pretty hard the entire time. Whether that’s smart or not, that’s just the way I’m wired. I expect it to be fun.”

If you've been following Moxley closely since he left WWE, you'll know that his biggest gripe was not having enough of a say in the way he was booked and what he could do in the ring. The shackles are surely off now, but will freedom be too powerful a thing for the man once branded The Lunatic?

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