When Jon Moxley came to the ring to the sound of Wild Thing many fans were a little confused. Why change it? Talking in a recent interview with Cincy 360, Mox talked about the original plan for the theme. The original intention was for a one night only use of the song for his now infamous exploding barbed wire deathmatch with Kenny Omega. However, because the rights didn’t come through in time, plans needed to be changed.

“So we’re doing this Exploding Barbed Wire match,” Moxley said. “And I was being compared to the innovator of that, who’s called Atsushi Onita, who’s a Japanese wrestler who came out to that (song). A month before Tony (Khan) was like, we’re talking about it and Tony, who is the owner and booker and so forth, he goes ‘should we get ‘Wild Thing’ for that?’ Just for one night for the Exploding Match. And I was like ‘no that’s too derivative. No, it’s too much.’ And then a week before I started thinking about it again and I was like ‘well it might be cool for one night. People might get the reference. Just for that one night, I was like ‘let’s do it.’ By then it was too late, and we couldn’t get the rights for it or whatever."

However, Tony Khan did manage to get the rights and surprised Jon Moxley with the tune ahead of his match with Yuji Nagata. The Japanese reference was still there for the Onita comparisons.

“But then it came through a couple of weeks later, and I was in the ring with Yuji Nagata. And I thought it was the ‘Season of the Witch’ playing. I was like ‘why is Season of the Witch playing right now?’ And after the match, I heard it was like the original, the Troggs ‘Wild Thing.’ I was like ‘oh, they must’ve got ‘Wild Thing’ after all. That’s my music now.’ And they then changed it to the X version, the Major League version. So, it kind of just happened by accident. But if the people like it, I like it. So that’s all that matters. I’m into it, it’s cool.”

There is a funny irony about a man like Jon Moxley getting ushered to the ring by a tune such as Wild Thing. However, somehow, it works perfectly.