AR Fox was a well-traveled veteran before signing with AEW and becoming a featured player on television recently by linking up with Swerve Strickland and Mogul Embassy.
In 2011 and 2012, Fox traveled to Japan to work tours with Dragon Gate, which bled into working with Dragon Gate USA.
Speaking to Chris Jericho on Talk Is Jericho, Fox recalled his time in Dragon Gate.
“Well the main person I was working with, I was working with CIMA a lot. He’s [was] their guy. He [was] up there up there, he took me under his wing and we were teaming up and we had tag belts and everything. Yeah, he was the guy I was working with the most. I worked with Shingo [Takagi], YAMATO, I worked with the entire roster, I did two three-month tours," he said. “One thing I kind of learned from CIMA was just taking time. It’s hard to explain it, but just to hold his ground he would hit somebody with something, and then he’d stand there and fix his elbow pad. It just looked so cool. Sometimes he’d fix his waistband in between doing [things], but he’d just look cool. He claps whatever strike he does, so when I was in Japan, I asked if I could do that alongside him. He was sitting there thinking about it and he’s like, ‘Okay, okay.’ I was like, ‘Cool’ and he was like the coolest guy to me. I clap with all of my strikes to be like CIMA, to pay homage or whatever. So that’s why I clap on my strikes, I'm not doing it for sound. Let me get that out there [laughs].”
CIMA was featured during the early days of AEW, including competing at AEW Double or Nothing 2019.
Fox & Swerve are currently feuding with Darby Allin & Nick Wayne after Fox turned on Allin on the July 26 episode of AEW Dynamite.
Elsewhere during the interview, Fox discussed his heel turn. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
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