Jericho has confirmed the match on Twitter.

It may not be the best match on the show, but this is a huge deal for NJPW especially out here in the west. Despite not fighting for the IWGP Championship, Omega has found a way to upstage everyone else.

Good luck topping this, WWE

Knew when Omega tweeted "im here ur there" that confirmed it. Wrestlers can never be trusted.

Everyone thought this was a set up to a match on Jericho's cruise, but I just had a gut feeling this was a Wrestle Kingdom thing. When I woke up and saw the news today on twitter (thanks Kem!) I was fucking elated! /RusevDay

The card for Wrestle Kingdom was already shaping up to be awesome and they add this, plus Tanahashi vs White, plus we'll probably get Ishii vs Suzuki added at some point. I can't wait.

Once again NJPW is going to have the show of the year before the year even gets started. I love it.

Wait Chris Jericho at Wrestle Kingdom? Wrestling against Kenny Omega?

As someone who was born and raised in Winnipeg, this is an absolute dream match for me. It's going to be awesome to finally see the two best wrestlers from here (sorry Corino, still love ya though) finally competing in the same match.

I honestly can't believe this is happening. Jericho may not be under WWE contract anymore, but he's a WWE loyalist, so I'm shocked he's wrestling with arguably its main competition.

As for match itself, I was unenthusiastic when this was rumoured, and I am still unenthusiastic. Jericho in 2017 claiming he's the best in the world is laughable. I don't have high expectations, but I'll try to keep an open mind. Of course, beyond the in-ring action, this is a monumental announcement. This is more or less a WWE guy stepping into NJPW for the first time in...decades. It's huge. It's history-making.

Nov 5, 2017 18:09:16 GMT Emperor said:

I honestly can't believe this is happening. Jericho may not be under WWE contract anymore, but he's a WWE loyalist, so I'm shocked he's wrestling with arguably its main competition.

As for match itself, I was unenthusiastic when this was rumoured, and I am still unenthusiastic. Jericho in 2017 claiming he's the best in the world is laughable. I don't have high expectations, but I'll try to keep an open mind. Of course, beyond the in-ring action, this is a monumental announcement. This is more or less a WWE guy stepping into NJPW for the first time in...decades. It's huge. It's history-making.

I dont get whats so shocking. Many so called loyalists have hopped over to Japan for matches. 


This match has been in the making for weeks. Omega and Jericho have been warring on Twitter to help set up the match

 
Im so excited for this. One of my all time favorites in Jericho and one of my current favorites in Kenny, I can't wait.

WK didn't need an additional hook to sell it, but holy shit. This is a must-see event.

Kenny's gotta put on his carrying boots tonight.

Would have rather have gotten Omega/Ibushi, but I get why they would choose this match. It will do a lot to help the USA expansion of NJPW. Don’t expect the match to be great, but expect a good entertaining match.

Nov 5, 2017 18:21:00 GMT Mistress said:

]I dont get whats so shocking. Many so called loyalists have hopped over to Japan for matches.

This match has been in the making for weeks. Omega and Jericho have been warring on Twitter to help set up the match

Jericho may be a part-timer, but I still consider him an active and committed part of the WWE roster, and he's always sticking up for the company on his podcast, so for him to show up in New Japan is shocking. What other former WWE roster members have hopped over to New Japan in recent years? The biggest name I can think of is Cody Rhodes, and he's clearly nowhere near as big a name as Chris Jericho. Sure, they've been feuding on Twitter, but I figured it was just Jericho being Jericho having a bit of fun. He has a history of Twitter trolling.

Maybe it's all part of signing Omega.

Nov 5, 2017 21:36:07 GMT Emperor said:

Nov 5, 2017 18:21:00 GMT Mistress said:

]I dont get whats so shocking. Many so called loyalists have hopped over to Japan for matches.

This match has been in the making for weeks. Omega and Jericho have been warring on Twitter to help set up the match

Jericho may be a part-timer, but I still consider him an active and committed part of the WWE roster, and he's always sticking up for the company on his podcast, so for him to show up in New Japan is shocking. What other former WWE roster members have hopped over to New Japan in recent years? The biggest name I can think of is Cody Rhodes, and he's clearly nowhere near as big a name as Chris Jericho. Sure, they've been feuding on Twitter, but I figured it was just Jericho being Jericho having a bit of fun. He has a history of Twitter trolling.

It was reported the Twitter war was only done in an effort to get the match signed...I even posted the news story here  :lol:

Kurt Angle had some matches in Japan...as has Chyna...Brock Lerner

It just hasn't been done recently because the only recent big names to leave are Rock, who is acting, Trips, who got promoted and Lerner, who does MMA in his off time...

But I wouldn't be shocked if Daniel Bryan, Austin Aries and Neville went to Japan next.

Nov 5, 2017 23:13:16 GMT Mistress said:

It was reported the Twitter war was only done in an effort to get the match signed...I even posted the news story here  :lol:

Sure, but that was a journalism hype job/clickbait. At least that's how I interpreted it. I guess the reality is that Jericho and Omega had talks with NJPW a while ago, agreed to do the match, then started the Twitter thing. It could easily have been the case that they were doing it to "work the marks", as Jericho has been known to do in the past. Maybe I'm just off-base here, but the annoucement of the WK match still came as a shock to me.

Nov 5, 2017 23:13:16 GMT Mistress said:

Kurt Angle had some matches in Japan...as has Chyna...Brock Lerner

Fair point. Those names are fairly recent. But Kurt Angle had spent about as much time in TNA as he had in WWE when he had his NJPW run. Lesnar also had the MMA run. They were pretty distant from WWE at the time of their Japanese runs.

Nov 5, 2017 17:45:54 GMT Lony said:

Wait Chris Jericho at Wrestle Kingdom? Wrestling against Kenny Omega?

As someone who was born and raised in Winnipeg, this is an absolute dream match for me. It's going to be awesome to finally see the two best wrestlers from here (sorry Corino, still love ya though) finally competing in the same match.

Same here, I'm so excited to see them go at it!

The closest example I can think of would be Brock Lesnar working UFC 200 while under a WWE contract. The only other example that comes to mind is Goldberg circa 2003/04 where he worked a few dates for Zero-1 under a WWE contract (which is why he was on and off television after he dropped the title) but I can't think of anything this specific. Not even CM Punk who promised he'd go to all these different promotions while he was the champion managed to pull something like this off.

It's a cool moment and if it can help get fans into NJPW I'm all for it. I don't think the match will be as spectcular as other Omega matches, nor should it even try to be. As long as they tell a good story, this will be one of the most important matches of Omega's career. I also think it's a good moment in Jericho's career, since he's garnered a reputation for being a WWE stooge over the years. By doing this, it sets him apart.

Nov 6, 2017 1:17:02 GMT Big Pete said:

The closest example I can think of would be Brock Lesnar working UFC 200 while under a WWE contract. The only other example that comes to mind is Goldberg circa 2003/04 where he worked a few dates for Zero-1 under a WWE contract (which is why he was on and off television after he dropped the title) but I can't think of anything this specific. Not even CM Punk who promised he'd go to all these different promotions while he was the champion managed to pull something like this off.

It's a cool moment and if it can help get fans into NJPW I'm all for it. I don't think the match will be as spectcular as other Omega matches, nor should it even try to be. As long as they tell a good story, this will be one of the most important matches of Omega's career. I also think it's a good moment in Jericho's career, since he's garnered a reputation for being a WWE stooge over the years. By doing this, it sets him apart.

who knew that Jericho was the stooge all along

Apparently Jericho contract expired two months ago, so that's interesting.

Jericho can't be much of a stooge with his Rock & Wrestling cruise getting off the ground. He has the Bullet Club set to have a match during the Cruise. I wish I could go to see the Bucks live

I'm not expecting a 5-star match but hopefully, this is a fun encounter.

Nov 6, 2017 1:51:40 GMT Mistress said:

Jericho can't be much of a stooge with his Rock & Wrestling cruise getting off the ground. He has the Bullet Club set to have a match during the Cruise. I wish I could go to see the Bucks live

He originally wanted NXT but he got knocked back.

For 10-odd years he's been one of the biggest company men, defending them left and right even when he has little reason to.

I understand Jericho's position. He clearly loves working for the WWE, and wants to stay in their good books so he can come back any time he likes with maximum creative control. So he defends them a ton on his podcast, so much so that he has a reputation as a stooge, but I doubt he cares. I don't think his stance is disingenuous. He really does love the WWE, and probably does think it is the best company in the world.

As far as working for NJPW goes, it's not clear whether he got Vince's blessing or did it on his own back since he's not contracted with the WWE. The latter seems more likely. In that case, has he burnt his bridges with WWE? We know how petty Vince can be about these things.

The cruise is also a factor. It's likely Jericho did this as a favour to Bullet Club in return for them working his cruise.

Part of me feels people like Jericho popping up is what New Japan needs if they want this "western expansion" to gain any traction. Then again TNA had a ton of big WWE names and it didn't matter...

Nov 6, 2017 14:07:34 GMT @ness said:

Part of me feels people like Jericho popping up is what New Japan needs if they want this "western expansion" to gain any traction. Then again TNA had a ton of big WWE names and it didn't matter...

Yeah, but NJPW is competent.

Nov 6, 2017 11:18:00 GMT Emperor said:

I understand Jericho's position. He clearly loves working for the WWE, and wants to stay in their good books so he can come back any time he likes with maximum creative control. So he defends them a ton on his podcast, so much so that he has a reputation as a stooge, but I doubt he cares. I don't think his stance is disingenuous. He really does love the WWE, and probably does think it is the best company in the world.

As far as working for NJPW goes, it's not clear whether he got Vince's blessing or did it on his own back since he's not contracted with the WWE. The latter seems more likely. In that case, has he burnt his bridges with WWE? We know how petty Vince can be about these things.

The cruise is also a factor. It's likely Jericho did this as a favour to Bullet Club in return for them working his cruise.

Agreed.

When you work in one company so long, it's easy just to be labeled a WWE guy. Chris has been with the company on and off for 18 years and despite being one of the better workers during that tenure, he lost that 'indy cred' which played such a big part in his career. What made Jericho stand out for so long was his experience working in so many different promotions and being apart of that Cruiserweight movement. When he made the move to the WWE, he had to assimilate and a lot of what made him stand out was lost as he had to fit his style within the WWE framework.

By making this happen, Jericho has broken through and has gotten himself noticed more than he otherwise could have.

As far as whether it will help NJPW growth in the west, depends on whether NJPW wants to capitilise on it. There have been talks of running a separate brand in the states based on the west coast with touring rosters which could work. However, I believe for that to happen, NJPW would have to develop a proper weekly television show and put more of an effort into running angles. There is only so much NJPW can really do and inevitably they will have to accept the reality of being a niche product which at this stage, works perfectly fine.

Nov 6, 2017 14:18:11 GMT KJ said:

Nov 6, 2017 14:07:34 GMT @ness said:

Part of me feels people like Jericho popping up is what New Japan needs if they want this "western expansion" to gain any traction. Then again TNA had a ton of big WWE names and it didn't matter...

Yeah, but NJPW is competent.

Exactly. TNA brought in all these WWE guys and had their homegrown stars put them over. In this situation, Jericho is being brought in to get more attention stateside and to put one of their biggest stars over(presumably).

The build between Jericho and Omega just got a lot more heated.

I'm from Winnipeg you baka!