Well, it certainly appears that Christmas will be arriving both early AND late this year. After “The Cleaner” Kenny Omega successfully defended his IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship against Trent Barretta at New Japan’s Power Struggle event this past Sunday, Chris Jericho made an appearance on screen, challenging Omega to a match at Wrestle Kingdom 12 on January 4th at the Tokyo Dome. Now, while many long-time wrestling fans know that Y2J is no stranger to the Land of the Rising Sun, his connection to the WWE certainly raises a few eyebrows and makes the impact much bigger.
In his appearance, Jericho — via a likely pre-recorded vignette — cut a promo centered around the title of being “The Best in the World,” mentioning names like Shawn Michaels, Edge, and CM Punk before he again referred to himself The Best In The World, besting all of those men (and still being an active in-ring performer), and ripping a picture of Omega (a fellow Canadian) in half. That, and they’ve been feuding on Twitter as of late:
Then, of course, the crowd erupted in “Y2J” chants, and now we have a dream match in the making. What we have now is a sure-fire future WWE Hall of Famer at Wrestle Kingdom, NJPW’s version of Wrestlemania. Since this is now officially happening, it’s very likely that WWE and Vince McMahon had already signed off on the idea, it is still difficult to comprehend this being a reality (despite the reality that it IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING). See for yourself: