NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 12: Jericho vs. Omega’s Big Impact On Wrestling

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 12’s main event is a four-year long story arc between Tetsuya Naito and Kazuchika Okada that figures to culminate in one of the greatest matches of all-time. But before that match, Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega will look to put on an equally impactful classic in a “No Disqualification” match for the IWGP United States Championship.

Chris Jericho is a wrestling icon, and he’s accomplished nearly everything there is to accomplish in the sport. The first undisputed champion in WWE history, Jericho has made his mark globally, and he had a match with Kevin Owens for the WWE’s United States Championship at WrestleMania in 2017.

In 2018, Jericho will compete for a US Title at a wrestling promotion’s biggest event of the year, but this time he’ll take on a different KO, Kenny Omega. At NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom 12, Jericho will face Omega for the IWGP United States Championship, which was created in May and won by Omega in July. Omega defeated the under-appreciated Tomohiro Ishii in the finals of a tournament to capture the gold.

The match itself has high stakes, because the IWGP United States Championship is already one of the most prestigious belts in all of wrestling. And nearly all of the credit goes to its inaugural champion, because Omega has been one of the best wrestlers in the world over the past year. Whether it’s Beretta or Juice Robinson, Omega puts on incredible matches for the title with any competitor, and his match with Jericho should be no exception.

But while the match itself is a big deal, its impact on the wrestling business as a whole is even more profound. If somebody told me last year at this time that Jericho, who won WWE’s US Title on Jan. 9, would be in a match for a title at Wrestle Kingdom 12 against Omega, then I would have declared them insane.

Jericho vs. Omega is ground-breaking in that sense, and while this isn’t even close to the first time a WWE star has wrestled in Japan, the stakes feel higher. WWE dominates professional wrestling, but NJPW has quietly made some big moves. They put on the best matches in all of wrestling, their talent roster might be equal to WWE’s in terms of overall talent, and they have a new TV deal and streaming service. No, they can’t match WWE for quality in those departments, but the quality of their product more than speaks for itself.

NJPW is, like WWE, a family-friendly organization, so the feud between Jericho and Omega has been revolutionary within its own promotion, too.

In an interview with Rolling Stone‘s Kenny Herzog, Omega said:

"“I’ve been lucky where I’ve asked for a little bit of trust from the company. When you put yourself in a situation like that, you either hit consecutive home runs or you’re dead in the water, because there’s a lot of money on the line, there’s a reputation on the line. And a lot of times I really forced them to step out of their comfort zone. Between last year’s G1 and now with Jericho, I have done a lot of things the company isn’t necessarily comfortable with, but they’re seeing positive growth from it. Drawing blood is a faux paus. They don’t like it at all. Our parent company makes its money through anime and card games.”"

Great wrestlers have to push the boundaries within their own promotion to help change the business and to tell the stories that need to be told. Omega is no exception, and his desire to push the envelope and his ability to gain the trust of his employers is reminiscent of the qualities that the equally shrewd Jericho possesses. Recall that Jericho essentially tricked Vince McMahon into letting AJ Styles bring his “Styles Clash” finisher to WWE.

The match between Omega and Jericho is a “No Disqualification” match, and based on the attacks we’ve seen from both wrestlers, there will be violence. And a lot of it. We’ve seen tables thrown, blood, mind games, puns (Alpha vs. Omega), and T-Shirts. For a match pitting a champion in NJPW against a wrestler who isn’t currently working for the promotion, this sure feels like a bitter rivalry that has lasted for a while. Then again, Jericho and Omega spent time working this feud on Twitter before Y2J appeared to accept Omega’s open challenge for the US Title.

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Omega vs. Jericho isn’t the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 12, and I will always maintain that the honor should go to Naito and Okada, who have worked incredibly hard for years and are about to tell the perfect story (if perfection could ever exist in professional wrestling, that is).

That said, Omega vs. Jericho doesn’t need to be the main event of the show in order to be the most important match globally.

These two are getting mainstream interviews and attention, they are selling out seats, they are selling out T-Shirts, they are trending on social media, and, most importantly, they are getting eyes on the product that normally wouldn’t care about NJPW.

This is just anecdotal, but there are several people on Twitter who tell me that Chris Jericho is the reason why they will watch Wrestle Kingdom this year. And once they watch the other matches on the card, they will see why NJPW is a hot brand right now.

The vignettes, the heavy usage of social media (Jericho has his own YouTube channel now and is potentially launching his own site), the violence, and the willingness to change an entire company’s approach to their portrayal of the product are all indicative of a rivalry that is meant to take NJPW to another level as a brand.

Next: Full Predictions For Wrestle Kingdom 12

There’s a lot to unpack when looking at Jericho vs. Omega, and it isn’t just about what will be a brilliant, brutal match between two world-class competitors. It’s also about NJPW showing that they aren’t just a promotion “with good wrestling”, because the “curse of the worker” can apply to entire wrestling promotions, too. NJPW is doing something different here, and they should be applauded for creating a feud that has more of an impact on pro wrestling than any feud at WrestleMania would, barring an in-ring return from Daniel Bryan.