Wrestling: Five Possible Dream Matches For 2018

Kenny Omega vs. Kota Ibushi

Many people thought this match would take place at Wrestle Kingdom 12 before Chris Jericho returned to New Japan to challenge the U.S. Title. Even though it didn’t happen there, a clash seems almost inevitable.

There’s plenty of history between these two to draw from. Omega and Ibushi became friends shortly after Omega joined the Dramatic Dream Team (DDT) promotion in 2008. They formally became a team in January 2009 and went on to win the KO-D Tag Team Championships twice and the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships once.

Omega and Ibushi teamed until October 2014, when Ibushi moved to the heavyweight division in NJPW and Omega remained a junior. Since then, Ibushi has wrestled in numerous promotions–including WWE during the cruiserweight classic–while Omega has become arguably the best wrestler on the planet.

Both men had great 2017’s; Omega broke Dave Melzer’s original 1-5 rating scale THREE TIMES while Ibushi had bouts with Tetsuya Naito, Tomohiro Ishii, and Zack Sabre Jr. that would have been MOTY candidates in any other year besides 2017. I have no doubt that both men could have the Match of the Year should the match happen in 2017 given their abilities and storyline history.

Next: Ranking The Top 20 WWE Matches Of 2017

Both men started the year with classic Wrestle Kingdom matches. Omega worked a very smart no-DQ match with Chris Jericho, giving Y2J his first classic in a while. Ibushi helped Cody break through his seemingly impenetrable three-star ceiling with a classic singles bout (to be fair, Cody more than held up his end).

Omega has some business to attend to first–helping Switchblade get over, feuding with Cody. When he finally wrestles Ibushi, fans should expect nothing less than a memorable classic.