NJPW: 3 reasons Chris Jericho shouldn’t win the IWGP Heavyweight Title

On June 9 at Dominion, Chris Jericho returns to New Japan Pro Wrestling to challenge Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Title. Coming off of a successful defense over SANADA at Wrestling Dontaku, retaining the title is more important than ever for The Rainmaker.

I love Chris Jericho. Let’s just get that out of the way before anything else is said. I’ve been a raging Jerichoholic since his ECW days, and the way he’s constantly been able to reinvent himself over the years has blessed us with one of the most unique and constantly evolving characters in pro-wrestling.

When I was a kid, I waited in line at a record store in Tampa, Florida to have Chris Jericho sign my copy of his VHS tape Break Down The Walls. When he debuted on RAW opposite The Rock, I absolutely lost my mind.

For a brief, yet shameful, period of time I also adopted his top-knot as my go-to hairstyle. I’m not entirely proud of that.

All that being said, I don’t see an upside to Jericho becoming the IWGP Heavyweight Champion. His run with the Intercontinental Title was great fun and his feud with Tetsuya Naito led to some awesome interactions and matches, but I don’t think we need a rehash of that storyline.

Jericho last appeared in a New Japan ring at Wrestle Kingdom 13 in a losing effort to Naito. On the second night of Wrestling Dontaku, Jericho returned via video to surprise Kazuchika Okada.

Having just bested SANADA in a classic main event, Okada watched on as Jericho made his intentions immediately clear: he was going to challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight Title – and he was going to win.

For Okada, the next defense of his IWGP Heavyweight Title comes at a time when the top spot in New Japan is in an extreme state of flux. Over the past five months, four different men have held the championship. On May 4, Okada became the first new champion in that span of time to successfully make a first defense.

On June 9th, Okada absolutely needs to vanquish Jericho as a challenger – here’s why.

For Chris Jericho, Focus Should Be On All Elite Wrestling

By now, there isn’t a wrestling fan with access to the internet who hasn’t heard about All Elite Wrestling. Since the beginning of the year, AEW has built toward Double or Nothing on May 25 and teased a TV deal.

For wrestling fans, there hasn’t been as exciting a time to be a fan in recent memory.

Chris Jericho made waves of his own, though largely expected, when he put his name on the dotted line with AEW. For years, Jericho has danced between being a WWE part-timer and frontman of Fozzy, dipping back into wrestling when the mood struck him.

When he began to surface in New Japan, things became interesting. As Jericho would tell it, Vince McMahon was fine with Jericho competing for NJPW overseas, but The Painmaker’s own pledge was that he wouldn’t work for another company on US soil.

That all changed when Jericho made a surprise appearance at last year’s All In event by attacking Kenny Omega. While he wasn’t technically wrestling for another company (and there wasn’t even a company to speak of), it was a sign of the changing times for Jericho’s career.

A few months later, Jericho would defeat Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP Intercontinental Title and hold that title for over 200 days. On January 4 at Wrestle Kingdom 13, Naito got his revenge and reclaimed a title that has been unable to escape his orbit.

Just like that, Chris Jericho was gone.

Days later, Jericho would appear at AEW’s Jacksonville press conference to announce that he was a full-fledged member of the All Elite roster.

With the inception of AEW, a handful of top names were gone from New Japan. Jericho, Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, and Cody Rhodes all walked away from the company with one important distinction – Jericho and Omega’s contracts, at least, allow for continued appearances with NJPW.

While it was no secret that Jericho and Omega had some flexibility in their contracts, it did come as a bit of a surprise to see one of them show up at a New Japan event so close to Double or Nothing. Just over 2 weeks after the inaugural AEW event, Jericho will appear at NJPW Dominion.

Although Jericho’s appearance has sparked, and will continue to spark, interest amongst wrestling fans all over the world, it seems like a necessary stopgap more than the start of a lasting feud. With the G1 Climax kicking off in July, Okada needs fodder to fill time before the summer.

More importantly, Jericho winning the IWGP Heavyweight Title would steal focus away from his position in AEW. If, right after the first official All Elite event, one of your top names pops up in another company and wins their championship, what does that mean for All Elite?

For me, it diminishes the value of AEW and the championship they’ll eventually have. If Jericho were to return to AEW with the IWGP Heavyweight Title in tow, suddenly the conversation shifts away from AEW and onto NJPW.

Though it may garner interest in the short-term and lead to an interesting moment on the New Japan timeline, it wouldn’t help Jericho, Okada, New Japan, or All Elite. Jericho doesn’t need the IWGP Heavyweight Title to cement his legacy – he’s already a legend in the business.

On the other hand, New Japan is aching for a dominant champion heading into the summer months, and a successful defense will do far more to build Okada and NJPW.

New Japan Needs A Successful Heavyweight Champion

The last IWGP Heavyweight Champion of any notable length of time was Kenny Omega. Omega held the title for 209 days, and the two men directly following him were champion for less than 2 months.

Though Omega’s reign didn’t come close to Omega’s record of 12 successful defenses, he did add 3 notches to his belt before being dethroned by Hiroshi Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom 13. Tanahashi and successor Jay White, though? Zero successful defenses.

After coming off of an insane Okada run as champion with over 700 days as New Japan’s number one, it’s felt a little bit like a game of hot potato with the title finding its way around the waist of 3 different men in 4 months time.

I was pretty firm in my belief that Jay White should have been a long-term champion.

As a fresh face at the top of the card and someone whose bravado was proven right at almost every turn, it would have made sense for White to hold onto the gold for an expansive Okada redemption story.

Unfortunately for White and my secret prediction game, ‘The Rainmaker’ came calling at G1 Supercard.

Now, with Okada back on top, it’s time for him to stay on top. Another championship transition at what will be just over 60 days of Okada as champion would not only be a blow to the Okada revival story, but a blow to the IWGP Heavyweight Title itself.

Not everybody needs to hold the championship for 700 days or even 200 days, but looking back at the lineage of the title it’s more common to see reigns lasting more than 100 days. Of course, those reigns mean little if the title isn’t being defended against top contenders.

Chris Jericho is one of those top contenders.

After already overcoming SANADA, whom Okada now considers his contemporary and rival, it’s time to let this rose keep its bloom for just a little bit longer.

In fact, it’s time to let all of the roses in New Japan spread their wonderful stink for the next few months. We’re in what feels like an incredible point of transition for New Japan with 3 of its top belts just changing hands this past April. At the time of writing, only one championship, the US Title, has broken 100 consecutive days with a single champion.

With the focus shifting away from The Elite and onto the stars who are with New Japan for the long haul, we need to see the wrestlers who have made NJPW their bread and butter pushed to the forefront.

Above all else, we need champions who are going to be seen on the cerulean blue mat on a consistent basis.

The IWGP Heavyweight Title Deserves A Full-Time Champion

We’ve all seen what part-time champions can do to a company, its shows, and its championships.

The past several years with Brock Lesnar on top of WWE have been an incredible chore to experience, even as an outlier who only tangentially follows that company.

Lesnar was able to use his hoss-like wiles and convince Vince McMahon to back trucks full of money up to his house to wrestle a handful of times each year in matches ranging from very bad to very good largely depending on the opponent.

What made the Lesnar experience so miserable was the disregard he seemed to have for the Universal Title and WWE as a whole.

Now, on this Brock and I can agree – why would I watch the show, Paul? It’s the same thing week after week and when your main champion isn’t on the show regularly, it’s hard to find that driving force to build toward your big shows every month.

That sort of reprehensible behavior belongs nowhere near NJPW and the IWGP Heavyweight Title.

Comparing Lesnar to Chris Jericho isn’t a one-to-one comparison, as I’m sure Jericho would aim to do far more with and for the IWGP Heavyweight Title than Lesnar ever did for the WWE Universal Title.

These are two incredibly different wrestlers with incredibly different mindsets about the wrestling business as a whole.

So, no – I don’t think Chris Jericho becoming IWGP Heavyweight Champion would be a complete disaster, but it also wouldn’t be great.

We all know that Jericho’s main obligation lies in the US with All Elite Wrestling.

With a TV deal expected to be announced sooner than later, Jericho and AEW will be busy promoting and then building their brand as they inch closer to a weekly television program.

Chris Jericho simply won’t have time for New Japan the way the top champion in the company should.

To a lesser extent, Kenny Omega already ran this course with the IWGP Heavyweight Title. Toward the end of his reign, he was hard to find on any New Japan shows. While Tanahashi, Okada, Naito, and the rest of the top names were on all of the minor shows, Omega seemed to only show up at the named events at the end of each tour.

Along with the storyline of Omega running down the Japanese talent for not trying hard enough or having a high enough work ethic, he began to rub a lot of fans the wrong way.

For someone whose IWGP Heavyweight Title win was an emotional, cathartic moment for many, his dethroning at the hands of Tanahashi was emotional and cathartic in a much different way.

Tanahashi taking the championship from Omega meant that New Japan was ready to shift focus away from a champion who was busy at conventions and on cruise ships and onto someone who was devoted to the company. Tanahashi, of course, dropped the title shortly thereafter but he, his successor, and his successor’s successor have been steady players in NJPW.

At this point, with so much shifting happening around the top of the card and coming off of a relatively fresh situation where Omega was absent as champion, New Japan needs a champion who will be available at all times. They need someone who can be called upon to be on the smaller shows just as they would be expected to appear at the larger shows.

Kazuchika Okada is that man. Plus, he’s already proven that he can run a successful cruise and stay active in New Japan at the same time.

The choice is clear.