When Chris Jericho interrupted Kenny Omega after his match at NJPW Power Struggle 2017, he never could have predicted the chain of events he would set off.
Omega was the reigning IWGP United States Champion. He became the first man to hold the belt earlier that year by winning a tournament held in the USA. The championship was supposed to help New Japan Pro Wrestling break into the US market with The Cleaner as the most popular gaijin in the company.
They were doing well and matches like Omega vs Kazuchika Okada certainly got the fans across the world talking. This was after stars like AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura and Hiroshi Tanahashi had laid the groundwork and got fans interested in Japanese wrestling once again, after a disappointing period in the mid-2000s.
The stage for set for a wave of popularity from the United States but it wouldn’t be until Chris Jericho made his long-awaited return to New Japan that the dream would be realised. He wrestled Kenny Omega at Wrestle Kingdom 12 in what could be the most significant and important match in the 21st century.
Chris Jericho Made A Shock Appearance In NJPW After Leaving The WWE
By 2017 nobody ever expected to see Chris Jericho wrestle anywhere outside the WWE. He had been loyal to Vince McMahon since joining the company in 1999 and was seen as one of the greatest WWE stars of all time.
He did negotiate with TNA in 2006 for a pay-per-view appearance, although it was all a ruse to get a better deal from the WWE in the future. He spent another decade with the promotion before leaving in 2017 for another tour with his band, Fozzy.
However, he was not certain about his future in the WWE. 2016 had seen Y2J being one of the most prominently featured wrestlers on Raw and his long-running storyline with Kevin Owens was undoubtedly the highlight of a dismal time, creatively, for the company.
The match between the pair looked certain to be the main event of WrestleMania and be contested for Kevin Owens’ Universal Championship. His turn on Jericho during the “Festival of Friendship” is one of the greatest heel turns of all time and was the catalyst for their long-awaited bout.
Vince McMahon didn’t see the vision though. He didn’t see either man as worthy of the main event and even took the Universal Title off Owens’ and handed it to Goldberg in a squash match instead.
Knowing that he would never be seen as the top star in the company by Vince McMahon again, Chris Jericho was content to leave the WWE and potentially retire.
Jericho often said that he wouldn’t want to wrestle for anybody apart from Vince McMahon. That was until he was contacted by New Japan Pro Wrestling for a match against Kenny Omega. Omega was the top gaijin in NJPW and was primed to become the IWGP Heavyweight Champion.
Most importantly though, Kenny Omega was from Winnipeg, the same as Chris Jericho. Knowing that two wrestlers from Winnipeg could main-event one of the most iconic venues in the Tokyo Dome was a possibility he simply couldn’t pass up.
Chris Jericho made his return to NJPW on the fifth of November 2017 at their Power Struggle 2017 event. The former WWE Champion hadn’t wrestled outside of the WWE since his final WCW appearance in 1999 and was a huge shock to everybody in attendance.
The Canadian appeared in a pre-recorded video on the big screen in the Osaka Prefectural Gym in front of over 5,000 fans. The clip opened with some out-of-focus shots of Jericho as Fozzy’s Judas, which was used as his entrance theme in AEW and New Japan, played in the background.
The video played immediately after Kenny Omega defended his IWGP United States Championship against Trent Beretta and gave his traditional post-match promo to the crowd. However, just as he finished the lights went out and Chris Jericho appeared in New Japan for the first time since 1998.
Chris Jericho vs Kenny Omega Was A Huge Success For New Japan
As soon as Chris Jericho interrupted Kenny Omega at Power Struggle, New Japan’s profile in the United States exploded. Google searches for the company grew to higher than ever before and countless English-speaking fans signed up for New Japan World for the first time.
The bout pit Jericho against Omega. The former WWE Champion adopted the nickname “The Alpha” in opposition to his opponent’s surname, using the Greek alphabet to effectively trash talk his fellow Canadian.
Kenny Omega pinned Chris Jericho at the end of a fantastic match. It was much different to either man’s previous outings, with Jericho bringing a more violent and vicious style to the bout. It was changed to a no-disqualification match in the build-up, and both men used all the tricks available to try and pick up the win.
In particular, Chris Jericho seemed freed in his first match not booked by Vince McMahon for nearly twenty years. He swore, bled and even attacked a young Shota Umino at ringside, mocking his father and head referee Red Shoes.
The match earned a five-star rating from Dave Meltzer. It was the first time he was given that star rating in his career despite is long-running friendship with Wrestling Observer founder. While Kenny Omega picked up a win and retained his IWGP United States Championship, it was New Japan Pro Wrestling who turned out to be the real winners out of it.
The financial rewards for booking the match were astounding despite Chris Jericho’s bumper salary for taking part in the bout. Reports that he made $100,000 for the match were quashed by Le Champion, who revealed that he made more money at Wrestle Kingdom than most of his WrestleMania matches.
Given he has previously admitted to have made over a million dollars for certain bouts, it is likely NJPW paid Chris Jericho a fee in the high six-figures for his match against Kenny Omega.
Despite that, the company still made off like bandits. They reportedly made $300,000 per month just based on that match due to people signing up to for New Japan World, and 15,000 tickets were sold based solely on the bout being announced.
Tickets flew off the shelf thanks to Chris Jericho’s involvement. Ticket sales were selling 80% quicker than the year before and the company was shocked at the amount of people outside Japan who bought tickets for the show. This was almost exclusively down to the interest generated by Chris Jericho’s first match outside of Japan.
It was clear that Chris Jericho vs Kenny Omega was a success as the company brought him back for an extended run in the company. He wrestled six times between 2018 and 2020, including matches against big stars like Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada and EVIL. He even won the IWGP Intercontinental Championship from Tetsuya Naito, showing just how much faith the company had in the former WWE star.
However, it was that first match with Kenny Omega that was the catalyst for the formation of AEW and a seismic shift in the wrestling industry.
His Appearance At All In Was The Catalyst For All Elite Wrestling
On September 2nd 2018, Cody Rhodes and the Young Bucks promoted a show that inspired the formation of All Elite Wrestling.
All In was formed after Cody Rhodes took a bet from Dave Meltzer on Twitter. The journalist remarked that Ring of Honor wouldn’t be able to sell over 10,000 seats for a show, something no non-WWE show had done since WCW closed down in 2001.
Cody Rhodes claimed he and the Young Bucks could do it and took on the challenge. Rhodes had got to know Nick and Matt Jackson when he joined the Bullet Club and the pair became close friends as they sought to change the wrestling business.
The trio successfully ran All In at the Sears Center Arena in Chicago, with a host of stars from promotions all over the world attending. Wrestlers from NJPW, ROH and CMLL, among others, were brought in for this celebration of wrestling with numerous dream matches on the card.
Cody Rhodes and the Young Bucks took part, as did huge stars like Kazuchika Okada, Pentagon Jr, Nick Aldis and Rey Mysterio all wrestling in the event. However, the biggest one was unannounced as Chris Jericho sought his revenge on his Wrestle Kingdom 12 opponent.
After Kenny Omega defeated Pentagon Jr at All In and began to celebrate, the lights went out. After a period of darkness, the arena was reilluminated, although nothing seemed to be different. Pentagon Jr was still lying on the mat, selling the beating he had just taken from Omega.
However, as the Canadian celebrated for the crowd, Pentagon Jr rose to his feet and began to attack him. After a few blows to the head he hit Omega with the Codebreaker finisher and removed his mask to reveal him as Chris Jericho himself.
This was a huge surprise to everybody. Not only had Jericho denied appearing at the show, he even played a show with his band Fozzy on the same night. As it turns out, Tony Khan flew him into Chicago on his private jet in order to make it to All In on time which began the relationship that would lead to the formation of AEW.
Without Chris Jericho, there is no AEW. Both he and Tony Khan have admitted that the two names who got them their TV deal with Warner Bros Discovery were Chris Jericho and Jim Ross. Without them the project is dead in the water and the wrestling world never got the competition for the WWE that the fans had been crying out for since 2001.
Without Chris Jericho vs Kenny Omega at Wrestle Kingdom 12, Jericho would never have appeared at All In, met Tony Khan or been the man who got AEW their TV deal. The significance of that one match is staggering.
Chris Jericho vs Kenny Omega Is The Most Significant Match Of The 21st Century
In the grand scheme of things, the match between Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega did more for wrestling than any other bout in years.
Not only in the money it made New Japan but in what followed. Without Jericho making the jump to compete outside of the WWE for the first time in nearly two decades, he would not have decided to work outside of the WWE in America and wouldn’t have been at All In.
Without Jericho at All In, he would never have got in contact with Tony Khan and All Elite Wrestling likely wouldn’t have got off the ground. Five years on from their debut, AEW are drawing thousands of fans for their three weekly TV shows and saw 80,000 pay to see their biggest show ever at Wembley Stadium in 2023.
Without Chris Jericho vs Kenny Omega the WWE would be the only game in town and New Japan would not have received the same amount of interest as it did, starting at Wrestle Kingdom 12.
