We’re all awaiting IWGP Intercontinental champion Chris Jericho’s return to New Japan.
It’s possible his Oct. 27 - 31 Rock ‘n’ Wrestling Rager at Sea cruise will go down before that happens, however. Which means a six-man tag between a Bullet Club team of IWGP Heavyweight titleholder Kenny Omega, new IWGP United States champ (and likely one of Kenny’s next challengers for the heavyweight strap) Cody Rhodes & Marty Scurll and the “Alpha Club” of Jericho and the Young Bucks.
Or Jericho could show up next week (Oct. 8) at King of Pro-Wrestling, getting involved in the planned three-way between Golden Lovers Omega & Kota Ibushi and Cody, promoting the match on the water while really stirring the waters of New Japan’s title scene.
The heavyweight champ did some stirring of his own in a wide-ranging media scrum attended and captured by our Marc Raimondi and E. Casey Leydon following Fighting Spirit Unleashed in Long Beach last night (Sept. 30). Among the topics covered was Jericho...
“Jericho still feels like he has something to prove. I escaped [by] the skin of my teeth at the Tokyo Dome. I don’t feel like I’m better than Jericho. I feel like I barely escaped with my life. Jericho put the hurt on me more than anyone else has in my career - maybe even more than [Tomohiro ] Ishii. And he proved that he still has a place in this business, at the top of the ladder. I would go so far as to say as even though I won, Jericho is one of the top men on my list to address and issue a championship defense match against. But, that’s a discussion for another day.”
Could Jericho vs. Omega II be coming our way? Kenny’s plate is full. There’s still G1 Climax winner Hiroshi Tanahashi looming, too. But we wouldn’t turn down more Alpha vs. Omega. Would you?