Last month, WWE announced that they would return to Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan (Sumo Hall) for a pair of events on July 1 and 2. Now, it seems like the seeds are being sown for a potential main-event bout on one of the shows. It had been rumored that recent WWE signing Shinsuke Nakamura - who is legitimately one of the biggest pro wrestling stars in all of Japan - would be headlining the shows against main roster WWE talent. Chris Jericho seems to have thrown his hat into the ring, starting a Twitter feud with "The King of Strong Style" that the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports is scheduled to lead to a singles contest at Sumo Hall. When compared unfavorably to Nakamura by a fan on the social media site, Jericho replied, "Nakamura means nothing. He's a minor league Jericho wannabe." He then tweeted, in response to a completely unrelated Nakamura tweet, "Watch yourself baka ... you mean nothing in my world." Nakamura simply replied "thanks." A Jericho-Nakamura main event would be an easy sell for Japanese fans, as not only is Nakamura a star in the country, but Jericho is as well. Despite only wrestling a part-time schedule, Jericho is still considered a legend around the world, and he worked in Japan early in his career. WWE has not yet announced if the shows will air on the company's streaming network, but when they held two events at Sumo Hall last summer, the latter was broadcast as "The Beast in the East."
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
