10 Things NJPW Got Right At Wrestle Kingdom 12

3. Chris Jericho In New Japan

Chris Jericho Kenny Omega
NJPW1972.com

It seems like a ridiculous thing to say given the man’s career and legitimate icon status, but Chris Jericho has been a genuine revelation in New Japan Pro Wrestling. When he arrived and challenged Kenny Omega to a match at Wrestle Kingdom, a lot of fans bemoaned the fact that Omega vs. Ibushi wasn’t going to happen. On January 4, Jericho proved all of those naysayers wrong.

In WWE, Chris Jericho has a very clear ceiling. He is an important individual and one of the most decorated performers in company history, but he isn’t presented as top level veteran of similar stature to men like Triple H, The Undertaker, and Mick Foley. Y2J is a first ballot Hall of Famer, but he still comes across as someone in the upper midcard at best.

Not in New Japan. Whether it is the freedom, the atmosphere or the swearing isn’t entirely clear, but Chris Jericho feels like a truly important individual here. Jericho has been incredible in his crazy old man role, and at Wrestle Kingdom 12 he delivered what may have been his greatest ever match.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.