Backstage News On Cancelled Chris Jericho Storyline In NJPW

AEW's Chris Jericho almost played a key role in the formation of Will Ospreay's heel Empire group in NJPW, according to Joe Lanza and Rich Kraetsch on the latest Voices of Wrestling Flagship podcast.

VOW's source is a New Japan roster member. They corroborated a recent Dave Meltzer story stating that Jeff Cobb was originally supposed to be part of the group, with the Hawaiian, not Great-O-Khan, wrestling Kazuchika Okada at last week's Power Struggle event.

The setup for this would have been similar to that which saw Ospreay turn heel on his mentor on 16 October, but with Cobb, not O-Khan, attacking Okada while Bea Priestley distracted the referee. Cobb and Ospreay would have beaten down Okada before an apparent save from O-Khan, wearing his question mark face veil. Rather than attacking Ospreay, however, O-Khan would have hit Okada with a Codebreaker then unmasked, revealing Jericho.

Great-O-Khan would have been brought in as a member of Okada's CHAOS stable before this. He'd have then been at ringside for Okada's battle with Cobb at Power Struggle, seemingly to counter Ospreay's presence, before turning on the 'Rainmaker' and joining Empire himself.

There's no word on whether or not Jericho would have been an official member of the stable, though he'd have been involved in the formation angle. The plans were scrapped for unknown reasons.