Following his appearance at last week’s WWE Greatest Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia, Chris Jericho is set to make another appearance in the wrestling world in just days. But it’s not going to be for WWE.
According to a report filed by PWInsider, Jericho is scheduled to appear for New Japan Pro Wrestling at Wrestling Dontaku which will occur in Fukuoka, Japan in a matter of days. That appearance will be to set up a match for NJPW’s Dominion event on June 9th, which is traditionally the second biggest show of the year for New Japan. Following that event, most of the attention in the company shifts to the several week long G1 Climax tournament which will take center stage for the rest of the summer.
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Jericho is currently working on a per-appearance deal with WWE that allows him some freedom in taking outside bookings like New Japan. He shocked the wrestling world in November of last year when he appeared (via video) at New Japan Power Struggle to set-up a match with Kenny Omega. That match, which occurred at WrestleKingdom on January 4th, has been one of the best matches of 2018.
The night after his WrestleKingdom match with Omega, Jericho appeared at New Years Dash and attacked Tesuya Naito. At the time, most expected Naito would be Jericho’s next match, possibly at the Long Beach, California show in March. Instead, the angle was left unresolved and Jericho seemed to be done with New Japan.
Though we have no confirmation that a match with Naito is the case, it wouldn’t be surprising to see his appearance at Wrestling Dontaku set-up an eventual clash with the current IWGP Intercontinental Champion at Dominion.
Outside of Jericho wrestling Omega again, a bout with Naito is one of the best possible marquee matches the company could set up for Jericho to achieve maximum exposure across the wrestling landscape. Naito is arguably the most popular babyface performer in the company right now, and a WWE name like Jericho is always going to draw a lot of interest in Japan. Add in the fact that the two of them should be capable of having a match as good, if not better, than the Jericho/Omega match and we should be in for a treat at Dominion.
