Chris Jericho appears to be quite excited about getting to face Kenny Omega at WrestleKingdom.
Jericho opened the latest episode of his podcast with some thoughts on the match, scheduled as the co-headliner for New Japan Pro Wrestling's WrestleKingdom 12 on January 4 from the Tokyo Dome.
Jericho appeared via video at New Japan's Power Struggle event last Sunday, November 5, following Omega's successful defense of the IWGP U.S. Title, and issued the challenge to Omega. That came after the two were insulting each other back and forth on Twitter.
Jericho referred to the matchup with Omega as "a dream match of all dream matches. Needless to say it's something I've been working on for a couple of months. I'm very excited about this. It's the first match that I've had outside of the WWE since 1999 and the timing couldn't be better. Kenny Omega is the best performer in professional wrestling today. The most critically acclaimed, the most buzz and I came off the greatest run of my career in 2016 and 2017. Really you have a best in the world versus best in the world type situation."
As reported earlier this week, the match came together after several weeks of negotiations that were held in New York. Jericho's appearance at Power Struggle came as a huge surprise throughout the wrestling world, which is just how Jericho says he wanted it, saying he was "actually so surprised and happy it ended up staying a secret." It marks the first match for Jericho outside of WWE since 1999.
Currently on tour with his band Fozzy in Europe, Jericho said he was watching Power Struggle online from his bunk on the tour bus. After he appeared in the pre-taped video, Jericho said his phone started "blowing up with texts."
Fightful.com Managing Editor Sean Ross Sapp reported on Monday that certain individuals in WWE felt Jericho was unhappy with the company, which turned down Jericho's request to run an NXT event on his rock and wrestling cruise planned for next year.
Click here to check out the entire episode of Talk Is Jericho, which includes an interview with Austin Aries.
