Kenny Omega is set to return to New Japan Pro-Wrestling on January 4 at Wrestle Kingdom 17 when he faces Will Ospreay.
It will mark Omega's first bout for NJPW since losing the IWGP Heavyweight Championship to Hiroshi Tanahashi at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13. Though AEW and NJPW have worked together in some capacity since AEW's inception, Omega has not been back to Japan to compete for NJPW and he missed AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2022 due to injuries.
Seeds for the Omega vs. Ospreay bout have been planted for years on social media and in interviews, and the anticipation started to grow when Omega returned to the ring in August 2022 to take part in the AEW Trios Title tournament. Omega, teaming with the Young Bucks (Nick & Matt Jackson) faced Ospreay, teaming with Aussie Open (Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher), in the semifinals of the tournament.
Speaking to Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp, Rocky Romero detailed how Omega's return to NJPW came together.
"Kenny kind of knew where he wanted to go storyline was, but the pieces of the puzzle weren’t really put together. Kenny kind of foresaw [working with NJPW and Will Ospreay], probably not knowing when it could actually happen, but maybe in the next year. Kenny missed Forbidden Door because he was injured. He was probably thinking way ahead, not knowing when. That just shows the genius of Kenny Omega. He’s kind of thinking long-term, always. He’s the type of guy who is playing chess while everyone is playing checkers. Obviously, when the conversation starts to happen, could this be a matchup at Wrestle Kingdom? Yes, maybe, possibly. We start getting the ball rolling and all of a sudden, the Elite and Punk thing happens, and now it’s like, nobody knows, but if he does come back, he could most likely do Wrestle Kingdom in time. Nobody knew for six or eight weeks, whatever it was, it felt like forever. Everybody was pretty stressed out about it because that’s one of the key matches to Wrestle Kingdom. Been a lot of stress," said Romero.
Omega was suspended after AEW All Out due to his part in an altercation that occured with CM Punk atfer the event. He was off AEW television until AEW Full Gear.
"It [Omega's suspension in AEW] definitely put a pause on things," Rocky continued. "There was definitely a pause on things because nobody knew what was going to happen and what the timeline was going to be, realistically. I didn’t want to be the person pushing, prying and being like, ‘Don’t forget,’ because it was obviously a very sensitive subject and what everybody went through with that wasn’t a good situation for anybody. It was a touchy subject and I didn’t want to be like, ‘Hey, what about Wrestle Kingdom?’ Thank God it all unfolded quickly and we were able to get back on track super quickly. Kenny’s manager [Barry Bloom] is super great to work with and we worked with him when we did the (Chris) Jericho deal. There is a good relationship there and he was great about communicating between AEW and New Japan as well and keeping everyone on track. There was a lot of trust there and built before, it was easy to work with because putting a deal like that together in four weeks, a lot of moving parts and contracts going back and forth, and all the red tape, it takes a lot of time, but there was enough trust of ‘we know where we’re going, this is our end goal, we’re going to make it happen and make sure everyone is happy when we get there.’ Obviously, with the situation with the guys being suspended or out, it definitely didn’t help, but we got there. He’s going to be there."
The bout between Omega and Ospreay, which will be for the IWGP United States Championship, was made official at NJPW x STARDOM Historic X-Over when Omega appeared on the screen to challenge Ospreay.
Fans can check out the lineup for NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17 by clicking here.
Fightful will have coverage of NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17 on January 4. Fans can watch the event live on NJPW World.
Check out the full interview with Romero in the video above.
