Former WWE Superstar and current AEW Champion Chris Jericho will be appearing at New Japan Pro Wrestling’s annual Wrestle Kingdom show tomorrow night. Traditionally the Wrestle Kingdom event is a one night event that takes place on January 4th. However this year for the first time ever Wrestle Kingdom will be taking place over the entirety of this weekend.
Hiroshi Tanahashi
Jericho will be taking on New Japan legend Hiroshi Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom tomorrow night. Last month Tanahashi stated that if he were to defeat Jericho that he would be asking for a bout in AEW. This would be for the Championship itself. Up to this point the relationship between New Japan and AEW has been reported as fractious. As AEW’s top stars and EVPs of the company (Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega); were previously part of New Japan’s Bullet Club. All four men left the company to create AEW and seemingly left NJPW with a huge gap in their ranks.
Chris Jericho in NJPW
Jericho has a stipulation in his AEW contract stating that he is able to work whenever he so wishes for New Japan. The ‘Painmaker’ in NJPW has had sporadic matches for New Japan over the past few years. These include a huge Wrestle Kingdom bout against Kenny Omega.
AEW and NJPW Working in Tandem?
It will be interesting to see if AEW and New Japan will be able to come to an arrangement with regards to Tanahashi appearing for the American based promotion. Fans have been clamouring for Tanahashi to appear in AEW since he made the challenge to Jericho. As it would be a potentially game-changing move for both NJPW and AEW to work in tandem.
