Chris Jericho would apparently love to see a Super Show involving the AEW roster and the NJPW roster. He of course is no stranger to Japan, and of course we’ll get into that in just a little bit.
The ‘Forbidden Door’ has enabled many NJPW stars to come on through and have epic encounters with AEW stars and vice versa, but an entire show such as the one Jericho gets into here, would be spectacular for sure.
It was while he was speaking on FITE In Focus, that Jericho went into his thoughts on this possibility into detail. Here’s some of what he had to say on the matter:
“I love wrestling in Japan. It’s one of my favorite places in the world. Mexico City is another great place to wrestle. Sydney, Australia, Melbourne, Australia. All of these places all across the world are Manchester, England, Birmingham, England, they get there. They’re just great wrestling towns. They’re great Fozzy towns. So I can’t wait…
Like I said, we’re fortunate enough to be able to make it back to England with Fozzy, the UK, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Dublin’s a great city to work, and Belfast, too, and just to go and every single show was sold out, people were ready to come and be a part of something, again, similar to what’s been happening in the States. So as soon as you know, the UK opens, that’s going to be huge for us…
As soon as Japan opens up a little bit more, I can see a huge New Japan vs. AEW Super Show. Like I said, Canada’s a complete no-brainer, because I think there are probably six or seven cities there that we could do huge business in…
Because I believe that on TSN, the Canadian Sports Network, our ratings are the highest wrestling ratings out of any company, AEW Dynamite (has the highest ratings), you know that people are ready for us to go there as well. We’re excited, too, because then also, on top of that, there’s so many places we haven’t even been in the states yet.”
Jericho debuted in 1990, and shortly after that debut he started wrestling in Japan—specifically for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, or FMW, as it was commonly known. Founded by the legendary Atsushi Onita, the company was known for its high-octane and hardcore matches. Jericho and Lance Storm wrestled there and made quite the impact and at such an early stage in their respective careers.
Jericho went on to wrestle elsewhere, but he wasn’t by far done with Japan; not by a long shot. It was in 1994 that he would wrestle for Wrestling and Romance/WAR…another Japanese promotion, and in 1997-1998 he wrestled for NJPW while wrestling for WCW as well, which was where he of course came to be more widely known.
via PIROWbrodcasting01 /YouTube
This was after successful periods in Mexico and of course ECW. In 1999 he made it to WWE and his career on that platform has been well documented, as was the end of that relationship. I’ve written about it in detail here, but to quickly review, he left WWE because of a growing frustration with the direction of his storylines and the treatment of them as well by upper management—specifically the placement of his match with Kevin Owens on the WrestleMania 33 card. He said it best in statements he made soon after the fact:
“Originally, that was going to be the main event for the world title. Kevin Owens was the champion and I was going to beat him in the main event of WrestleMania as a babyface. Instead of having Jericho and Owens as the main event, Vince decided to put Bill Goldberg and Brock Lesnar on the main card…
Vince said that it’s going to be me versus Kevin Owens for the world title at WrestleMania and you are going to win the title, f*** yeah! Next week, he doesn’t tell me, but I hear that it’s changed to Brock Lesnar versus Bill Goldberg for the title. And not only did they take us out of the main event – and, once again, just because I was told I have no right to it and things change all the time, I’m a big boy, I can handle it…
But to take us from the main event slot and then move us to the second match on the card on a card that has 12 matches on it? I was like, that’s a f***ing insult.”
So a return to the indie circuit and to Japan were in order, and what a return that would be. He and Kenny Omega worked a program that has gone down in history as being one of the greater NJPW storylines in recent history and had not one, but two incredible matches. He would also have subsequent feuds with the promotion…. He would then join AEW and the rest, as they say, is history.
via Invicta Fighting Championships /YouTube
Something very special can come of what Jericho has proposed here; especially with the talent pool at both promotions. Hopefully it comes to fruition. We’ll just have to wait and see, dear readers.
