Chris Jericho Dedicates Wrestle Kingdom 12 Match To Chris Benoit

On Thursday morning, Chris Jericho will have his first match outside of WWE since he left WCW for Vince McMahon’s company in 1999, as he’ll challenge New Japan’s Kenny Omega for the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 12.

On Wednesday morning, Jericho posted an image on his Instagram page regarding his match at Wrestle Kingdom, with the following caption: “I really like this fan art by @richard_I_P. I dedicate tomorrow’s match to the fallen brothers… #AlphaVsOmega @njpw1972.”

The “fallen brothers” in the photo are Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit, who were two of Jericho’s closest friends in the wrestling business.

Here’s the photo:

View this post on Instagram

I really like this fan art by @richard_I_P. I dedicate tomorrow’s match to the fallen brothers… #AlphaVsOmega @njpw1972

A post shared by Chris Jericho (@chrisjerichofozzy) on Jan 3, 2018 at 6:09am PST

Wrestle Kingdom 12 will go live at 2AM eastern time. Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega’s US Title match is the show’s co-main event, along with Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

Kenny Omega attacks Chris Jericho at Wrestle Kingdom 12 Press Conference

You can check out the entire match card below:

[IWGP Junior Tag Titles] Roppongi 3K (Sho and Yoh) vs. The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson)
[NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship] [Gauntlet Match] Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) vs. Chaos (Beretta, Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano) vs. Michael Elgin and War Machine (Hanson and Raymond Rowe) vs. Suzuki-gun (Taichi, Takashi Iizuka and Zack Sabre Jr.) vs. Taguchi Japan (Juice Robinson, Ryusuke Taguchi and Togi Makabe)
Cody (with Brandi Rhodes) vs. Kota Ibushi
[IWGP Tag Team Championship] Killer Elite Squad (Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Lance Archer) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (Evil and Sanada)
[NEVER Openweight Championship] [Hair vs. Hair] Minoru Suzuki (c) vs. Hirooki Goto
[IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship] Marty Scurll vs. Hiromu Takahashi vs. Kushida vs. Will Ospreay
[IWGP Intercontinental Championship] Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jay White
[IWGP United States Championship] Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho
IWGP Heavyweight Championship] Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito