Chris Jericho Believes His Match Against Kenny Omega at ‘Wrestle Kingdom 12’ Will Be the Biggest in Pro Wrestling Today

Chris Jericho was the special guest for Jim Ross’ 200th episode of The Ross Report, where he spoke at length about his match for NJPW against Kenny Omega at ‘Wrestle Kingdom 12.’

Jericho first took aim at fans that had doubt in him that he would build the angle for his match against Omega at the ‘Wrestle Kingdom 12’ event.

“I think when this match was made, Alpha vs. Omega, Jericho vs. Omega, a month-and-a-half ago in Osaka [Japan] or wherever it was, it makes me laugh that people think, ‘Jericho announces a match, here we go, it’s going to be a big match, we’ll see you in Tokyo [Japan] in a few months on January 4 [2018]!’ As if I wouldn’t do something to build an angle. I’m too much of a disciple of Vince McMahon/Bill Watts/Stu Hart. Any great promoter would do an angle to build the match, to sell the tickets. So once again, in Fukuoka, Japan and I attacked Kenny Omega from behind, nobody saw that coming. And I love that! To me, that’s what [pro] wrestling’s all about. When you can surprise the fans and the ‘smart marks’ that think they know everything, but they don’t know anything, it makes me laugh because even you, Jim, would understand as an old school guy, of course I’m going to build an angle! Of course I’m going to do that. That’s what wrestling is!”

Jericho explained what he feels is most important about his feud with Omega.

“Honestly, yeah, the match is important. We want to have a good match. I love good matches, but who cares? The most important thing is the story and the angle building towards that match and selling the biggest amount of tickets we can, okay?”

Putting over Omega, Jericho explained that getting physical with his future opponent felt great. He added that he hasn’t been in the ring with someone busted open in approximately a decade.

“He’s a great performer. He’s a great worker. And once again, it was pretty heavy stuff. And [Ross] know[s] this, in 2017, for some reason, if you get busted open, your mentor Gordon Solie, ‘his face is a crimson mask’ and that’s what it was. And we don’t see that a lot. For me, I think it has been 10 years since someone has been busted open in a match that I was involved with and it felt good. There [are] certain rules and regulations that we have to abide by in the United States, in the WWE at this point in time, so to come into New Japan and have no rule, but there [are] still rules, I mean, listen, I understand the concept of [pro] wrestling, so I know what to do, but to have Kenny Omega busted open and to feel that, maybe, power, vibe, or energy, there’s nothing like it. And in the right circumstances, when you can bust somebody open, when you can get some color, as we used to say, it means the world because people understand that more than anything. This is the real deal. After 10 years to have a guy I’ve never been in the ring with, to see the reaction of the people, the reaction of the worldwide audience, and to see those pictures that were taken of Kenny Omega with the aforementioned crimson mask, wow, that sells tickets!”

Finally, Jericho reiterated his idea that his upcoming match will be the biggest blockbuster in pro wrestling today.

“This is a Tokyo Dome main event and if you can’t have some color and have someone busted open for that, when can you have it? And to me, this is the biggest match in [pro] wrestling today because we’ve seen [John] Cena vs. [Brock] Lesnar, we’ve seen Roman [Reigns] vs. Cena, we’ve seen those matches. They’ve done those a couple of months ago. Tell me any other match in wrestling today, any country with any combination that has a bigger buzz than Alpha vs. Omega, Jericho vs. Omega. I don’t think you can do that.”

With H/T to WrestlingInc for the transcription.

If you are interested in hearing Jericho’s entire interview with Ross, we have provided the audio version down below.

CHRIS JERICHO on the Ross Report

Are you excited for the upcoming match between Jericho and Omega? Do you believe this will be match of the night or just a special attraction?

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