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#NewJapanWeek Lionheart: Chris Jericho’s Return to Japan

Arguably Wrestle Kingdom 12‘s most internationally appealing match-up is the dream match of NJPW’s top gaijin star Kenny Omega versus WWE Legend Chris Jericho. Omega has been stealing headlines for the past year with his feud against IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada and winning the inaugural IWGP United States Championship, not including his wildly successful run as leader of Bullet Club and it’s Being The Elite side faction. Chris Jericho is on another WWE sabbatical and coming off one of his most entertaining WWE runs of his illustrious career, with lots left in his tank. For years, Jericho has insisted that he would never wrestle for anyone other than Vince McMahon again, but this past fall, the world was shocked when a Twitter feud with Omega turned into a full blown angle that saw Jericho challenge Omega to a super fight at January 4’s Wrestle Kingdom 12. Just as the initial shock of Jericho’s challenge has stabilized and the anticipation began, Jericho once again caused lunacy in the world of pro wrestling when he appeared in a New Japan ring earlier this month at the finale for the World Tag League, attacking Kenny Omega from behind, and leaving Omega in a pool of his own blood. It marked the first time Jericho had been in a New Japan ring since 1998 and a return to a culture that embraced him in the earliest days of his career.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tmTDnaXmDc

Chris Jericho: The Land of the Rising Sun

Photo: FMW

After getting his start in the early 1990s with Calgary’s Stampede Wrestling and Canadian National Wrestling Alliance (CNWA), it didn’t take long for Jericho to head straight to Japan, where he began with Atsushi Onita‘s Frontier Martial-arts Wrestling (FMW) in 1991 with his frequent tag partner in Sudden Impact, Lance Storm, and American indie wrestler Mark Starr. While it marked Jericho’s first introduction to Japanese wrestling – and a brutal version of it, as Onita’s early FMW was hardcore before ECW – his time with FMW was exclusively tag team.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gtsFGNEPqc

Chris Jericho: Ready for WAR

Photo: Chris Jericho’s Twitter

He returned to North America in 1993, but spent it almost exclusively in Mexico, working for CMLL and United Wrestling Association (UWA), where he wrestled as Corazon de Leon (Spanish for Lionheart). In 1994, he headed back to Japan but this time, worked for Wrestle Association-R (WAR) as Raionhāto (also Lionheart). During his three years in WAR, he fought with the likes of Ultimo Dragon, The Great Kabuki, Vampiro, Dos Caras, and Mils Mascaras, as well as fellow Hart trainees Lance Storm and The Pegasus Kid (Chris Benoit). It was during his time with WAR that he met Japanese wrestler Gedo, with whom he formed a successful tag team as well as fought over the WAR International Junior Heavyweight title. Gedo would go on to a lengthy career in NJPW and 4x IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team champion with Jado, where he now acts as their head booker.

Chris Jericho: Big In New Japan

Photo: NJPW

As Jericho was finishing up with WAR in 1996, he was just starting with ECW in the United States, where he became “Lionheart” Chris Jericho, joining the influx on lucha or Japanese inspired wrestlers like Rey Mysterio Jr., Chris Benoit, and more. By the summer of 1996, Jericho was signed by WCW as part of their newly revamped Cruiserweight division. With WCW in alliance with NJPW (as well as the new home of his old friend Gedo), Jericho made his NJPW debut at Wrestle World at the Tokyo Dome ’97, the annual January 4th Tokyo Dome mega event that would be renamed Wrestle Kingdom in 2007, where he defeated Koji Kanemoto. He was also a participant in both the 1997 Best of the Super Juniors and G1 Climax. His last match with NJPW was in 1998 in an IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team title match, when he teamed with Eddie Guerrero (as Black Tiger) in a losing cause against champions Shinjiro Otani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa.

Chris Jericho returns to Japan, the site of some of the greatest matches of his long and storied career, to an event he hasn’t been at since 1997 against a wrestler who was only 14 at the time. A former WAR International Junior Heavyweight and Tag Team champion, this time Jericho’s journey isn’t about winning gold and proving himself as a young star. It’s about cementing his legacy as an international wrestling icon out to prove to the up-and-comers that Lionheart is still capable of roaring with the best of them. And by the sounds of it, he may not be done with NJPW quite yet, win or lose.

Photo: NJPW

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Jamie Greer

Jamie Greer

Jamie Greer joined LWOPW in 2015 and was the site's Managing Editor from 2016 through 2020. After handing over ME duties to Alex Richards, he remains a frequent contributor to the site. He's also written for Pro Wrestling Illustrated, WrestleZone, The Windsor Star, and other publications. He lives in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, with his wife and son.

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