Update on Jericho originally wanting to partner with WWE for his cruise, timeline of how Omega match came together

Chris Jericho being added to the Wrestle Kingdom XII card this January has apparently been in the planning stages for at least several months according to an article by Mike Killam of prowrestling.com that was published on Oct. 21. At the time, the article also noted that NJPW was working on something big for IWGP U.S. Champion Kenny Omega, who defeated Trent Baretta to retain the IWGP U.S. Championship at NJPW’s “Power Struggle” PPV today.

Jericho and Omega have been going back and forth on Twitter for several weeks in a worked-shoot style drama. After Omega beat Trent, Jericho appeared in a video to challenge Omega to a match at Wrestle Kingdom XII. Omega then accepted Jericho’s challenge.

PWTorch reached out to sources to ask if Jericho got WWE’s approval to work with NJPW. Jericho doesn’t need WWE’s approval, but he’s spoken frequently in interviews about how happy he is working with WWE and, even though he isn’t currently under contract with WWE, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he had reached out to Vince McMahon to make sure he was on board with his NJPW plans. According to one well-placed source, Jericho did not seek WWE/McMahon approval to take this date with NJPW.

Chris Jericho is set to run a cruise which will include an ROH live event on it in October of 2018. The ROH show will be held outdoors and the show will feature a Sea of Honor tournament. On the Oct. 10 “Killing the Town” podcast with Lance Storm and Cyrus, Jericho talked about his plans for the “Rock ‘n’ Wrestling Rager At Sea.”

During the interview, Jericho said he asked Triple H about holding the cruise in conjunction with NXT. He said he had to wait three months to get an answer and, when he finally got one, he had to talk was forced to talk to three office people he had never heard of and was given a runaround for over a half hour. Jericho admitted during the interview that WWE doesn’t play well with others and he was expecting the rejection. Jericho then mentioned that he told Triple H that he was still going to do the cruise.

Radican’s Analysis: After talking to sources and listening to Jericho on “Killing the Town,” it certainly appears that there is a fracture in the relationship between Jericho and WWE after Vince refused to let Jericho use NXT talent for his cruise. Jericho then went to his next plan and contacted Ring of Honor, which agreed to let its talent work a show on Jericho’s cruise.