Professional wrestler Chris Jericho makes his return to Japan in the upcoming Ultimate Party 2023, a wrestling event produced by CyberFight’s DDT Pro-Wrestling to be held on 12 November 2023, where the six-time WWE World Champion faces off against the youngest KO-D Openweight Champion in history, Konosuke Takeshita.
Both Jericho, who departed from WWE in 2018, and Takeshita, a Japanese professional wrestler, are currently signed with All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Their rivalry dates back to October 2023, at AEW Dynamite’s 4th Year Anniversary special at the Stockton Arena in California, where The Golden Jets – Chris Jericho & Kenny Omega won against The Don Callis Family’s Konosuke Takeshita & Kyle Fletcher.
In February 2021, AEW started a partnership with the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), and their wrestlers started to appear on each other’s shows in the United States, opening the gates to new possibilities and collaborative projects like the pay-per-view event AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door.
Japan is Jericho’s Second Home
In September, DDT Pro-Wrestling announced a special singles match between Chris Jericho and Konosuke Takeshita in the upcoming professional wrestling event Ultimate Party 2023, to be held at Ryōgoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan.
In an interview with Tokyo Sports, Jericho talked about the deep connection between his wrestling career and Japan, where his first visit was in October 1991 to join Atsushi Onita’s Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW). He expressed that he was greatly inspired by Japanese wrestlers like the late Hiromichi Fuyuki and Genichiro Tenryu, expressing that “Japan is where I was able to grow as a man.”
Chris Jericho also spoke about the possibility of AEW holding a show in Japan, explaining that “The focus is on the growth of the organization itself and how much of an impact it can leave. That’s why we’re bringing together the best wrestlers from around the world. In terms of growth, we recently gathered 81,000 people at Wembley Stadium in London, England.”
While explaining AEW’s goal, Jericho suggested possible routes of collaboration with Japanese professional wrestling in the future: “Since they have plans to expand overseas, I think it’s a natural progression for AEW to come to Japan.
I wonder if something like DDT or AEW launching an attack on New Japan will happen in the future. To that end, we strategically place emphasis on developing young wrestlers and showing fans something new.”
AEW and Ultimate Party 2023
All Elite Wrestling (AEW) is a relatively new American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida, but it has already managed to make huge impacts in the scene, hosting several legendary athletes like Cody Rhodes and Bret Hart from World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), along with The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) and Kenny Omega from New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW).
Chris Jericho joined AEW since its startup in January 2019, and after defeating Kenny Omega at the promotion’s inaugural event, Double or Nothing, on May 25, he defeated Adam Page at All Out, thus becoming the first AEW World Champion in August of that year.
Ultimate Party 2023 is a professional wrestling event taking place on 12 November 2023 in Tokyo at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan, and it is the 3rd addition to the Ultimate Party chronology. Several storylines of rivalry created in the AEW and NJPW universes are featured in this grand event, which will air live on AbemaTV in Japan and on DDT’s streaming service Wrestle Universe.
Several prestigious championship belts are also on the line at Ultimate Party, such as the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship, the DDT Universal Championship, the KO-D Openweight Championship, and the KO-D Tag Team Championship.
With several huge events showcasing the successful collaboration of Western and Japanese professional wrestling, Chris Jericho remains hopeful of AEW soon hosting shows in Japan.
