Title: Jericho-Omega Deliver on the Hype at a Near Flawless Wrestle Kingdom 12
Date: January 4, 2018
Original Source: Vice
Synopsis: For my latest at Vice, I reviewed New Japan’s Wrestle Kingdom 12 event, perhaps the company’s most important event to date.
Talk about making the most of an opportunity.
With more North American buzz, significantly greater media attention, and an estimated 34-percent spike in attendance, New Japan Pro-Wrestling delivered one of the best top-to-bottom cards in memory with Wrestle Kingdom 12.
It will take some time to know exactly what the results were in terms of new subscriptions, live or late viewers, and fans who stick around. But in the interim, New Japan Wrestling can rest easy knowing it would have been hard pressed to turn in a better six hours at a time when the best wrestling promotion in the world looks to gain more mainstream notoriety.
Jericho and Omega Deliver on the Hype
New Japan had garnered a lot of this increasing attention thanks to a piping-hot feud between long-time WWE stalwart Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega, a top-three wrestler in the world and the best import in Japan. Jericho had once again completely reinvented himself to make the unexpected jump to New Japan, while Omega had long ago tasked himself with putting the global expansion on his shoulders. Their story—brought to the attention of more casual or WWE-centric fans through GIFs and highlight packages from surprise run-ins and press conferences in Japan—drummed up plenty of press, and both worked the interview circuit tirelessly to make sure a host of new eyes fell on the product for their highly-anticipated match.
Continue reading at Vice.
Blake Murphy Sports Writing 