AEW’s Kenny Omega shocked the pro wrestling world this weekend when he appeared via video promo at the Historic X-Over event and announced he will be coming back to New Japan Pro-Wrestling for Wrestle Kingdom 17 on Jan. 4, 2023, and will be challenging Will Ospreay for the IWGP United States Championship. Omega left the Japanese promotion in early 2019, after which he quickly signed with All Elite Wrestling as both a wrestler and executive vice president. And though the crossovers between AEW and New Japan went as far back as 2019, something always seemed to get in the way of Omega stepping back inside a New Japan ring overseas. Even when the crossovers started happening in earnest in 2021, it was always New Japan stars working on AEW shows.
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New information about how this match came about popped up via Fightful Select on Sunday night. Per Sean Ross Sapp, the negotiations between the two companies started over the summer while Omega was still recovering from surgery. New Japan’s Rocky Romero was said to have played a key role in facilitating the deal, as is often the case in New Japan’s working relationships with US promotions.
“Those familiar with the situation claim that the deal only got finalized within the past two or three weeks, despite conversations happening over the course of several months. The suspension in relation to Brawl Out didn’t kill the talks, even for the time being, but we’ve heard that it certainly slowed things down,” Sapp wrote.
Omega spoke with Fightful earlier this summer and started sewing the seeds for a match with Ospreay. That led to The Elite and United Kingdom clashing in the semifinals of the AEW World Trios Championship tournament, which Omega’s side won.
“A guy like Will, who is great at moves and has a list of 20 very forgettable five-star matches. [laughs] I’m going a little too hard on Will. Will is great. I don’t want to say anything bad about Will. Here’s the thing, if we’re being completely honest with each other, I do believe that with the current rating system, and how things are viewed, I believe that Will has earned every last one of those five-star performances that he has had,” Omega told Fightful earlier this year. “I’m digging myself into a hole here, Will is there and Will is great. I’m glad to see him in a marquee match against Orange Cassidy. I’m just saying that I think New Japan made the right choice by going with Jay White. He was the star of the two, is all I’m saying.”
