Will Ospreay vs. Kenny Omega Announced for NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17

New Japan Pro Wrestling and Stardom’s co-promoted Historic X-Over event today in Tokyo, Japan featured an IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship match between Shota Umino and champion Will Ospreay, which was won by Ospreay.

Following the match, Ospreay gave a promo to the crowd which was interrupted by a surprise video appearance from Kenny Omega. Omega stated that after he left NJPW for AEW, Ospreay took over his spot and was to be blamed for NJPW’s woes over the past couple years. Omega also stated that while people blamed the COVID-19 pandemic for those woes, he knows the real reason was due to Ospreay being nowhere on his level as a big name star to carry the company.

Omega also stated that he was surprised to have gotten a call for NJPW for this potential match and while he was not interested at first, he decided to take up their offer for the sake of NJPW’s fans and professional wrestling. Omega then officially challenged Ospreay for his IWGP United States title at NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom 17 event on January 4, 2023.

BREAKING@kennyomegamanx has challenged @willospreay for the IWGP United States Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 17!#njpw #njwk17 #NJPWxSTARDOM pic.twitter.com/BCPxPr6olo

— NJPW Global (@njpwglobal) November 20, 2022

Ospreay responded to Omega, first bashing Omega for leaving NJPW while he stayed in the company to keep its heartbeat going and afterwards accepted Omega’s match request.

This will be Omega’s first match in NJPW since Wrestle Kingdom 13 in January of 2019.