Chris Jericho Says He’ll Be AEW and IWGP Heavyweight Champion

Chris Jericho believes that by the time the summer is up, he’ll hold both the IWGP Heavyweight and AEW World championship belts. Jericho faces Kazuchika Okada tomorrow in Osaka at NJPW Dominion for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. On August 31st, he’ll take on Adam “Hangman” Page for the inaugural AEW world title at All Out in Chicago.

Jericho took part in a recent NJPW press conference to promote tomorrow’s Dominion event.

“Think about how big of a name Chris Jericho is right now,” Jericho said at the press conference. “Just one week ago I headlined in the very first AEW show and beat Kenny Omega, Okada’s greatest rival, beating him with the Judas elbow. Here I am 10 days later, headlining Dominion with New Japan. Nobody else can do that. Nobody else is a big enough star to headline Las Vegas and Osaka within two weeks.”

“Kenny Omega – I beat him. Okada – I’ll beat you, I’ll be the IWGP Champion and at All Out I’ll beat Hangman Page and be the AEW champion,” he continued.

Chris Jericho On Being A Double Champion

Jericho also spoke about unifying the WCW and WWE championships in 2001 during the press conference.

“I’ll be double champion just like when I beat The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin both on the same night to become WWE and WCW double champion,” Jericho continued. “That was a lifetime ago now here we are in 2019, Okada versus Jericho; a dream match, one of the biggest matches you could ever have.”

Kazuchika Okada on Chris Jericho

Okada had the following to say to his challenger at the press conference:

“Finally I could get to meet Chris Jericho. You call yourself the Painmaker, I guess it means you’re going to make it pain?!” Okada asked about Jericho’s new nickname in NJPW. “But surely Pro-Wrestling is painful anyway no? You’ve had IC championship matches, no DQ matches and other sorts here in New Japan, but this is the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. This is something quite different to what you’ve experienced before, please allow me to teach you.”

The full interview can be read here.