Chris Jericho Reveals His Original Opponent For WrestleMania 33 & SummerSlam 2016

Following his historic New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) match with Kenny Omega at Wrestle Kingdom 12 last week, Chris Jericho spoke to Inside The Ropes to discuss a several professional wrestling topics. During the interview, “Y2J” revealed who his original opponents were going to be for WrestleMania 33 and SummerSlam 2016.

Originally Jericho was supposed to take on Shinsuke Nakamura at “The Show Of Shows,” and it would serve as the Japanese star’s main roster call-up.

Those plans were of course changed later after Jericho and Kevin Owen’s storyline continued to develop. Jericho would lose his United States Title to “KO” at WrestleMania instead, while Nakamura made his main roster debut two days later on SmackDown Live by interrupting a Miz segment:

“After we went to Japan in June or July I remember coming back and talking to Vince, and I said you’ve got to bring this Nakamura guy up to the main roster. I wanna work with him. Let’s debut him at WrestleMania.

“I said I’ll stay until WrestleMania if I can work with Nakamura. Vince said okay. Then about a month later, I said that I actually think me and Kevin Owens could work at WrestleMania.”

Jericho also revealed that he was originally supposed to face Finn Balor at SummerSlam in 2016. “Y2J” pitched the idea after working with Balor at live events in Japan, but Vince McMahon later changed his mind. Jericho would instead team up with Kevin Owens to defeat the team of Enzo Amore and Big Cass, while Balor wound up becoming the first-ever Universal Champion in WWE history by defeating Seth Rollins.