Chris Jericho appears at NJPW King of Pro Wrestling

Chris Jericho returned to New Japan Pro Wrestling this morning and appeared to set up his first IWGP Intercontinental Championship defense.

Jericho made a surprise appearance at King of Pro Wrestling, taking part in an angle where he attacked EVIL while EVIL was making his entrance. EVIL was accompanied by druids for his match against Zack Sabre Jr., and one of them was revealed to be Jericho. He pulled EVIL off the apron, attacked him, and gave him a codebreaker in the ring.

Jericho then laid out EVIL by hitting him with the Intercontinental title.

EVIL vs. Sabre was ruled a no contest as part of the angle. Sabre put EVIL in a submission after the match was called off, then Tetsuya Naito came out to make the save.

This was the first NJPW show Jericho has appeared at since winning the Intercontinental title from Naito at Dominion in June. Jericho did show up at All In last month, attacking Kenny Omega to build up Jericho & The Young Bucks facing Omega, Cody Rhodes & Marty Scurll on Jericho’s cruise.