Chris Jericho and EVIL to headline New Japan's Power Struggle card

General
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Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/10/09/chris-jericho-and-evil-to-headline-new-japans-power-struggle-card/

New Japan Pro Wrestling has announced that Chris Jericho will defend the Intercontinental title against EVIL in the main event of Power Struggle.

The November 3rd card will take place from Osaka and is the last major show of the year for the company. This will be Jericho’s first match since winning the title from Tetsuya Naito at Dominion this past June. The tease of a Jericho and EVIL match has been going on for months leading to Monday’s attack by Jericho at King of Pro Wrestling that took EVIL out of his match with Zack Sabre, Jr.

In addition, Power Struggle will feature a NEVER Openweight title match between Taichi and Will Ospreay, with the latter appearing to have moved up from the junior heavyweight division following the recent IWGP junior heavyweight title tournament he participated in.

There will also be a singles match between Tetsuya Naito and Zack Sabre, Jr. Sabre holds wins over Naito this year from the New Japan Cup tournament and the G1 Climax.


Below is the current lineup for Power Struggle:
*Chris Jericho vs. EVIL for the IWGP Intercontinental title
*Tetsuya Naito vs. Zack Sabre, Jr.
*Taichi vs. Will Ospreay for the NEVER Openweight title
*Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & David Finlay
*Kazuchika Okada & Beretta vs. Jay White & Bad Luck Fale
*The finals of the Super Junior Tag League tournament

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Headlining a show with a 47 year old part timer who is finally defending a title after how long?

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Glad to see Ospreay move up (and hopefully beat Taichi), or the NEVER Openweight Title potentially becoming truly OPENweight. Also nice to see Sabre in another big match.

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What would be a better story coming out of this:

a) EVIL beats Jericho and takes the IC title into a feud with ZSJ; EVIL also now has a win over Jericho which the leader of LIJ does not, and Jericho can still run his mouth at Naito about how he couldn’t do what EVIL could. Naito gets his win back in a rematch.

b) EVIL loses, and Naito now gets a rematch to avenge his sides losses. Naito gets his win back.

I am convincing myself EVIL should win for long term story telling.

I’m also surprised to hear the guys less enthusiastic about this card. a fresh Jericho match, a rematch of a great ZSJ Naito match from the G1, a Tag pitting Tanahashi against Omega AND more interesting for me, Ibushi and we know their history. Jr Tag League finals. Seems like a pretty great mid-tier show to me.

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A because thats what my prediction was on the KOPW feedback. I’m over Naito fighting for the IC title.

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