NJPW/WWE News: Chris Jericho compares Tetsuya Naito with two WWE legends

What’s the story?

Prior to his shocking win over Tetsuya Naito at Dominion 6.9, new IWGP Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho spoke with Busted Open Radio regarding his opponent from this past Saturday and opened up about his thoughts on Naito, who arguably is one of the top superstars not only in NJPW but around the entire globe as well.

EXCLUSIVE: @IAmJericho joined @davidlagreca1 & @bullyray5150 LIVE from Osaka, Japan this morning ahead of #njdominion and he compared @s_d_naito to being as big a babyface in Japan as @TheRock & @JohnCena & Vince McMahon's reaction to him working in NJPW again. pic.twitter.com/HSNIfcK2es

— SiriusXM Busted Open (@BustedOpenRadio) June 8, 2018

Sportskeeda is the one-stop destination for latest WWE rumors and wrestling news.

In case you didn’t know…

On the night after Wrestle Kingdom 12 at the Tokyo Dome in Japan, Chris Jericho decided to blindside attack Tetsuya Naito at the 2018 New Year’s Dash event at the Korakuen Hall. Jericho, on the 4th of May, once again made his presence felt in NJPW, by attacking Naito for the second time, this time being disguised as a Los Ingobernables de Japon fan.

Shortly afterward, an IWGP IC Title match between Jericho and Naito was subsequently confirmed at the Osaka-jo Hall for Dominion 6.9, where Jericho eventually defeated Naito to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship for the very first time in his career, making him a 10-time IC Champ in overall.

The heart of the matter

While interacting with Busted Open Radio, Chris Jericho referred to Tetsuya Naito as one of the biggest babyfaces in the entire Pro Wrestling industry in today’s modern day generation and compared ‘The Ungovernable’ to the likes of WWE legends The Rock and John Cena as well.

As per Jericho’s belief, he thinks that Naito is definitely the type of babyface guy who is right up there with both The Rock and John Cena, who throughout their WWE careers were two of the most popular and over faces in the company at one point of time.

"Naito is a legit huge babyface star, think The Rock in 2001 or think John Cena in 2010. A legit superstar that everybody loves and when I attacked him about a month ago, children and women were literally crying. Now we get back to - what I love about wrestling - is a great babyface and a great heel. That's the difference between me and Kenny [Omega], just a fight between two guys. This is more of an old school 'good guy versus bad guy,' 'hometown hero versus evil foreigner,' which gives me the license to be a little crazier."

What’s next?

Following his historic IC Title win over Naito, Jericho is now expected to defend the IWGP IC Title at the Cow Palace against Naito’s fellow LIJ stablemate Evil.