NJPW NEWS: Naito states he turned down WWE offer in new interview, first set of matches made official for Wrestle Kingdom

-Tetsuya Naito did an interview with  in Japan Tokyo Sports discussing his upcoming match at Wrestle Kingdom 13 against Chris Jericho. NJPW World English translator Chris Charlton translated some of the key quotes from the interview on Twitter. The most notable thing that Naito said was that WWE contacted him with a contract offer after Dominion in June, but he turned them down. Naito had some strong things to say about why he wanted to stay in NJPW and ultimately turned down WWE’s offer.

I didn’t even give it thought. This New Japan ring is already the world’s number 1 stage. The fans know this. That’s why I think we should focus on our home crowd before looking international.

Charlton also translated a quote from Naito’s interview that focused on their recently announced IWGP IC Championship match at Wrestle Kingdom 13.

You should understand that I have no interest in “WWE Superstar” Chris Jericho. What I want to do is get revenge for what happened in a New Japan ring, in a New Japan ring.

-NJPW held a press conference Monday to announce the first matches for Wrestle Kingdom 13 on Jan. 4, 2019 in Tokyo, Japan at The Tokyo Dome. As expected coming out of the Power Struggle this past weekend, Chris Jericho vs.  Tetsuya Naito and Kazuchika Okada vs. Jay White were the big matches announced. It was already known that Kenny Omega would defend the IWGP Hvt. Championship against Hiroshi Tanahashi in the main event.  The top three matches for the show are now set. You can watch the entire press conference below:

The entire lineup announced so far for Wrestle Kingdom 13 is as follows:

-Kenny Omega vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP title

-Chris Jericho vs. Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP Intercontinental title

-Kazuchika Okada vs. Jay White

-KUSHIDA vs. Taiji Ishimori for the IWGP Jr. Hvt title

-Suzuki-Gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) vs. Roppongi 3K (SHO & YOH) vs. L.I.J. (Shingo Takagi & BUSHI for the IWGP Jr. tag team )