All Elite Wrestling (AEW) star Chris Jericho has offered his thoughts on WWE’s recent roster cuts amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. WWE recently laid off a huge list of in-ring talents, and also furloughed a lot of its employees as well.
During a recent interview with TV Insider, Jericho has offered his thoughts on WWE’s talent cuts. In regards to how AEW will respond to the influx of free agents that are now on the market, “Y2J” says he has no clue.
“It’s an interesting time right now, because a lot of guys got released. By proxy, you went from a business that was very profitable in many different levels to everything grinding to a halt. Hopefully, many of them will get picked up by the different companies.
“Some guys may have to go overseas. I don’t know what AEW has planned. That’s not really my wheelhouse. But I’m sure everybody is going to land where they should land. It’s just how it goes.”
Jericho has taken a bit of a break from in-ring competition in 2020. He has only competed in one singles match this year, that being his title loss to Jon Moxley at Revolution.
Jericho has been doing a lot of commentary work as of late on Dynamite, and recently fell out of the weekly AEW Rankings.
In 1998, there were rumors that WCW wanted Chris Jericho to join the NWO. On the Nitro just after Road Wild that year, the NWO’s Giant helped him win the TV title. Many fans took that as the beginning of Jericho joining the group. It never happened, however, and Giant helping Jericho win the title was never explained.
Bischoff commented recently on Jericho not wanting to join the faction on an episode of his 83 Weeks podcast. He told Conrad Thompson that Jericho wasn’t in a position to turn anything down.
“He didn’t turn down anything, Chris didn’t have creative control,” Bischoff said on the show. “Could it have been suggested? Could he have balked? Yeah, I’ll go with that as a possibility.”
According to Jericho’s book, he felt as though he had a good thing going outside the NWO at the time.
Bischoff continued to say he has no recollection of wanting Jericho to join the NWO.
“There may have been some discussion about the NWO – which, by the way, I don’t recall because I can’t imagine that making any sense. The only thing I really recall and I’m probably fast-forwarding just a little bit is Chris really wanted to work with Bill Goldberg and that was a problem for me for a lot of reasons. There were a couple of reasons that were pretty significant.”
Bischoff continued to say that he may have suggested the idea to Jericho but it was never anything firm.
“I guarantee you I never went to Chris and said ‘Chris this is what I want you to do’ and Chris said ‘no, I’m not going to do that.’ That never happened.”
AEW updated its rankings on Friday, April 24th, 2020. The promotion normally releases its new rankings every Wednesday. The rankings were briefly available on AEW’s website on the 22nd but that edition has since been removed.
The updated rankings involve Chris Jericho dropping out of the top-5 altogether. The tag-team and women’s rankings are unchanged from the ones posted on April 22nd.
Darby Allin also goes from unranked to #3 after defeating Sammy Guevara in the TNT title tournament this week. Jake Hager had been ranked #4 and Lance Archer #5 but they switched places between the April 22nd and 24th rankings despite neither of them competing on Dynamite this week.
The image of the rankings posted on April 22nd is below:
The updated rankings as of April 24th are below:
It is possible that Chris Jericho’s 0-1 single’s record in 2020 is why he was removed from the top-5. His only single’s match this year was when he dropped the AEW World Championship to Jon Moxley at Revolution.
AEW Women’s and Tag Team Rankings
Both the women’s and tag-team divisional rankings stayed the same between the Wednesday and Friday editions of the rankings. They are below:
WWE had announced a special celebration for the 25th anniversary of Triple H’s in ring debut for the company and wrestling stars from around the globe have been coming forward to wish the Game on the occasion since then.
One such surprising wish came from former AEW World Champion Chris Jericho who has drifted apart from the WWE world in recent times due to his association with AEW.
The former WWE star posted a video on his social media accounts recently to congratulate Triple H. In the video as seen below, he claimed that time and circumstances may change but the chemistry between the two does not:
“Times and circumstances may change but one thing that never changes is the amazing chemistry that I had with Triple H. So I just wanna wish him a happy 25th anniversary.
To one of the greatest to ever step inside a wrestling ring and a guy I had killer chemistry with. Every match we ever had was great. Happy 25th anniversary. Lemmy would be very proud of you.”
After his one year contract with WCW ended, Triple H signed
a deal with WWE and he made his in ring debut for the company on the April 30,
1995 episode of Wrestling Challenge.
Since then he has went on to build a Hall Of Fame worthy career in the promotion including over a dozen world title victories and many memorable moments throughout the years.
The Young Bucks (Nick and Matt Jackson) did an interview with Sports Illustrated to talk about a wide range of topics.
During the interview, the AEW executives gave high praise to the inaugural AEW World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho.
Nick Jackson stated, “I always call [Jericho] our Hulk Hogan. He’s done it all, and there is something about that. Even though he has been in the business for 30 years or so, he still wants to give back and get characters over. You never see that.”
Matt Jackson chimed in by noting how most wrestlers want to be over, and they don’t care about anybody else. He thinks that is the prevailing attitude in pro wrestling. He thinks the mentality is that wrestlers want others to do good but not as good as them.
“Jericho wants everyone to be elevated. We made the right call.”
Matt praised Jericho for helping establish guys like Darby Allin, Jungle Boy, and Scorpio Sky. He stated that Jericho watches their matches as well and people don’t realize he’s the guy that pulls us aside.
Matt added that Jericho will tell them what they did well and what they could do better. He also stated, “We don’t have enough of those guys in the business.”
The Elite (Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, Adam Page, and Matt Hardy) are currently feuding with The Inner Circle that is led by Jericho on AEW Dynamite.
Chris Jericho is regarded as one of the greatest mic workers in all of wrestling and a lot of people believe that he should obtain a role on the commendatory desk when he decides to hang his boots and retire from active competition.
Fans got a little preview of what it would be like to have Y2J on the commentary booth full time when he joined the announcers’ desk on last week’s episode of AEW Dynamite.
Jericho discussed his experience on his Saturday night special Facebook stream and the former AEW World Champion admitted that it was a fun experience:
“It was pretty fun, I’ve never commentated on a whole show before. The reason why I wanted to do it was just to have a presence on the show. As we kind of put a hold on so many things including “Blood & Guts,”
So I wanted to be on the show and provide a little energy, just in case.” said Jericho. “You know we are working in front of eight people, 10 people all strategically spaced apart of course.”
A fan then asked the former WWE star if he would do commentary after retiring from active competition and he said: “Absolutely, I always loved doing commentary, to do it for a whole hour or two hours is not easy to do.”
It has been confirmed that Chris Jericho will be returning to the commentary booth with Tony Schiavone for this Wednesday’s episode of AEW Dynamite.
Chris Jericho debuted for WWE in 1999. He wouldn’t work for another company for nearly two decades before working an angle with Kenny Omega in NJPW. Now, Jericho is one of the top-stars of AEW. Jericho recently took part in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times and commented on the possibility of one day going into the WWE Hall of Fame. According to Jericho, he’s not sure if that door will be open to him in the future.
“If I continue to work for the Khan family for the rest of my life, I’ll never go into the WWE Hall of Fame,” Jericho said. “Does that bother me? No. I mean, the Sex Pistols didn’t show up for theirs. I always kind of liked that.”
Jericho continued to say he’s a Hall of Famer in the minds of fans and in his own opinion.
“I’m a hall of famer in the minds of the people who want me to be in the hall of fame,” he adds. “I’m a hall of famer in my mind. That’s all that matters.”
Jericho also added that he has more creative freedom now in AEW than he did in WWE.
“After 30 years, I actually know what I’m doing,” he said. “In WWE I had that freedom, but there’s a process you have to go through there. There’s a lot of approvals and different heads of state that you have to go through before the idea is approved.”
The full interview with the Tampa Bay Times can be read here.
The main event segment of this week’s Dynamite saw Matt Hardy confronting the former AEW World Champion Chris Jericho after his debut on last week’s episode of the show.
During the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer talked about this angle and revealed some interesting titbits about whole thing.
According to Meltzer, most of the things on Dynamite were
produced live and the confrontation angle was one of the few things to be taped
beforehand on Tuesday.
However, Chris Jericho did not like the taped version of the
segment and he wanted it to be reshot. Though they could not shoot it in the
day time because the difference would have been obvious on TV.
So the company shot the angle again during the Kip Sabian vs. Darby Allin match which was the only bout of the night that had been shot beforehand.
The production team then had just 15 minutes to edit the
whole thing before it aired on TV and it’s an impressive feat of achievement
considering the fact that AEW has been doing live TV for less than a year.
Chris Jericho also confirmed this story on a Facebook Live Stream, noting that they planned to shoot the angle before Dynamite went on air but they couldn’t do it because the sun had not gone down yet.
Chris Jericho and Darby Allin recently took part in an interview with the New York Post. During the discussion, Jericho said that he has been pushing backstage in AEW to make Darby Allin a star.
“If you ask Darby who has been behind the scenes pulling the strings to make him a star, it’s Uncle Jericho,” Jericho said during the interview.
Allin was recently forced to take on both Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara in a 2-on-1 match on Dynamite after the Inner Circle attacked Jon Moxley before the match could begin.
It was also mentioned that Darby was a little apprehensive about using his skateboarding as part of his wrestling persona in AEW but Jericho eventually convinced him to go with it.
“I didn’t want to make it look like I was taking skateboarding and using that as like a marketing thing for wrestling,” Allin said.
Jericho pushed for Allin to ride a skateboard to the ring, however.
“He didn’t want to ride the skateboard down,” Jericho said. “I go, ‘No, you’re riding the f–king skateboard down every night.’ ”
“Then I said, ‘S–t, I really actually skate, so I might as well actually use it,’ ” Allin concluded.
Allin would continue to say during the interview that he is not taking any of his recent success for granted and hopes it continues for as long as possible. He also spoke about his match with Cody at Fyter Fest.
“I felt like walking in there, nobody knew who I was,” Allin said about his match against Cody. “Walking out, everybody is like, ‘This kid is willing to do anything to win and tell a story.’ It’s kind of like what people say about Jeff Hardy.”
The full interview with Chris Jericho and Darby Allin can be read here.
Chris Jericho serves as the narrator for Season 2 of VICE’s Dark Side of the Ring docuseries. The first two episodes of the season focus on the Chris Benoit double murder-suicide tragedy from 2007. Jericho recently spoke to Paste about his involvement in the documentary and the complicated question of Chris Benoit’s legacy in pro-wrestling.
During the interview, Jericho was asked about Benoit’s contribution to pro-wrestling and if it is important to revive the memory of his body of work.
“I don’t know, man. It’s a weird thing,” Jericho responded. “I’m not doing this to glorify a murderer but I’m also not doing this to wash away the things that he did. I think it’s a personal choice. If you were someone that didn’t know Chris Benoit you might want to study his matches because he was one of the greatest of all time. There’s no doubt about that. No matter what he did in the last weekend of his life, as a professional there were none better.”
Jericho said the issue of Benoit’s body of work and its legacy is more difficult for those who were around or following the business in 2007.
“Where it becomes harder is if you knew him, or if you were there or around or involved or a wrestling fan in 2007, when this went down.”
“I would say probably 10, 15 years from now—even now—you’re going to have a whole generation of performers that weren’t really fans back then, or might not have really known the true story, that won’t care as much. They’ll want to watch his matches and just try to learn and see what he did and what he was.”
Chris Jericho On Chris Benoit’s Body of Work In Wrestling
Jericho would then continue to say that he’s not sure if he wants to go back and watch old Benoit matches but understands why others would want to do so.
“I don’t know if I really want to go back and watch those matches even though they’re so connected to me in so many ways. It’s hard to do. But I don’t blame other people for doing it, because those matches are great examples of what perfect pro wrestling is.”
Jericho covers a whole range of topics during the interview. He also spoke about other episodes of the docu-series and how Chavo Guerrero got him involved. The full interview can be found here.
During a recent episode of his podcast Talk is Jericho, Chris Jericho shared a story of pitching an idea to Vince McMahon. Regaling his guest Matt Hardy, he explained how it didn’t take long for Vince to change the initial idea.
Chris Jericho’s Original Highlight Reel Idea
“[…] the original Highlight Reel, I pitched it as ‘Jericho’s Junction’ because I was watching a bunch of Mean Gene Okerlund interviews and myself included,” Jericho said. “When I first started doing interviews, he was the Jedi. If you didn’t know what you were doing, Gene would lead you through the interview and make you look like a star, and I said, why don’t we do Jericho’s Junction where every week like a Piper’s Pit, we bring out underutilized stars whoever they were at the time. I’ll lead the interview. We’ll get the people over. We’ll get them to do interviews and connect with the crowd.”
According to Chris Jericho, Vince apparently loved the idea. He was then told that his first guest would be Goldberg.
“I’m like, well Goldberg is not really the guy. I’m thinking more like Bull Buchanan. Nope Goldberg. Next week Scott Steiner. The next week, it’s Rock,” Jericho recalled. “I’m like the whole concept of what I had is gone, and now it’s just another talk show which is fine. That’s great. But the original plan was much like you just like let’s give some of these underutilized guys guys a spotlight where somebody like me or you knows how to bring them along.”
Matt Hardy’s Broken Block Concept
Chris Jericho’s story came off the back of Matt Hardy’s ignored pitch for the Broken Block. Hardy detailed the idea, explaining that it would have been an opportunity to highlight underutilized Superstars. All he wanted was 10-15 minutes to do so.
“What I pitched [was] give me 10 to 15 minutes of the show, and I want to call it ‘The Broken Block’. My idea was give me underutilized guys like Chad Gable and Ali and Apollo, guys that aren’t being utilized at all. Let me put them on that show. Let them do badass things. Let me put some vignettes from the Hardy compound and House Hardy and just give me like 10 to 15 minutes, and I’ll call it ‘The Broken Block’ every show and just see how it does.”
Hardy continued, “These guys have matches in the arena. I’m almost like the commissioner or like I’m heading up this broken block, and we try to give Ali and Chad Gable a best-of-seven. Cut them loose. Let them have great matches. They’ll become stars on their own just because of the quality of their matches, and then will interject a little Vanguard 1 and we’ll have some of the you know House Hardy on it. ‘The Broken Block’. 10 to 15 minutes that’s all I was asking for. Never heard anything about it.”
Matt Hardy debuted for AEW last week on Dynamite, aligning himself with The Elite. This week, Chris Jericho and Matt Hardy are scheduled for a face-to-face meeting in the ring.
While WWE is moving forward with WrestleMania, AEW is taking a different direction and the company recently announced that they are postponing the Blood And Guts match which was announced for next week.
A fan recently took on his Twitter and complained about the decision to cancel the special edition of the show, mentioning how the company spent last week’s entire Dynamite episode building towards the bout.
The former AEW Champion Chris Jericho then responded to the fan via a tweet of his own and he explained that the company was not allowed to gather more than ten people together at a time:
First off, pull your head out of your ass and realize these are crazy times. Secondly, we aren’t allowed to gather more than ten people together at a time. B&G has 11 inside the cage and that’s with no camera men or crew. https://t.co/GYfQeLC7Yb
Riddick Moss had held the 24/7 Championship for a while and he had even defended the title in several traditional matches, but he has now lost the title back to R Truth.
WWE recently published a video of Moss jogging outside when
a car stops by him and we see that a WWE referee is driving the vehicle.
Riddick freaks out seeing the ref and starts looking around for a potential
opponent.
However, as seen in the video below, he is not able to see Truth who was hiding in the car’s dickey and the former US Champion manages to win the title back:
All Elite Wrestling’s Chris Jericho will be narrating the upcoming premiere of Dark Side of the Ring. Season 2 begins with a documentary focused on the Chris Benoit tragedy. Given the controversial nature of the subject, Jericho stressed that neither he nor the show is “glorifying a murderer.”
“I didn’t want to hear how I was glorifying a murderer. I don’t want to hear that I’m ignoring this murder. I wanted to talk, specifically, about his life and times, his intensity, and his successes within the ring,” Jericho explained to SI.com.
“We’re not glorifying a murderer. We’re telling the full story. It was done properly, it was done for the right reasons, and we were able to portray the full story, emphasizing the tragedy that much further.”
Chris Jericho On Chris Benoit & Eddie Guerrero’s Friendship
Jericho shared how the episode will also cover the death of Eddie Guerrero. He explained that the connection between Benoit and Guerrero made it impossible to tell a full story without mentioning both wrestlers.
“[…] half the story is the story of Eddie and the other half is of Chris. I think we did the right way of portraying this, reminding everyone there were people behind this, not just sensational murder coverage. There is a story to tell of a friendship and a family, and a guy that was not a monster. This was someone you could trust and that was very respected in the wrestling community amongst his peers.”
Chavo Guerrero’s Involvement
According to Chris Jericho, Chavo Guerrero was instrumental in the production of the episode. He noted how Chavo helped produce it and is the reason he agreed to be a part of the show.
“His mindset was, ‘If we don’t do this properly, it’s going to get done anyway. Let’s do it for the right reasons and do it the right way.’ I think he was spot on with that. Chavo was involved, which got me involved, and David Benoit and Nancy’s sister were involved, then I was able to get Dean and Dean’s wife, and Vickie.”
He continued, “Suddenly it became this noble project instead of a hack job, which is what the media tends to do in situations with someone they don’t know. We knew the person behind this, not just the murderer.”
Dark Side of the Ring airs on VICE TV on Tuesday nights. Season 2 starts next week with a two-hour special.
Former AEW Champion Chris Jericho recently spoke to commentator Excalibur as part of the Talk Is Jericho weekly podcast. Jericho spoke to the masked man about founding PWG (Pro Wrestling Guerilla) as well as his stint thus far in the new upstart All Elite brand.
Chris Jericho’s Influence In AEW
The conversation would segue into Chris Jericho’s own backstage roles within the company. “I have a much bigger role in the shaping and creative of Dynamite than I ever did in WWE” Jericho began. “Not just for my own stuff, but everything. Production elements, music, light switches, vignettes and all that sort of stuff.”
“We have a whole group of people that are basically starting this from scratch, how do you do that?”
– Chris Jericho
Jericho would finish discussing how the AEW team as a whole has stepped up to the challenge of weekly live television and PPV. “We have a whole group of people that are basically starting this from scratch, how do you do that?” Jericho stated.
“Some things are going to be perfect. Other things are going to need stuff to work, you have to shape and work on it better. But I’ve really seen a difference from a whole crew that had never really experienced live TV yourself (Excalibur) included. Very few of us: Jim Ross, Cody Rhodes, Jericho, Dustin Rhodes, Jon Moxley dealt with it in WWE, [Also] Jake Hager. But most of us haven’t, so to see that come together so quickly, has been really cool to experience and be a part of it.”
There have been recent reports that indicate Jericho has held ‘talent meetings’ with regards to the in-ring product for AEW.
“I called a team meeting…the lack of tags and normal tag team wrestling psychology drove me nuts. It’s sort of making excuses for The Lucha Brothers because tagging in and out, they’re lazy, they don’t care.”
Do you think that the in-ring and production elements of AEW have improved over the first few months? Let us know in the comments
Former All Elite Wrestling World Champion Chris Jericho won’t allow coronavirus concerns to derail his upcoming Fozzy tour. Speaking with TMZ Sports, Jericho explained how the tour would still be going ahead, stating how he doesn’t think the public should be panicking the way they are.
“Why wouldn’t it?” Jericho said after being asked if the tour was still on. “I don’t think the public should panic so much. [We’re still going on] unless the cops tells us we can’t.” He then referred to the coronavirus situation as “mass hysteria.”
Chris Jericho’s Tour Dates
Jericho reportedly chose the dates of the upcoming tour so that there would be no conflict with his AEW commitments. Fozzy’s “Save The World” tour begins on Thursday, April 16 in Savannah, GA. It will culminate on Sunday, August 9 in Sturgis, South Dakota.
His words come in the wake of multiple events, conventions, attractions and other tours being shut down in order to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
Chris Jericho lost the AEW World Championship to the current titleholder, Jon Moxley, during AEW’s Revolution pay-per-view on February 29. Jericho recently competed in a match on AEW Dynamite. He promised that if Moxley walked away of his own accord, he would take a leave of absence from AEW for 60 days. Last week’s episode of Dynamite ended with the Inner Circle power bombing Moxley off the ramp and through a table.
Jon Moxley was the wrestler to dethrone Chris Jericho as AEW World Heavyweight Champion.
Jericho didn’t successfully retain the title over Moxley but rather Moxley ended the reign of Jericho in the headliner of the AEW Revolution pay-per-view event in Chicago, IL from the Sears Center. Up to this point, Moxley had been portrayed as a top star and now he’s a champion.
AEW set up this contest on the January 22nd episode of Dynamite when Moxley faced off with PAC in the headliner with the winner challenging Jericho for the title at Revolution. Moxley ended up winning the match to earn the opportunity.
Moxley has been the #1 contender in the men’s rankings for quite some time now and also been feuding with Jericho over the last few months.
In fact, at first, Jericho tried to recruit Moxley to his Inner Circle group. The faction consists of Jake Hager, Sammy Guevara, Santana, Ortiz, and Jeff Cobb.
Jericho became the inaugural AEW World Heavyweight Champion when he beat Hangman Page in the headliner of the All Out pay-per-view event back in August at the Sears Centre Arena in Chicago.
What are your thoughts on Jon Moxley winning the AEW World Heavyweight Title? Was this the right call by AEW officials? Sound off in the comment section.
Chris Jericho, who is set to defend his AEW World Championship against Jon Moxley at AEW Revolution, talked about the difference between working in WWE and AEW.
Jericho talked with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated and discussed a variety of topics, among which the subject of difference working between the two wrestling companies came up.
Jericho said that if he’d be in WWE he would still be doing “The List!” gimmick, even though it’s “archaic and outdated”. Jericho said that since he left WWE he has reinvented himself and tried out different things like the Painmaker, his work in Japan and now in AEW.
Jericho revealed that there are no bookers and writers in AEW as opposed to WWE. “There’s no bookers, no writers. I’m coming up with these ideas and bouncing them off of a couple guys. These are all our ideas,” Jericho said.
Jericho noted that he’s not the only one involved in the process. He can lay down the groundwork and a basic idea for the storyline, and the rest of it goes from there. Jericho added that this way of working is something new for him.
“Also, it’s not like I’m coming up with every single thing. But the basic skeletons, like, ‘Here’s what I’ve got for the first six weeks for Jericho-Moxley.’ Then each week we tighten it up and focus it. I’ve never been in that position before.”
While working for WWE, Chris Jericho’s process involved getting a phone call Sunday night from a writer who would tell him the plan for the next day’s Raw. Jericho said that he would do as directed if he liked the idea, but if he didn’t, then he would have to wait three hours outside Vince McMahon’s office to explain to him why it would work better in a different way. “We don’t have that. All that stress is gone. It’s fun, it’s creative freedom,” said Jericho.
Jericho said that he loved working in WWE, and anyone who signs a contract with them knows what they’re getting into. They’ll have to work in Vince’s way. Jericho didn’t want to work Vince’s way anymore and that’s why left.
Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley will face each other in the main event of AEW Revolution with the world title on the line. According to comments Jericho recently made to SI.com, Jericho is the one who recruited Moxley to come to AEW.
“I recruited him,” Jericho said of Moxley. “I don’t even think he knew what AEW was at that point. He is a guy that I knew would be big for us, but I never expected he would be this different, and I mean that in a good way. This is not the guy who was Dean Ambrose. Dean Ambrose is a f—ing nothing compared to this guy. There is a fire inside of him, a creativity, he’s free.”
Jericho then said it is his job as AEW champion to help create new stars.
“This is my job as champion. I make stars. I’m already a star. Mox is a star. This company may have started on my back, but six months later it’s now on a bunch of backs, and that was the idea.”
Jericho would then continue to talk about other members of the AEW roster who he feels he has helped elevate.
“Jungle Boy. Scorpio Sky. MJF’s promo against Jericho. I heard, ‘MJF held his own! He might have even been better than Jericho!’ Gee, you think so? Who wanted it that way? Cody is another guy who’s been a completely different performer.”
Jericho also noted during the interview that while he had nothing to do with it, Hangman Page has become a different performer over the months that Dynamite has been on the air.
“I had nothing to do with this one, but look at Hangman from when we worked in August until now. He’s a totally different guy. That, to me, is why this is working so well. Everybody is starting to grow.”
The full interview with Chris Jericho can be read here.
Chris Jericho uses the song Judas as his ring entrance music in AEW. Recently fans have begun to sing along with the song as it plays throughout the arena during Jericho’s entrances. Jericho noted recently that the live crowd in Atlanta was particularly loud. He took to social media to comment on the trend of fans singing along with the song.
Jericho commented on fans singing along with Judas in the below Instagram post:
“I love this new trend of the @allelitewrestling faithful singing the lyrics to @fozzyrock#Judas every week! What a great feeling and last night in #AEWAtlanta was by far the LOUDEST version and it was made even more special by the fact that @officialrichward, @frankfontsere, @johnnyandrewsmusic& @officialsamabernathy were there to experience it LIVE! Heels are heels and babyfaces are babyfaces, but organic moments like this are what pro wrestling is really all about!!”
Chris Jericho and Fozzy
The song Judas is the title track of Fozzy’s 2017 album by the same name. The album peaked at #147 on the US Billboard top 200 rankings. It is the 7th studio album for the band since their 2000 debut.
The official music video for Judas can be viewed in the player below:
All Elite Wrestling crowned their second ever Women’s Champion on the February 12th episode of Dynamite. Nyla Rose defeated Riho to capture the Championship and cement her place in the AEW history books. Not only is Nyla Rose the second ever Women’s Champion in the company but she is the first ever Transgender Women’s Champion for a major promotion in North America.
Men’s AEW Champion Chris Jericho brought Nyla Rose onto his Talk Is Jericho podcast this week. ‘Le Champion’ discussed with Rose about being trans and how she felt about training in pro wrestling. This whilst presenting as a male.
“All Of The Above” – Nyla Rose
Jericho asked Rose if she started training as a man, women or transgender. “All of the above, all of the above” Nyla Rose replied. “I was there male presenting, I was there in boy mode. I was playing a part. The biggest part I’ve ever played in my life; I was playing that part, I was trying to get over and can convince everybody of something that wasn’t true.”
Rose would then discussed the difficulty of presenting as male to her fellow trainees but then ‘becoming’ Nyla Rose in her own time. “But in my own time outside of training for wrestling, I was Nyla Rose. Just in my bedroom and my own life. The first time I went out fully dressed was to take the trash out. And you would have thought I run like a marathon or like went to the Grammys or something that is such an accomplishment to have, you know. Just walk, you know, eight feet.”
Training
Jericho asked Rose how her colleagues perceived her at the time. “They [the other performers] were just very confused about me” Rose replied. “They thought I was just very flamboyant you know? I come in singing show tunes. Very feminine qualities, but looking like this macho playboy type big woman.”
Embraced
Rose would conclude by saying how embraced she was by the pro wrestling community when she opted to transition. “I have to do this, I have to make the change. I wasn’t sure if there was a place for me in pro wrestling. But pro wrestling was like one of the first places that absolutely embraced me and took me in, it’s like, ‘hey guys like I need to tell you something,’ I just very sheepishly approached it .So I can’t work your show because I wear a bra now because I’m starting to develop breasts.’ They thought I was ribbing them at first, but when they [were] kind of like, ‘is this real? Like is this a rib?’ and I was like no this is legit I’m trans and I’m going to be living as a woman from here on out and they were just like ‘alright.’
New Japan Pro Wrestling have announced that they will be bringing a ‘Wrestle Kingdom’ level event to Madison Square Garden in August. The show will be taking place on August 22nd, which is SummerSlam weekend.
“I could see Marty Scurll possibly being on that New Japan show [in MSG]”
Busted Open Radio co-host Bully Ray was discussing the move for NJPW and the performers who may be able to make some appearances. “I’ll look back to the three shows that New Japan did in in Philly, Boston and New York. That wasn’t a co-promote with Ring of Honor. Every time ROH did their War of the Worlds in those towns they co-promoted with New Japan” Bully began. “So, yeah, you might get a couple of Ring of Honor talents. I could see Marty Scurll possibly being on that New Japan show [in MSG], or maybe like a Briscoes vs Guerrillas of Destiny rematch.”
“‘Hey, let’s go for the Grand Slam let’s see if we can do the garden on our own.”
Bully then discussed the idea of the show not being co-promoted with ROH. “As far as a co-promote? if I’m New Japan, I don’t know if I’m going down that road. Because you’ve already sold out three of the major northeast cities on your own. ‘Hey, let’s go for the Grand Slam let’s see if we can do the garden on our own.'”
“Do you need Jon Moxley and Chris Jericho on that show? Sure as hell doesn’t hurt”
Ray’s co-host Dave LeGreca then asked if there’s a chance that Jon Moxley and Chris Jericho could be part of the NJPW show. “You know why the answer is yes?” Bully began. “Because it’s pro wrestling, anything is possible. And everything is negotiable. Do you need Jon Moxley and Chris Jericho on that show? Sure as hell doesn’t hurt.” Ray would also go on to say that whilst he does not have the specifics of their contracts with AEW he believes that Chris Jericho has ‘carte blanche’ and that Moxley may have to ask AEW President Tony Khan for his blessing to appear on the show. There were issues back at last year’s G1 Climax show where it was believed that Moxley could not appear at the United States show due to his AEW contract.
Jon Moxley vs. Chris Jericho is official as AEW (All Elite Wrestling) has confirmed the match booking for the Revolution show.
Jericho defending the AEW World Heavyweight Title against Moxley, who has been portrayed as a top star, will likely serve as the main event of this show.
AEW set up this contest on Wednesday’s episode of Dynamite when Moxley beat PAC in the headliner with the winner challenging Jericho for the title at Revolution. Moxley ended up winning the match.
Moxley has been the #1 contender in the men’s rankings for quite some time now and also been feuding with Jericho over the last month.
AEW presents the Resolution pay-per-view event on Saturday, February 29, 2020 in Chicago, IL from the Sears Center.
The show will air at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, and is available for purchase via iN DEMAND cable operators, DirecTV, DISH Network and B/R Live. International fans can purchase the event at FITE.TV.
The event is being promoted in conjunction with the popular C2E2 (Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo) convention and will mark the fourth AEW PPV event. AEW will be announcing more matches for the show in the coming weeks.
What are your thoughts on this match being added to the card? Sound off in the comment section.
The second-ever Chris Jericho Rock N Rager at Sea is currently taking place. In addition to other festivities planned for the cruise, there will also be several AEW wrestling matches held aboard the boat tonight.
Jericho took to social media recently to announce the following matches will take place today on the cruise:
Jericho recently spoke to SI.com and spoke about what he believes he would be doing if he was still in WWE.
“If I was still in the WWE, I would still have to be doing ‘The List’ and it would feel so old,” said Jericho. “I love all the great stuff I did in the past, but to go out there and say ‘Raw is Jericho’ or ‘I’m the Ayatollah of Rock ‘n’ Rolla’ would really feel like a rock and roll band that tours that never puts on a new record and tours every summer.”
WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray recently made some interesting comments regarding the recent Jon Moxley and Chris Jericho/Inner Circle angle from this week’s episode of AEW Dynamite. Moxley had teased joining the group, after Chris Jericho seemingly made him an offer that he could not refuse a couple of weeks ago. Bully made the point of saying that the timing of the angle on television was excellent, saying that he was ‘got.’
Bully on Jon Moxley Joining The Inner Circle
“I think last week on the show we were talking about this story line in this angle and I said the obvious way to go is to have him say ‘no I’m not joining you'” Bully started. “I would have liked to have seen Jon Moxley become a part of the Inner Circle. AMoxnd then destroy the Inner Circle from within. It was all a ploy.”
“alright he said yes, they accepted.”
Ray then talked about the logistical side of the angle, mentioning that “last night he says yes. And he says yes at about nine fifty four pm. Now the the wrestler in me and smart guy is looking at the clock going ‘alright he said yes, they accepted.’ Now what? They have six minutes of TV time left. Did they go home too early? I’m legitimately wondering now if they blew through this segment too quickly. And now they’re celebrating with the champagne; and Moxley is cutting promos on people and everybody’s jacking each other off. Because they’re all so excited that Moxley is in the Inner Circle. Then with one minute left, he said ‘wait.’ They took you down a certain road and then they they swerved you at the very end.”
“It reminded me of Brock versus Daniel Bryan”
Bully also discussed how the segment reminded him of the match between Brock Lesnar and Daniel Bryan. “It reminded me of Brock versus Daniel Bryan. Where Brock beat up Daniel Bryan for seven straight minutes to the point where you’re saying to yourself; ‘oh my god this is gonna be a squash match.’ I never saw this coming. Last night I felt the same way. So I thought everybody in the Inner Circle, especially Chris and Jon Moxley did a great job.
WWE Hall of Famer and Legend ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin made some interesting comments on the most recent episode of ‘The Steve Austin Show’ on PodcastOne regarding AEW Champion Chris Jericho. During the show Austin was discussing the Wrestle Kingdom event with his co-host for the episode Shawn Marek. Although Austin did not watch Wrestle Kingdom 14 at the time of recording he did have praise for two of the bigger performers who took part in this year’s Tokyo Dome extravaganza.
Jericho vs Tanahashi
Austin did mention that he planned on watching Chris Jericho against Hiroshi Tanahashi at some point. “I tryed to find the match on YouTube, all I could find was about three and a half four minutes of highlights” Austin began. “Looking at them I was like ‘well they definitely have some good **** in there.'”
“…[he] knows how to build a match” – Steve Austin
Stone Cold also talked about how Chris Jericho was one of the more intelligent performers he has known in the business. “You know he’s [Jericho] one of the more cerebral guys in the business. And as a student of the game, [he] knows how to build a match and so like there’s some really cool **** on there.”
Jushin Liger vs Brian Pillman
Steve Austin also had praise for the NJPW legend who retired this past weekend, Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger. “I remember back in the day, it was ninety one ninety two ninety three at the latest…I can’t remember. This was WCW, the match with Brian Pillman. Okay that was a match of the year, go back and watch that match, it’s like twelve minutes. This is how much the the the business has changed, the stuff they were doing back then was cutting edge.”
Steve Austin also talked about the style of the Cruiserweight/Juniors performers, saying “I think they probably absorb the punishment and and the gravity and the physics better than the bigger guys. But I still know after all those years, all those bumps the high rate working style that he had back in the day; I mean he’s brought so much to the business.”
