Chris Jericho put it all on the line against MJF at All Out, and he explains what motivated him to finally put his career on the line.
Chris Jericho recently spoke with Stephanie Chase and talked about why it was the right time to put his career on the line against MJF at AEW All Out. Jericho says it was something that was necessary to give motivation to MJF’s character to agree to the match in the first place.
“I think it was once again, a great part of the story. Why would MJF and Jericho have one more match? What’s in it for MJF, so to speak, because nobody saw it coming that he was going to beat me in the ‘Labors or Jericho.’ Everybody thought ‘Chris is going to win’ and not only did I not win, but tapping out the way I did, people were very, very shocked and surprised about it, which is cool, it shows that we took them into a different direction, swerved them. So then I thought if we’re going to do one more match at the pay-per-view, which we really wanted to do and wrap it up there,” Jericho noted, “What could be at stake? And I thought my career is the way to go.”
Jericho went on to talk about how they actually needed to convince people the stipulation could happen, noting that they sold it really well before and during the match itself. Jericho brought up the fact that the “Dusty finish” they used really drove home that he could be done, and really helped from an emotional aspect.
“Well, no one really knows for sure, you know? They’re pretty sure Jericho’s not going to be done wrestling, but what if I am? I think that’s why we did that finish with the foot on the rope and people were really shocked, like ‘Oh my gosh, they actually did it!’ And for that 30 second period they believed it was done. That’s what wrestling’s all about — if you can get people to believe the story that you’re telling, then you’ve done a good thing,” Jericho explained, “and that’s exactly what we did.
“People legitimately, I think, were very surprised, at that ‘false finish’ that we did because at that point in time they thought ‘uh oh… there’s a chance this could be real,’ especially when we started playing MJF’s music and made the announcement. [The reaction was] ‘No… no. Not like this!’ And then of course, we switched it and moved forward and I won, but I think that was part of the fun, how far can we take this? Let’s take it all the way, let’s have an announcement, have the music playing and let’s do everything,” Jericho said. “Let’s really make people that this is the end, and I think we were able to do that.”
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Jericho has moved on from his feud with MJF and is now involved in a feud with American Top Team and Dan Lambert, who attacked Jericho and Hager on Friday’s episode of Rampage.
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