Chris Jericho discusses the process of bringing Action Andretti into AEW.
Currently, Action Andretti is one of the fast rising stars in All Elite Wrestling. After having a few matches on episodes of Dark and Dark: Elevation, Andretti pulled off a miracle and defeated Chris Jericho on the December 14 episode of AEW Dynamite. After Andretti's victory, his signing with the company was announced to the world.
Back in January, Chris Jericho noted that he personally asked for Andretti to be signed back in October 2022. In a new interview with the In The Kliq podcast, Jericho went into detail on how he first caught wind of Andretti.
“We were in Washington and he was doing a dark match against QT Marshall and he did a great job in the match as a wrestler. I thought, well he’s a really good worker, we’ve got a lot of good workers though. Let me see him do a promo. So I had Sonjay Dutt, who’s one of our backstage guys, I had Dutt take him to the back and do some promos and I kinda hid around the corner and listened to them and they were really good. Then, I revealed myself and said ‘Hey, that was good. Do a promo on Sammy Guevara.’ With me standing there and no hesitation, he did a really good off the cuff promo on Sammy. I went right back to Tony Khan and said ‘We can do something with this guy, but I have an idea. Let’s sign him, but don’t put him on TV, don’t put him on Dark, don’t do anything with him until the time is right.’ So this poor kid gets signed and for three months he’s at home and he’s like ‘Hey dude, I’m signed but like..’ I said just be cool, just be cool, trust me."
Jericho then elaborated and revealed how he broke the news to Andretti about the match. Jericho also went on to say that his story with Andretti is likely done for the time being.
"A week before Dallas, I said ‘Okay, we’ll see you this week.’ Then he came into my dressing room and I said ‘I’m working with you tonight.’ He goes ‘Oh my god, this is great.’ Then I say ‘and you’re going over.’ This kid, he was cool, but you could see his face is like are you f*cking kidding me? Here’s the story. We’re gonna treat this like a squash match. I’m just gonna beat you up. It’s gonna be like a squash match you’ve saw 1000 times before until I hit you with a Codebreaker, and then you’re gonna kick out and that’s where the fun is gonna start. It was a great moment, it’s the biggest upset in pro wrestling history. It’s one of the greatest moments in Dynamite history, but how do you follow it up? I had an idea, we’ll start with Starks but Andretti will still be involved and we’ll have him involved with Sammy [Guevara] and Danny [Garcia] and now he’s a guy. He’s a guy on the show. After Revolution, our story is probably gonna be done for now, Action Andretti and Jericho. By the way, I never got the win back. I don’t need to. I never need to beat Action Andretti ever, nor will I ever. I will never beat Action Andretti, I’m telling you that right now. Now he has to go out on his own, but we had a great three month story. It was a great start for this kid. Now the dust is gonna settle, it’s kinda up to him.”
Jericho also went on to discuss Andretti getting a spot in the Face Of The Revolution ladder match on the March 1 episode of AEW Dynamite, noting that Tony Khan put the young star in the match himself.
Ricky Starks is set to face Chris Jericho at the Revolution pay-per-view on Sunday, March 5. To see the full card for the event, click here.
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