On the August 24th episode of AEW Collision, Big Bill took on HOOK in a match to lead into HOOK's bout against Chris Jericho at AEW All In.
Though Big Bill was the heel due to his allegiance to Jericho, the crowd in Cardiff, Wales cheered "The Redwood."
"Very out of nowhere," Big Bill recalled on Talk Is Jericho. "We were out there earlier in the night for [Jericho vs. Tommy Billington]. When I was in the ring with HOOK, the crowd went crazy. I think a lot of things went into that. I have a lot of equity with the fans, especially the UK. I've been (on TV) with NXT since 2014, so ten years they've been seeing me. They've seen my journey. They've seen the ups, they've seen the downs, they've seen the real real downs, and they've seen my comeback from those. They're kind of saying to me, 'Hey brother, we respect what you're doing. We love you. Even though you're a heel, we have to let you know that we know what you've been through, we know where you come from, and we're happy for you.' I think that was a big portion of it."
Big Bill continued, "They start cheering for me and I'm like, 'What is going on?' They're getting louder and louder, and I'm really trying to play heel. The whole point of the match is to set up HOOK as the uber babyface going into [All In]. It would not stop. I kept pulling every trick that I could. There was one point where we went to the floor, and I had HOOK, I said to him, 'Don't worry, I'm going to get them to switch.' It was 100%, I was going to get them. I went in the ring and all I wanted to do was pretend that I loved their admiration and then flip them off. They just cheered even louder. That was an ego check for me, because I thought for sure, 'I got this.' They wouldn't go with it. After that, I was like, 'Ah, shit.'
"You feel appreciated, which is nice, but you're also in the middle of a match where the goal is to get HOOK babyfaced going into [All In], and it's not working. You want to bask in it, but also you have to get back on track. After they rushed the barricades and I pulled every rabbit out of the hat that I could think of, and it didn't work, I was just like, 'Alright, whatever.'"
HOOK ended up victorious in the bout, but if he could rewind time, Jericho was ready to make a bold play.
"I remember thinking, this is like a Twilight Zone thing, if you could pause life and rewind it a bit, I would have said, 'Let's make this for the world championship and put Big Bill over.' It would have been the biggest reaction ever," said Jericho.
Big Bill helped Jericho win the ROH Title on the October 23rd episode of AEW Dynamite.
Big Bill and Jericho will team with Bryan Keith in a Fight Without Honor against Kyle O'Reilly, Mark Briscoe, & Tomohiro Ishii on Wednesday's AEW Dynamite.
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