Throughout the summer, Chris Jericho had to complete the Five Labours of Jericho set forth by MJF if he wanted to earn a match with the "Salt of the Earth."
Jericho would battle Shawn Spears, Nick Gage, Juventud Guerrera, and eventually MJF in his labours.
Speaking to Stephanie Chase, Jericho discussed the idea for the story and revealed that Chris Hero was one name brought up as a possible opponent.
"The original plan was going to be the four guys from The Pinnacle. That's what we had kind of done with Moxley when he beat me for the title where he had to go through the whole Inner Circle. It was MJF who had the idea for us to use Nick Gage. I had never heard of Nick Gage prior to Dark Side of the Ring. It intrigued me that maybe he brings in some bounty hunters. I still wanted it to start and end with Pinnacle because that was the story. Start with Spears, end with Wardlow. That was always the plan. It was never the plan to go through this memory lane of Jericho's friends or opponents," he said.
Jericho continued by saying, "We thought the Nick Gage deathmatch would be cool. We were trying to think of another guy and one idea was Chris Hero. A couple of other names were thrown around. I thought Juventud Guerrera would be a good idea because he seemed to fit. It seemed like a good idea to have one guy from my past in there. I didn't want to make it a bunch of guys from my past. 'It's gotta be Lance Storm.' I just wanted Pinnacle to start and end, the deathmatch was a cool idea, and then someone from my past, and I thought Juventud was best for that. We worked on that for a few months, to get his visa and that. That was always the idea, those four guys. There was an idea to face maybe Hager or have Sammy come in, but I didn't like that idea. Why would they fight me? 'Well they have to or else we would quit.' We don't turn on each other. I thought it was the idea, 'Fine, go fuck yourself, we're out.' That didn't work for me."
Jericho would defeat Spears, Gage, Guerrera, and Wardlow to earn his match against MJF.
Hero hasn't wrestled since March 2020 when he was competing on NXT UK.
However, he lost the fifth labour, tapping out to MJF. He would defeat MJF in the rematch at AEW All Out where he put his career on the line.
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