On the December 14th episode of AEW Dynamite, Action Andretti shocked the world when he scored an upset victory over Chris Jericho.
Later in the night, it was announced that Andretti had officially become All Elite, and he has been heavily involved in the recent feud between Jericho and Ricky Starks ahead of Revolution.
Speaking on a recent episode of In The Kliq, Chris Jericho opened up about Action Andretti catching his eye during an AEW Dark match with QT Marshall.
“We were in Washington and he was doing a dark match on a show called Dark against QT Marshall and he did a great job in the match as a wrestler and I thought, ‘Well, he’s a really good worker, we have a lot of good workers, though, let me see him do a promo.'”
Jericho went on to describe hiding around a corner while Sonjay Dutt worked on promos with the young star. After being impressed by his promo skills, Jericho approached Tony Khan and asked that he not be put on Dark until making his debut on Dynamite.
“I kind of hid around the corner and listened to him and they were really good and then I revealed myself and said, ‘That was good, now do a promo on Sammy Guevara’ with me standing there.
“With 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 until the time is right.”
According to Jericho, his feud with Andretti will likely come to a close after Revolution, where Jericho will be facing Ricky Starks. However, he says that he has no need to get his win back over the young star and even declares that he will never score a victory over him.
“After Revolution, our story is probably going to 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 on his own but we had a great three month story, it’s a great start for this kid. Now, the dust is going to settle, where is he going to end up? That’s kind of up to him but last night, Tony Khan put him in the ladder match, had nothing to do with me. and I was like, ‘That’s really cool.’ Now, Tony’s thinking of him as a guy on our show because getting time on Dynamite is not easy.”
“The Company Was On My Back” – Chris Jericho On Importance Of Creating New Stars After AEW’s Inception
Earlier in the podcast, Jericho stressed the importance of creating new stars in AEW, particularly at the beginning of the company’s existence.
“My number one mission from day one when we started AEW was to do my best to make new stars because, at first I think, the company was on my back. And I knew you’ve only got about a month or two, it can’t always be Chris Jericho.
“Cody Rhodes right out of the gate, he was not the Cody he is now. Mox was still Dean Ambrose. Nobody knew Kenny Omega, nobody knew the Bucks. Darby Allin, Scorpio Sky, Jungle Boy, Ortiz, Santana, Sammy Guevara, Jake Hager when he came back, all those guys in the first three months I worked with.
“We had a short window of time to make as many stars as we could. So, that’s always been my goal and Ricky Starks is another guy, people love him, all he needed was a story, he needed to be on TV featured every week and that’s sort of what we’ve done.”
Continuing, Jericho addressed allegations of him burying young stars that he works with when he scores victories over them. Jericho believes he’s never buried anybody in his career, and that his focus is always on helping other stars rise up in professional wrestling.
“I have the thickest of skins. I know people hate me, I got yelled at last night for beating a young talent like Peter Avalon. How did I bury the young talent of Peter Avalon? What happened in that match? Watch the match. Two minutes long, Peter beat the crap out of me for a minute and 59 seconds and I hit one move, one move.
“I’ve never buried anybody in my career, ever! Now, sometimes I win, that’s okay, I’m allowed to win, guys. It’s okay.
“Making new stars and putting people over is not wins and losses. You can lose to somebody and bury them at the same time. It happened to me in WCW a lot of different times.”
h/t F4WOnline