Ahead of Sunday’s AEW Revolution pay-per-view, Chris Jericho appeared on “In The Kliq” to promote the show. Jericho talked about what he saw in Action Andretti:
“We were in Washington and he was doing a dark match on a show called Dark against QT Marshall. He did a great job in the match as a wrestler and 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 said, ‘Take him to the back and do some promos.’ I hid around the corner and listened to them and they were really good. Then I revealed myself and said, ‘Hey, that was good. Now do a promo on Sammy Guevara with me standing there, and with no hesitation, like, I’m not The Undertaker, but I’m putting myself in his position. If The Undertaker when I was 22 years old came and said, ‘Hey, can you give (a promo). He, with no hesitation, 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.’ Tony said, ‘Cool.’ So this poor kid gets signed, and for three months, he’s at home. He’s like, ‘Hey, dude, like, I’m signed, but’ and I said, ‘Just be cool. Just be cool. Trust me.’”
“A week before, I think it was Dallas, I said, ‘We’ll see you this week.’ He showed up. I said, ‘I want to talk to you. He came into my dressing room and I said, ‘I’m working with you tonight.’ He’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, This is great.’ ‘And you’re going over.’ and this kid, you could just see like, he was cool, but you can see in his face, he’s like, ‘Are you fu**ing kidding?’”
“I said, ‘Here’s the story. We’re gonna treat this like a squash match. I’m just gonna beat you up and it’s gonna be like a squash match that you saw a thousand times before until I hit you with a Codebreaker and then you’re gonna kick out, and that’s when the fun is gonna start’, and that’s what happened. It was a great moment. It’s the biggest upset in pro wrestling history, one of the greatest moments in Dynamite history, but then how do you follow up?”
“I had an idea. I’ll start with Starks but Andretti will still be involved. We’ll have him involved with you know, Sammy and Danny, and now he’s a guy. He’s a guy on the show.”
“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 gonna settle. Where’s he going to end up? That’s kind of up to him. But [Wednesday on Dynamite], Tony Khan put him in the ladder match and it had nothing to do with me. I’m 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. It’s a two hour show and our roster is packed. So to get on that show is a big deal, and to get on that show on his own merit is a big deal. I was almost like a proud father, like, good for you kid. Now you’re on your own. Fly away a little birdie and become an eagle.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit In The Kliq podcast with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
