In what was Bandido’s debut, then-ROH World Champion Chris Jericho defeated Bandido in the main event of the September 28 AEW Dynamite show. Bandido was later reported to have been offered a contract by AEW President Tony Khan immediately following the match, and he ended up signing a full-time contract in early October.
Jericho recently discussed Bandido on his “Talk Is Jericho” podcast, revealing that he told Khan that they needed to sign Bandido immediately following the match. Jericho continued to lavish praise on the international superstar.
“And man, as soon as we got back through the curtain I said to Tony, ‘We need to sign this guy’. And that’s what we did,” Jericho said. “It took a while to actually get him to commit but man, we signed him, and I see big things in the future for Bandido. And even without a mask he’s a really good-looking guy, uh kayfabe without the mask on. But just his combination of his move set, his unique move set, creative move set, his high-flying and his power.
“I mean he held me up for the gorilla press and dropped his hands, he was holding me up with one hand and it was just like, where has this guy been! Once again, I just couldn’t believe how good he was and the fact that we hadn’t signed him. So, I’m not sure exactly, like I said who the original plan was but when Tony came up with the idea of Bandido, it was like that is absolutely perfect. So, what a great match.”
Since then, Bandido has worked two AEW matches. He defeated Rush on the November 11 Rampage before losing to Ethan Page in the AEW World Title Eliminator Tournament on the November 16 Dynamite.
You can listen to the complete podcast below:
