Action Andretti had one hell of an introduction to All Elite Wrestling fans.
During the latest installment of his “Talk Is Jericho” podcast, Chris Jericho reflected on losing to Andretti in a shocking upset in Andretti’s AEW television debut.
“I put it together where he looked really good, and then of course I hit him with the Codebreaker,” Jericho said. “Everyone knows that’s the finish…except for it wasn’t, and he kicks out. What I wanted to do, much in the same vein as Ishii [Tomohiro Ishii] and the chops and Mox [Jon Moxley] in the Walls of Jericho, is I wanted him to sell it through the entire commercial break, and I was just going to sit there with a surprise look on my face.”
Jericho continued, “He didn’t quite understand that, he started moving, I was desperately trying to tell him to stop moving, and we lost the moment. I still claim to this day, people were so surprised when he kicked out of the Codebreaker, if I would have sat there on my knees and had that look of surprise on my face, I could have sat there for three minutes and people went nuts. I tell you, it would have worked. I could probably never do it again, but at that moment, I just knew, ‘Don’t move, don’t move,’ and he moved. ‘Argh,’ but it’s okay.'”
Andretti has mostly worked in ROH since the big win, outside of a handful of tag-team bouts and other matches in AEW.
“It all depends on where you go with it,” Jericho said. “After, I threw a fireball in his face, we had some stuff with him and Ricky Starks, had him with Jericho Appreciation Society, get some wins. Then, the dust settles and now he’s working with Darius and Dante Martin, which is great, and you have to build yourself back up. He took the opportunity and ran with it, and then you come back down to earth and that’s just how the wrestling world works.”
Check out the complete episode of the show at Simplecast.com. H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.
