New AEW signee Action Andretti was a recent guest on Busted Open Radio to discuss his massive upset victory over Chris Jericho from this past Wednesday’s Winter Is Coming television special. Andretti says he has received a ton of love over the last few days, adding that getting to work with a legend like Jericho has him feeling eternally grateful. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
Says he was very grateful once he found out he’d be working with Chris Jericho:
I just felt grateful. I couldn’t believe that was the situation I was going to be in and to have that many eyes on me. Chris, right now, is doing excellent things in AEW, and has been for the past couple of years. The fact that I had the opportunity to go up against the former World Champion, just lost the Ring of Honor Championship, coming off the great run he had with that title. It was a lot, but I was super ready for it and I knew I had to show up and show out, and I feel like that’s what I did. It was a really cool opportunity, I’m super grateful I got that opportunity and made the most of it, even for the victory over Chris Jericho.
Says everyone treated him very warmly backstage:
I just wanted to thank everybody who helped get me there because I felt there was a lot of people who believed in me and knew that I could do what I did. I wanted to show them my appreciation. When I walked to the back, I literally had all the boys and girls that were watching backstage just stand up and clap for me, give me a standing ovation. To be the new guy coming in to the locker room and have a little bit of respect like that and show me, ‘Wow, we’re really impressed with your work,’ is so cool because a lot of those people I look up to as well and are big fans of. To have them come up to me and say such good and positive things, it’s an incredible feeling and let’s me know I’m doing something right. It’s such a cool thing. I love all the boys and girls backstage, they’ve been so nice to me. It seems like they genuinely want what is best for me and to help me out moving forward. It’s a really cool feeling.
Says he’s already watched the match back to see what he can improve on:
Usually, anytime I have a match, I’m just dying to watch it back right away. I just want to see what was good, what was bad, what I could have done better, how the crowd reacts. I didn’t watch this one right away because of my phone blowing up and talking to people backstage. I watched it last night a couple of times.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)