AEW superstar Chris Jericho spoke about the backlash to the drowning spot in the Stadium Stampede match on the most recent Saturday Night Special. Fans criticized the company for allowing the spot to remain in the match following the tragic death of Shad Gaspard. Le Champion states that although he understands the backlash, the idea was to never poke fun or disrespect Gaspard’s legacy.
The backlash was not unnecessary,” said Jericho. “There was the big chuck of Santana and Ortiz kind of ‘drowning’ Matt Hardy under the water as he changed his personas. None of us ever even thought about it. I never even thought about it once. Looking back on it, there’s a couple of things that were said they we shouldn’t have said. But, the spot itself, Matt’s being doing that for a long time. It’s not like we maliciously set out to do anything disrespectful. And of course, anybody who knows anything about me would know that. So, something that (we, I) didn’t notice until after and in the future, obviously we should be more cognizant of it. I actually think that Shad would really appreciate that match ’cause he enjoy kind of those goofy sides of that sort of thing.
Check out Jericho’s full special below. (H/T and transcribed by Wrestling Inc.)
