Action Andretti scored a major upset victory over Chris Jericho last December on an episode of AEW Dynamite.
Action earned an AEW contract after the win in an impressive performance. Jericho had discovered him at a Dark taping and was impressed with him, so he pitched the upset idea.
Speaking on his Talk Is Jericho podcast, Jericho reflected on the match.
“I put it together where he looked really good, and then of course I hit him with the Codebreaker. 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. 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,” recalled Jericho.
Action has mostly been used on the ROH brand following the loss.
Jericho continued, “It all depends on where you go with it. 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.”
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