Fans have watched Chris Jericho transform into any number of personas throughout his wrestling career, and that continues to be the case in All Elite Wrestling as The Learning Tree. You won’t find his latest transformation on Dynamite however, as Jericho as now transformed into a mysterious figure known as The Prophet in Shudder’s new film that sees the worlds of horror and wrestling collide in some truly brutal ways. ComicBook had the chance to speak to Jericho all about this latest evolution and what fans can expect from the film, as well as what ultiamtely convinced him to dive into the project.
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There was some initial hesitancy to take on a film that invovled wrestling, both because it’s somethign Jericho is a part of day in and day out and because other wrestling projects don’t seem to handle wrestling correctly, but Jericho’s fears were eased after reading the script.
“I saw the script and I was like, wrestling movie, I don’t know about that. But then I saw that Lowell Dean had directed it and written it, and I was a fan of Wolf Cop. So I thought, well, I’ll read it. Because I’m usually very hesitant to do any type of wrestling related, you know, films or shows because I do so much wrestling and I always find a lot of them are kind of a little bit cheesy, to be honest with you,” Jericho said.
“So I read the script and I was like, well, this is really, really well done. They did a great job. Lowell did a great job of doing his homework because it’s very easy to misunderstand what wrestling is and to patronize it, which then patronizes the people that enjoy the business of pro wrestling,” Jericho said. “So the way he wrote it, the detail that he had really interested me right out of the gate for those reasons. And I knew that I could really do something fun with this because the last thing I want to do is just be Chris Jericho, because I do that all the time.”
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“And I find that, you know, if I don’t kind of have people seeing the profit on screen rather than Chris Jericho, I think I’m failing at what I’m trying to do here as an actor. And I think as the movie went on, I accomplished that. You don’t see Chris Jericho. You see the prophet and you see the leader and you see this crazy bats*** character. In a whole different way, and that, to me, was the real challenge and fun of being in this movie,” Jericho said.
While Jericho’s Prophet looms over the story, the figures in the midst of it are Ayisha Issa (as the wrestler Miss Behave) and Steven Ogg (as Mean Joe Lean), and they were all in from the very beginning.
“That’s another thing about Dark Match is, everybody just came with their A game. Like, Ayisha and Steven are just tremendous actors, and like I mentioned, getting this offer, my very first scene was when the prophet comes out on the balcony and the party’s going on down there and Steven’s down there. That was my first scene walking on set. Here’s Lien. Here’s Steven Ogg, who I’m a big fan of from Walking Dead. So you got to jump in with both feet, like hey man, you want to be an actor? And you got this offer, which now you have to impress a lot of people, because once again, I haven’t proven myself at all,” Jericho said.
“They’ve never heard me read one line as this prophet, and then having Steven Ogg standing right there looking at me was a real kind of, like, test. And right out of the gate, I think I proved that I was good enough to be there, fit right in. And also too, knowing like, man, these people are good. So that raises my game as well. And then getting to work with Stephen throughout the whole course of the shoot, and we had some great scenes together, and just a sweetheart of a guy, great guy, and learned a lot from him, and was really proud of the work that we were able to do together, And same with Ayisha as well, and everybody on the cast,” Jericho said.
Part of what made Dark Match so rewarding for Jericho was the fact that while it obviously has major elements of wrestling, it isn’t trying to be a through and through wrestling movie. Instead it mixes those elements into a full blown horror story that features enough twists and turns to keep you guessing throughout the entire film.
“To me, this is not a pro wrestling movie. It’s a great, well written horror movie with pro wrestling as a background, and that’s what got to me like okay, so they’re having matches, but they’re not like, you know, normal half assed rusty masses,” Jericho said. “Their fire, wind, earth, you know, water. Matches where the loser is basically a sacrifice to raise Satan from hell. Like what you see the movie start with, and you’re thinking it’s going this way and then it goes that way and then it goes this way and it goes that way. Same thing with the Prophet, the character that I play,” Jericho said.
“Like you don’t know what the finale is going to be, and I think when the movie is done, I’ve seen it now in three different theaters in three different cities, and people’s reactions are all super positive. They’re laughing when they should. They’re screaming when they should, they’re going, ohhh when they should. At the end they’re going, wow, that was crazy. I loved it. I can’t wait to watch it again. And that’s what you want,” Jericho said.
Dark Match is now available to stream exclusively on Shudder.
What did you think of Dark Match? Let us know in the comments and you can also talk all things wrestling with me on Bluesky @knightofoa!
