Chris Jericho Will Put His Career on the Line at AEW All Out

Chris Jericho arrived on AEW Dynamite this week and threw out a special challenge for MJF. After losing once again to Friedman last week in the fifth “Labour of Jericho,” the former AEW Champion said that he’ll put his in-ring career on the line for one more shot against his former protege. Friedman walked out onto the entrance ramp and initially told Jericho to just leave him alone, but then said that being the man to end the “Demo God’s” career would be legendary. The match was then made official for the All Out pay-per-view on Sept. 5.

The history between Jericho and MJF goes back well over a year but started in earnest at last year’s Full Gear pay-per-view when Friedman scored a victory over Jericho to insert himself and Wardlow into the Inner Circle. Then in March Friedman revealed his plan to betray the faction by introducing his own group, The Pinnacle. With FTR, Shawn Spears and Wardlow by his side, Friedman managed to beat Jericho and the Inner Circle in a Blood & Guts match.

The Inner Circle got some revenge at Double or Nothing by winning Stadium Stampede, but Jericho’s obsession with getting a definitive win over the cocky young upstart led to him enduring the “Labours of Jericho.” He was on the verge of beating Friedman last week, but was unable to put his opponent away since his Judas Effect finisher was banned.

Jericho spoke with ComicBook about Friedman’s potential in an interview leading up to the Blood & Guts Match back in April.

“Obviously, we have a real diamond here in MJF. But as good as he is, he doesn’t have that worldwide experience, which you need to have in some ways,” Jericho said. “At least when I was coming through the system, you needed to have that international flavor, not just for wrestling style, but like I said, life lessons. And it really matures you to be on the other side of the world by yourself. Things will never be that way for Max because he’s such a big star in the States. If he goes to Japan, it’ll probably just be for a show or two. I don’t really see him entering the Championship Carnival, or the G1 Tournament. But if he did, that probably would be really good for him.

“But times have changed and traveling the world isn’t really like it was when I was starting out. When I was 25. I really was headlining arenas in Japan and Mexico and Germany,” he added. “So by the time I got to WCW, even though I wasn’t getting the big push, so to speak, I still knew how to get over. Same thing when I first came to WWE. So Max will never have those experiences, and he probably doesn’t need them because the business has changed. But there is a lot to be said about having that worldwide experience for all the reasons that I just said, but I don’t know if that’s ever really going to happen anymore.”