Chris Jericho's Backstage Role in Major AEW Dynamite Upset Revealed

The professional wrestling world stood still on Wednesday. During the annually eventful AEW Dynamite: Winter is Coming, a televised special that has produced moments like Sting's debut and Kenny Omega's world title victory, relative unknown Action Andretti scored a decisive pinfall victory over Chris Jericho. Jericho was coming off losing his Ring of Honor World Championship to Claudio Castagnoli at ROH Final Battle and declared in a backstage segment that he was seeking a "tune-up match" against a "jobber." That jobber proved to be a much bigger test than Jericho anticipated, as Andretti held his own throughout the contest and slowly won over the Texas crowd in the lead up to his 1-2-3.

While this upset came as a shock to audiences, Andretti's victory over Jericho has actually been in the works for a number of weeks. As reported by the Wrestling Observer, Andretti impressed Jericho specifically during an AEW Dark match against QT Marshall in October. Jericho reportedly concluded that Andretti was "going to be a star" in that moment and wanted to help Andretti reach the potential he saw in him. The Ocho was in the midst of his ROH Championship run at the time, a reign that saw him go unbeaten until ROH Final Battle, so Andretti's showcase match against him was put on hold for over two months.

Andretti's upset over Jericho represents a rarity in professional wrestling, but the jobber beating the established main event star is something that has been done before. This storyline was most notably executed in the 1990s on Monday Night Raw when the 1-2-3 Kid, who went on to be X-Pac, beat Razor Ramon. AEW has done a less-decisive version of this in the past as well, as Shawn Dean has two victories over current AEW World Champion MJF, but those wins came by count out and disqualification.

Following Andretti's win, AEW President Tony Khan announced that the 24-year-old wrestler had officially signed with AEW. This represents a big break early in Andretti's career, as he has only been wrestling for about three years. Outside of AEW, Andretti has wrestled for GCW, CZW, and MCW, mixing it up with the likes of Lince Dorado, Flip Gordon, and Mike Bailey.

Stay tuned to ComicBook.com for updates on Andretti's AEW future.