Months before he was breaking out The List of Jericho and teaming up with his “best friend” Kevin Owens, Chris Jericho was locked in a feud with Dean Ambrose on WWE television in mid-2016. The feud, like most of Ambrose’s post-Shield programs, left a lot to be desired as the “Lunatic Fringe” beat the former world champion in back-to-back pay-per-views, including inside the infamous “Ambrose Asylum” steel cage match. In the years that followed both men left the company, and now find themselves crossing paths once again in All Elite Wrestling over the AEW World Championship.
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In a new interview with Sports Illustrated, Jericho was asked about his impending program with Ambrose (now Jon Moxley). “Le Champion” successfully retained his championship against Scorpio Sky on last week’s AEW Dynamite, only for his celebration to be interrupted by Moxley popping up in the crowd.
“It won’t be the same,” Jericho said. “Moxley was never this confident or this good in WWE. As Moxley said in our ‘Talk is Jericho’ podcast interview, he didn’t know who he was in WWE. He was constantly at odds with the creative and at odds with himself. This is a completely new guy. Dean Ambrose was only a portion of his career. To me, Moxley is the real guy. And there is a new-look Chris Jericho with all this creative freedom in AEW, so it’s going to be very intense and it’s going to be a lot of fun.
“I know a lot of people have already said, ‘This is happening too quickly.’ Everybody needs to sit back, relax, and watch the story unfold,” he added. “Trust me, we are not rushing anything. I wouldn’t allow it.”
Moxley teased a feud with Jericho days before his stare-down on Dynamite.
“Chris Jericho is a very, very smart man, one of the smartest guys in the business,” Moxley said. “That’s why he’s been at the top of this industry for so long. He’s drifting towards being the legitimate Greatest Of All Time. So what I mean by that is Jericho ain’t dumb. He ain’t going to f— with me.”
Since arriving in AEW, Moxley has gone undefeated in matches against the likes of Joey Janela, Kenny Omega, PAC and Darby Allin. His Lights Out match with Omega closed out the Full Gear pay-per-view in early November, the same show where Chris Jericho retained his championship against Cody Rhodes.
