Top AEW Star Chris Jericho recently appeared as a guest on Wrestling Observer Radio with Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez to talk about topics such as how long ago has the feud between the Inner Circle and the Pinnacle been in the works. Jericho said that it has been planned for months, but he doesn’t want to tell the fans exactly when, but, this is not the end of the story at all, it is just the beginning in a lot of ways and once again, he just likes to book ahead.
Jericho also said it’s something that started in September, the first meeting he and MJF had with AEW announcer Tony Schiavone in the parking lot, the day after the PPV and now we are here in May, and it is really only beginning and it is a pretty cool, long term storyline which is his favorite type.
This is what Chris Jericho said:
“Months and months and months. I don’t want to tell you exactly when, but, this is not the end of the story at all. It is just the beginning in a lot of ways. Once again, I like to book ahead. One thing about wrestling that’s really cool is that it’s almost like, connect the dots. Here’s the connect the dots of what we want to do and for sure you have to hit this thought and you have to hit this thought. Sometimes the lines aren’t as straight as you originally think.
Sometimes there’s curves and twists and turns. But, when you long-term book, at least you know this point has to be hit, etc. Blood and Guts was something that in my original thought was the end, and then it moved to earlier on, kind of more like the beginning. You rearrange accordingly. I’m really excited about what we have, the ideas for it, the planning, and all that sort of stuff. It’s a great mix.
It’s something that started in September, the first meeting that Jericho and MJF had with Tony Schiavone in the parking lot, the day after the PPV. Here we are in April, almost May, and it’s really only beginning. It’s a pretty cool, long term storyline which is my favorite type.”
Jericho then talked about doing everything they could a thousand times to build interest in the Blood and Guts Match because he thinks that gimmick matches, if you want to call this match a gimmick match should be the product of the story, not the story being the product of the gimmick match.
Jericho had said the thing with the Blood and Guts Match is that they built this way back last year to be kind of the blow off with The Elite and The Inner Circle, which started with the company’s very first episode of Dynamite and they almost made it to March 25th, 2020 at Prudential Center, 15,000 tickets sold and as they all know, they got shut down on the 11th.
Jericho also said they had to reboot, reconfigure and come up with the Stadium Stampede and went in a different direction, but Blood and Guts has always been in their back pockets, but they don’t want to do it just for the sake of doing it and with Blood and Guts on the horizon, they thought it is better to do it sooner than later because the storyline is there when a vicious brawl took place between the Inner Circle and the Pinnacle.
This is what Chris Jericho said:
“Yes, times a thousand. I’ll tell you the reason why. I think that gimmick matches, if you want to call this a gimmick match, should be the product of the story, not the story is the product of the gimmick match. What I mean by that is, when we first started doing Hell in the Cell in WWE, it was because the story demanded this Hell.
Now, we got the Hell in the Cell PPV coming up, let’s do a tag team match, we’ll do a women’s version, we’ll do a men’s version. It’s stupid. So, the thing with the Blood and Guts is that we built this way back last year to be kind of the blow off with The Elite and The Inner Circle, which started with our very first episode of Dynamite. We almost made it to March 25, 2020 at Prudential Center, 15,000 tickets sold and as we all know, we got shut down on the 11th.”
“We had to reboot, reconfigure. We came up with the Stadium Stampede and went in a different direction. Blood and Guts has always been in our back pockets, but you don’t want to do it just for the sake of doing it. This is a perfect example of, you had this idea, with now The Pinnacle and The Inner Circle where it was a vicious beatdown of The Inner Circle.
We were out for four weeks. We come back and beat the hell out of them in return. So, with Blood and Guts on the horizon, we thought it’s better to do it sooner than later because the storyline is there. I think the promos that we’ve done over the past three or four weeks have really put this into a completely different stratosphere to where, yes, obviously the naysayers say, ‘It’s too early.
It’s too early,’ but, we’re telling stories and we know what the story is. I think at the end of the day, just sit back and enjoy the ride. I think it’s going to fit in exactly where it needs to fit in, jumping in with both feet, let’s get right to it, because I think the storyline has demanded that for what we’ve done over the last six weeks to two months.”
The Blood And Guts episode of AEW Dynamite takes place this Wednesday night at 8PM ET on TNT.
