Chris Jericho Responds To Criticism Over Matt Hardy 'Drowning' During Stadium Stampede Match

AEW star Chris Jericho addressed the controversy of Matt Hardy's "drowning" during last week's Stadium Stampede match at AEW Double Or Nothing.

Jericho said on his eighth Saturday Night Special that the backlash was "not unnecessary." There was fan backlash of the spot because of what happened earlier that week, former WWE star Shad Gaspard passed away. He was swimming at Venice Beach and was hit by a large wave that took him under.

"The backlash was not unnecessary," said Jericho. "There was the big chuck of Santana and Ortiz kind of 'drowning' Matt Hardy under the water as he changed his personas. None of us ever even thought about it. I never even thought about it once."

Jericho admitted that if they could re-do the match, there would be things that they would change.

"Looking back on it, there's a couple of things that were said they we shouldn't have said," Jericho admitted. "But, the spot itself, Matt's being doing that for a long time. It's not like we maliciously set out to do anything disrespectful. And of course, anybody who knows anything about me would know that. So, something that (we, I) didn't notice until after and in the future, obviously we should be more cognizant of it.

"But, I actually think that Shad would really appreciate that match 'cause he enjoy kind of those goofy sides of that sort of thing."

As noted earlier, Matt Hardy's wife, Reby Hardy, also responded to the controversy.

The Saturday Night Special streams from Facebook Live and Youtube.

Michael Cosby Jr. contributed to this article.