Chris Jericho Reveals Original Plan For AEW Dynamite With Mike Tyson

On a recent episode of Talk Is Jericho, Chris Jericho had on the rest of The Inner Circle, Santana, Ortiz, Jake Hager and Sammy Guevara. They talked about the confrontation that they had with Mike Tyson on Dynamite where Santana and Ortiz admitted that they were intimidated by the fighters in the ring.

"I was looking across the ring at Vitor and then Rashad Evans. I didn't even know he was gonna be there," Ortiz said. "I looked at him, and I was like, 'yo, that's Rashad Evans?' I was like, 'oh man.' I was like, 'I need a knife or something.' I can't take these guys on legit. I'm about to step behind Jake and be like, 'yeah, get him Jake.' I was a little intimidated. I'm not gonna lie.

"At one point, I looked at Ortiz because I didn't know all these guys were coming out with Tyson," Santana admitted. "At one point, they're all lined up in front of us, and I look at Ortiz. I was like, 'yo, I need a clean pair of drawers.' I think it's about that time."

Jericho said that he does not follow UFC, so he did not know some of the fighters in the ring, but he did know Vitor Belfort. He revealed a conversation with Belfort gong through a rough idea of what they had planned for the in-ring segement.

"Tyson's there and he's got this rogue's gallery of murders, and I'm not a UFC guy," Jericho noted. "I didn't know, this is no disrespect, Henry Cejudo and and Rashad Evans. I knew Vitor Belfort, but I thought who's this big Russian guy? Apparently, he's from Brazil. So we're talking to him. I'm trying to explain to these guys. These guys all have dead eyes. They're just like looking at me, and there's no planning. There's no rehearsal. There's no script.

"They're going to do whatever they want. It's just going to be a big, I used the word riot not knowing that two days later there really would be riots, but I said, 'I just want a big riot and a big mob scene. And Vitor's like, 'so I double leg somebody?' I'm like, 'no, no, no. No one's double legging anyone.' Here's what I said, 'there's a big, tall, blonde kid with me. He's a big, tall, tough blonde kid. That's the guy that you go with. OK?' And I told Jake that, and I went and introduced you to him. He totally big leagued you."

Hager responded briefly about him getting "big leagued". He said he had to tell Henry Cejudo and Rashad Evans about their past histories with each other in the amateur and collegiate wrestling world.

"He did. What the f–k," Hager lamented. "Bro, I was ready after that. I had to remind Henry I was at Oklahoma when he came in for a recruiting trip. I wrestled against Rashad Evans in 2003, so I let these guys know that hey, we're right there."

While going through the Tyson segment, Jericho pointed out actor Michael Gooch who was part of Tyson's entourage. Jericho mocked Gooch talking about the disparities between him and the fighters.

"So when these guys come walking out, and once again, I talked it over with with Mike. The original idea was for Mike to knock out Sammy, but that changed," Jericho revealed. "These guys come out, and we had talked to four and there's like eight guys. And I had added a couple of the young boys, Musa and Graham, some of our guys in there, so if someone needs to take a punch, they go down. Then there's 'The Gooch', this actor friend of Tyson's that I've never met.

"So I'm standing face-to-face with Tyson. I got Jake over here and there's I think Sammy's there and there's a line of a guys, and you guys know, when a fights going down, you're looking at the guy you're fighting with, but I'm looking here too. And I'm seeing this idiot. I can tell this guy looks crazy. Rashad looks crazy, but this guy looks like a like a skinny, fat, dumpy idiot."

Jericho went into more detail about the brawl where Jericho landed a shot on Gooch. Jericho says he hopes that they can do something more in the future and explained why the segment was a success.

"So lo and behold, when Tyson starts taking off his shirt, so does this doughy, fat, lumpy idiot," Jericho mocked. "I was supposed to push Tyson first. He pushes me second. There's none of that. It's just Tyson going off, and if you see me go, 'hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.' I'm saying it to him like in between lines, hold on.

"So then when he takes off his shirt and pushes me. I push him back. Here comes 'The Gooch.' He comes at me, and I was like, OK, that's it.' Dude, I grabbed his head straight to the table, and we're off and running. If you watch that back, all of us are just losing. 'The Gooch', he's getting slapped around and smacked around and Sammy's on a scooter, but now he's just running around."

"It was a great segment because of how crazy it was, which is what we wanted. You don't have Iron Mike out there to do fancy, choreographed spots. It's just one big riot, mob scene, lunacy, and we got a hell of a lot of coverage for it. Hopefully we can do more with them, and he's got a squad. We've got a squad. So hopefully that leads to more stuff."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.