Chris Jericho

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.

The Undertaker Responds to Jericho on Twitter

After The Undertaker used a term popularized by AEW star Chris Jericho on Monday's edition of Raw, the two wrestling legends had an exchange on Twitter.

During a heated promo against his WrestleMania 36 opponent, AJ Styles, The Undertaker referred to Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson as "a--clowns," which is a phrase Jericho used often while he was part of WWE.

Jericho said he had no issue with The Undertaker using the term when asked about it on Twitter, and Taker later issued what amounted to an apology to Jericho in response:

Regardless of the vernacular, the promo The Undertaker cut on Raw was arguably one of the best of his lengthy career. It was also the ideal way to finalize the build for his Boneyard Match against Styles on The Grandest Stage of Them All.

WrestleMania 36 will be unique to say the least, as much of it is taking place at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, with no fans in attendance due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The match between Taker and Styles will be different than the rest, though, since it is apparently taking place at a graveyard, or at least in a graveyard setting.

AEW has gained a lot of traction over the past several months within the wrestling business, but the stage will belong solely to WWE this weekend in the form of WrestleMania.

Fans often speculate about issues between WWE and AEW performers or the companies restricting their talent from speaking to talent from the other promotion, but the exchange between Jericho and The Undertaker suggests that isn't the case.

Reported Reason for Botched Spot on Raw

There was reportedly a good reason for the rough bump Montez Ford endured late in a six-man tag team match on Monday's Raw.

Just prior to Kevin Owens picking up the victory for himself and The Street Profits over Seth Rollins, Angel Garza and Austin Theory, Ford went for a dive over the top rope and to the floor on Theory, but instead of hitting Theory, Ford landed flat on his back on the floor.

According to Bryan Alvarez of Wrestling Observer Live (h/t WrestlingInc.com's Marc Middleton), Rollins was supposed to interrupt Ford's dive by grabbing his leg from the outside. While Rollins did so to some degree, he was late to the spot, so Ford decided to go through with it.

Since Theory was unaware that Ford was going to do the dive, he wasn't in place to break Ford's fall, which resulted in a rough landing for one half of the Raw Tag Team champions.

Both Ford and Theory made light of the situation on Twitter:

All indications are that Ford did not suffer an injury despite the botch, which is good news from WWE's perspective, as The Street Profits are set to defend the Raw Tag Team titles against Garza and Theory at WrestleMania this weekend.

While Monday's match was far from perfect, Ford's dive was a microcosm of how exciting things could get between the teams, which should help capture the attention of the WWE Universe watching from home.

Hogan Tweets About Torn Bicep

Add another to the long list of injuries suffered by WWE legend Hulk Hogan.

Hogan tweeted Tuesday that he tore his right bicep:

The Hulkster didn't provide a reason for how it happened or if and when surgery is planned, but the injury comes at a time that was supposed to be a big moment in Hogan's career.

Hogan is already a WWE Hall of Famer, but he had been scheduled to get inducted for a second time this week as a member of the New World Order along with Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Sean Waltman.

Since the coronavirus pandemic forced WWE to move WrestleMania 36 from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, to the WWE Performance Center with no fans in attendance, however, the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony has been put on hold.

It is unclear when the event will take place, but it was set to be a star-studded affair featuring the nWo, Batista, The Bella Twins, Jushin "Thunder" Liger and JBL.

Hogan has suffered many injuries over the years, with his back and knees being the main problem areas.

The 66-year-old still appears to be in great physical condition, but he must now work his way back from a fairly significant injury.

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).

As his contract with the company was reaching its expiration date, WWE was apparently willing to back up the Brinks truck to re-sign All Elite Wrestling star Brodie Lee.

Lee discussed his departure from WWE with fellow AEW star Chris Jericho (h/t Wrestling Inc's Dustin Holland).

"I was offered contracts all the way up to the day they called to release me," he said. "Their M.O. was to keep everyone at that time. They knew that I was gonna be gone and I was going to go to AEW as soon as I can."

Jericho recounted how he had heard Rhyno was once offered a raise and told he would feature little on WWE programming. That was apparently the approach for Lee as well.

"It was ungodly money, like I could never even imagine making that amount of money in wrestling literally just to stay at home," he said.

Lee announced last April he requested his release from WWE:

He had to wait until December before officially parting ways with the company.

The former intercontinental champion made his AEW debut on the March 18 edition of Dynamite, revealing himself as The Exalted One of The Dark Order.

Lee followed Jon Moxley from WWE to AEW.

Last May after he signed for AEW, Moxley explained to Jericho he had grown frustrated in WWE and wasn't going to let money be the sole determinant for his next move as his contract neared its expiration date (h/t ESPN's Marc Raimondi):

"I don't care how many zeroes you want to put on a piece of paper, I am gone. [McMahon has] got the Million Dollar Man complex. He's got to be able to buy everything. That's why he pays Brock [Lesnar] billions of dollars to come in and ruin his company. Because he wants to own Brock. He wants to be like, 'Ahh, Brock is my attraction.'"

Lee is also six years older than Moxley, turning 40 in December. While his career is nowhere near its end, he probably felt a more urgent need to capitalize on what he has left.

You never know what you're going to get when you unleash a professional wrestler's creative energy—mostly because it's rarely been tried. For years wrestling has been an industry of copycats, artists doing "Let me tell you something, brother" promos and formulaic cookie-cutter matches because once, sometimes before they were born, someone else had made those things work.

Any ideas that deviated from the norm were quickly, often brutally, squashed.

If you watched Matt Hardy teleport to the ring to confront Chris Jericho Wednesday night on Dynamite, you probably have a pretty good idea that AEW is not that kind of professional wrestling promotion. Under the leadership of owner Tony Khan, it's an organization that encourages flights of fancy. AEW asks the talent not to slavishly recite a script they can barely tolerate but instead to create something compelling that reflects the person they look at each time they stare into a mirror.

It's how you end up with a Jon Moxley, free from a character he despised playing in WWE, as a tough, eyepatch-wearing champion. It's how Brodie Lee can go from a bit player in one cult to a leader in a very different one in the blink of an eye. And it's how Matt Hardy, the former teen heartthrob tag team innovator, can find himself standing in the ring across from the most compelling star in the sport calling him "the hole of an ass" while the wrestling universe wonders just what in the world it's watching.

Whatever Hardy vs. Jericho was, it was compelling above all else, from Jericho's initial confrontation with a flying drone to his extended argument with Hardy, to the way the promotion seamlessly reconnected the wackiness to the existing Elite vs. Inner Circle storyline. Love it or hate it, you can't help but admire the way the talent of AEW is empowered to own the material it performs.

The wrestlers who have left WWE for this new upstart rival have unburdened themselves from both the expectations that come with being a WWE Superstar and the strict hierarchy where most were firmly slotted in the corporate structure with little hope of ever advancing beyond their perceived place in the world. In this brave new world, you can stake a claim, whether you're Darby Allin, fresh from the independent scene, or Dustin Rhodes, reinventing yourself after years underneath a layer of gold paint.

It's an atmosphere that breeds enthusiasm, first in the wrestlers and then in the fans they are cultivating. It's so much fun to watch a wrestling show created by people who are passionate about every aspect of the performance, who are having fun, not battling backstage forces in a fight no one ever seems to win.

When Hardy tried to explain to Jericho that Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida, wasn't actually empty, that it contained the essence of thousands of fans, I understood exactly what he meant. Fans weren't physically present in the arena—but we've left our hearts there, even as our vessels are safe at home. That's the kind of feeling this freedom has inspired, the wrestler's joy giving rise to a fandom as positive as any I've ever seen in pro wrestling.

I'm fully aware that many people rushed to their computers to decry the Hardy-Jericho confrontation. It was, above all else, profoundly weird, especially if you've never been exposed to this bizarre character that Hardy began in Impact Wrestling with little more than a riding lawn mower, a dilapidated boat and a dream.

It's that dream, and others like it, that make this show special, whether you loved it or not. The freedom to take chances, to bet on yourself, to fully occupy a character of your own choosing—that's a dream for many former WWE talent, especially those who have felt trapped in a very regimented system.

Eventually, one of these ex-WWE stars is going to come in with a vision or a concept and will fall directly on their face. That's the potential cost of freedom, the risk that comes with taking chances.

It's a risk that, so far, is paying off for AEW and all the wrestlers who call it home.

Jonathan Snowden covers Combat Sports for Bleacher Report.

Chris Jericho's attempt to convince Matt Hardy to change his allegiance from The Elite to The Inner Circle did not end well for the AEW's inaugural championship holder.

Wednesday night finished with Jericho and fellow Inner Circle member Sammy Guevara feeling the wrath of chair shots from Kenny Omega and Cody, who rushed to the defense of their fellow Elite member after he was attacked.

The lead-in to that moment involved Jericho failing to convince Hardy to switch allegiances before slapping him in the face. Hardy then knocked down Jericho, who summoned Sammy Guevara for the attack.

That's when Omega and Cody stepped in, and Jericho and Guevara scurried from the ring. The show closed with Hardy waving his arms in conjunction with exploding pyrotechnics in Jericho and Guevara's vicinity.

Hardy was revealed as a member of The Elite in the closing moments of last week's show:

This clearly did not please Jericho, who opened Wednesday night's final segment by imploring Hardy to change his mind.

He first spoke with Hardy's drone, Vanguard 1, to no avail.

Then Hardy appeared in the upper deck of the arena before teleporting down deck by deck until he made it ringside.

Jericho told Hardy that he needed to join The Inner Circle because of his own pull and clout within AEW, citing his ability to create stars. He also noted that Hardy has been in the "shadows" his whole career, whether because of his younger brother, Jeff, or bad booking.

Hardy said his Elite allegiance is related to The Young Bucks, to whom he owed a "debt" because of their resurrection of his "Broken" existence. Hardy also expressed his desire to combat The Inner Circle's "tyranny" over the organization.

The anger slowly rose between the two, with Hardy saying that Jericho was an "evil essence rotten to the core" and Jericho noting the "same old Matt Hardy" was always a step behind and "not quite on top."

Jericho then directly asked Hardy about his decision, and Hardy responded with "Delete!" chants, rejecting The Inner Circle offer:

When it became clear that his arguments proved fruitless, Jericho then slapped Hardy, leading to the close.

Hardy joins The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega and Cody in their ongoing feud with The Inner Circle's Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, Sammy Guevara, Santana and Ortiz.

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.

JBL Talks Backstage Fight Between Guerrero and Angle

WWE Hall of Famer JBL took to Twitter this week to tell a backstage story about a fight between fellow Hall of Famers Kurt Angle and the late Eddie Guerrero:

JBL explained what happened during the skirmish and revealed the conversation he had with Eddie after the fact (h/t WrestlingInc.com's Douglas Canavin):

"Well, apparently, something happened in that match, and as they come back Eddie and Kurt get into a physical fight. Eddie leg dives an Olympic gold medalist. Now, Kurt Angle was not good in high school, he was not really good in college, he was the best in the world. Out of 8.5 billion people, he was the gold medalist. You might have a chance punching Kurt, hit him with something. Don't leg dive an Olympic gold medalist.

"As they come back down the hall, I can hear this whole fight going on, and I'm the only one in the dressing room, and as they get back to the dressing room door, Eddie is on this side of the door, Kurt is on the other side of the door, John Laurinaitis, the head of talent relations, shuts the door and leaves Eddie on this side of the door with only me in this big dressing room.

"And Eddie comes back, doesn't even look at me, sits right beside me and he's staring at the door, and he's breathing so loud you can hear him breathe. And I look at him and he's still looking at the door, and I said, 'Eddie why would you leg dive a gold medalist?' Eddie says, 'Cause I'm stupid!'"

Eddie and Angle are two of the all-time greats, and they had no shortage of in-ring chemistry. In particular, their match at WrestleMania 20 for the WWE Championship is still remembered as one of the best matches ever on the big stage.

While both Eddie and Angle were great grapplers in the world of professional wrestling, Angle was a legitimately great amateur wrestler who won a gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics, which speaks to how ill-advised Guerrero's attempt to take Angle down was.

Although Eddie tragically died in 2005, stories like the one JBL told and the love so many fans still have for him today help keep his memory alive.

Jericho Recalls Idea He Pitched to Vince McMahon

While Chris Jericho is currently a top star in All Elite Wrestling, he spent roughly 15 years in WWE as a main player under Vince McMahon.

During a discussion with Matt Hardy on his Talk Is Jericho podcast (h/t WrestlingInc.com's Jason Ounpraseuth), Jericho discussed the difficulties of getting through to McMahon and making him understand his ideas at times.

Jericho specifically mentioned his Highlight Reel segment, which he originally meant to be a talk show to aid in getting over lower-card wrestlers:

"It's funny as the original Highlight Reel, I pitched it as 'Jericho's Junction' because I was watching a bunch of Mean Gene Okerlund interviews and myself included. When I first started doing interviews, he was the Jedi. If you didn't know what you were doing, Gene would lead you through the interview and make you look like a star, and I said, why don't we do Jericho's Junction where every week like a Piper's Pit, we bring out underutilized stars whoever they were at the time. I'll lead the interview. We'll get the people over. We'll get them to do interviews and connect with the crowd.

"Vince is like, 'I love it', and your first guest is Goldberg. I'm like, well Goldberg is not really the guy. I'm thinking more like Bull Buchanan. Nope Goldberg. Next week Scott Steiner. The next week, it's Rock. I'm like the whole concept of what I had is gone, and now it's just another talk show, which is fine. That's great. But the original plan was much like you, just like let's give some of these underutilized guys a spotlight where somebody like me or you knows how to bring them along."

The Highlight Reel became one of the most well-known interview segments in WWE history and featured some memorable moments, including the beginning of a heated feud between Jericho and Shawn Michaels.

Given those facts, it can be argued that McMahon was right in deciding to use big-time Superstars to craft big-time angles. At the same time, it is fun to think about what might have been had Jericho been given the opportunity to work with some lesser-known names.

So far in AEW, Jericho has aided in the development of young stars such as Sammy Guevara and Darby Allin, so it is possible that he could have done something similar in WWE.

The creation of new stars or lack thereof has been a major point of contention among WWE fans in recent years, so perhaps WWE could benefit from an idea similar to the one Jericho pitched McMahon so many years ago.

Edge Calls Balor "The Guy"

WWE Hall of Famer Edge paid a huge compliment to NXT star Finn Balor during a conference call Tuesday ahead of WrestleMania 36.

According to Rohit Nath of SportsKeeda, Edge said the following when asked about NXT and who has stood out to him:

"There are so many talents, you can seriously point to everyone on the roster. Obviously [Tommaso] Ciampa and I have a very close relationship, we're both 'neck' guys for a lack of a better term. So he's picking his brain a lot and I love it because he cares a lot and he'll try the ideas too. I love [Johnny] Gargano. To me, 'the guy' who is dialed in and completely found what it is that he's supposed to do is Finn Balor. It's exciting to watch him right now. To me, he and Gargano set the template for what an NXT match should be going forward."

Edge also went on to mention Adam Cole, Keith Lee and Velveteen Dream as Superstars who have emerged to anchor the black and yellow brand.

While Balor had a solid run on the main roster, a shoulder injury suffered during his Universal Championship win forced him to miss a significant amount of time, and he struggled to return to the main event scene after that.

With Balor hovering around the upper midcard, he made the decision to go back to NXT, and that move has allowed him to expand his character significantly.

Balor shockingly turned heel on Gargano several months ago, and he has proved since then that he is much more than a smiley babyface or the demon. Without any bells or whistles, Balor has established himself as a top heel and an elite performer.

Balor is in the midst of a rivalry with United Kingdom champion Walter, and although NXT TakeOver: Tampa Bay was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic, their match will likely take place on NXT in the coming weeks, and it could have match of the year potential.

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).  

Newly signed AEW star Matt Hardy appeared on Chris Jericho's Talk Is Jericho podcast Friday to discuss what led him to leave WWE.

Hardy made a surprising return to WWE alongside his brother, Jeff, at WrestleMania 33 three years ago, but that was essentially the high point of Matt's stint since he wasn't given a long-term opportunity to run with his "broken" character.

Hardy told Jericho (h/t WrestlingInc.com's Jason Ounpraseuth) that WWE's unwillingness to work with him creatively was what made him depart:

"I pitched idea after idea after idea to WWE, and I never got any feedback. I would hear a little chatter here, a little chatter there, but there was never anything that like stuck or like, you know, anything that ever like sparked any kind of like creative fire in Vince's mind. That just became frustrating, and then later they were just trying to re-sign me just to have me under contract so that I was a WWE employee, and I kept turning down money, which was good money. But like I wanted to be in a prominent role in television, and I don't think Vince saw that for me."

Hardy theorized that his age (45) played a role in Chairman Vince McMahon not wanting to put him in any big spots.

Additionally, Hardy discussed the day he told everyone that he wasn't re-signing with WWE and noted that the outcome may have been different had Triple H been the one in charge rather than McMahon:

"What a weird day, and it was like, I'm very honest and open with everyone. I told everyone from Vince all the way down what I wanted and what I expected if I was going to stay around. Once we were on the same page, and I said, 'OK, well, thank you guys very much. I'll just go my own way.' And even days after I left, I talked to to Triple H. It's just like he was cool, and I feel like if Triple H would have been the guy that was solely in power, I would have probably had a much better opportunity of kind of getting to do what I wanted creatively, but it is what it is."

While Hardy was a multi-time tag team champion during his most recent stint in WWE, he was primarily used as enhancement talent over his final year. That included taking beatings from Randy Orton during his final two appearances on Raw.

In stark contrast, Hardy made his surprise AEW debut on Wednesday's episode of Dynamite and was announced by Matt Jackson as the replacement for Nick Jackson on The Elite's team for Blood and Guts against The Inner Circle.

Hardy was in full "broken" garb, which suggests he will be given a long creative leash and have the opportunity to take his character and run with it, much like he did in Impact Wrestling before returning to WWE.

In many ways, Hardy's issues with McMahon and WWE echoed sentiments expressed by Jon Moxley during an interview with Jericho after he left WWE and joined AEW.

Although AEW is occurring on a smaller scale than WWE, it is undoubtedly gaining momentum and has already firmly established itself as the No. 2 wrestling company in the United States.

It is possible that Hardy won't make as much money and won't be known to as wide an audience as he would have been in WWE, but if creative freedom was his biggest want, then it is difficult to argue with his decision to jump ship.

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).

Blood trickled out of Nick Jackson's mouth, a rolling door in the bowels of the arena precariously close to crushing his sternum. His friends and family could do little more than look on helplessly, with any attempt at a rescue hopeless. It would have taken ages to reach Chris Jericho and his Inner Circle, both the cause of and beneficiary of the assault.

This isn't how the story was supposed to play out for The Elite, a wrestling supergroup whose success on the independent scene helped launch All Elite Wrestling onto the national stage. 

Founded by The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega and later expanded to include Cody Rhodes and "Hangman" Adam Page, they were supposed to be the faction in AEW. Heck, the promotion even took its name, so certain that the indie wrestling stars would be just as dominant on TNT as they'd been in smaller promotions all over the globe.

Then Jericho happened.

The WWE legend, approaching 50 and bordering on plump if he took a few days off from the gym, emerged as their foil, a fedora-wearing fly in the ointment. He not only dispatched Omega, Rhodes and Page in singles competition, he also tormented and taunted them while he did it.

There are levels to this game—and Jericho, despite losing his heavyweight title to Jon Moxley—exists on a plane none of The Elite have yet to reach.

Making matters worse for The Elite is the timing of Jericho's renewed assault. This week on their YouTube series Being the Elite, Page quit the group (again) this time more definitively than before. His budding rivalry with Matt Jackson has gotten so extreme that, even amid a furious Inner Circle assault to close Dynamite, the two couldn't help but devote a little time to hating each other.

The Elite is not fine.

If there is a better setup for a (we can't call it) WarGames match in two weeks at "Blood and Guts" in the Prudential Center, I'd love to hear it. 

Old timers in the wrestling space are beside themselves to see this concept return to Turner television. A staple of WCW in the days when you had to get up to change the channel on the television, it's a match that hasn't been done justice in the era of WWE dominance.

It has run a version of this match on NXT in recent years but, conceptually, it has missed the mark, turning it into just another showcase for wild stunts and acrobatics. This isn't a match about nine guys standing around in a huddle waiting for someone to jump off the top of a cage; it's a match about pain and persistence, about, well, blood and guts.

Created in 1987 by the "American Dream" Dusty Rhodes after watching Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, the match beyond is designed to capture and propagate hatred and spill blood. It's a tool for wrestlers who already despise each other to help deliver pain to their enemies.

One of the most visually impressive matches ever, with two rings surrounded by a giant steel cage, and topped with a mesh roof, the match is about containing violence that otherwise could never be suppressed. The battle between The Inner Circle and The Elite has spread from the ring to the ramp to parking lot.

Perhaps this, finally, can corral the fires that burn within these 10 men?

There is no escaping the cage here. And no one who steps into it should desire it anyway. Enmity is the fuel that drives it, and the promotion has done a great job ramping that up to extreme levels. 

The battle within The Elite, built for weeks on YouTube and Dynamite, makes the match that much more interesting. A bout like this, with 10 men occupying the same space and the submission the only way to win, requires a level of trust, commitment to the cause and team work. You can't just watch out for yourself or your partner. You have to have an eye out for everyone on the squad to have a hope of winning.

AEW has created real doubt that The Elite are up to the task. Their smooth road to success has been bumpier than expected. In two weeks, the biggest speed bump yet gets tossed into their path. Are they up for the challenge? 

This is the kind of wrestling narrative that made me a fan, taken to another level as motivations, loyalties and friendships shade this simple story very, very grey. Fissures in their friendships turned into cracks and are slowly becoming gaping holes.

No, The Elite is not fine. And going into a match like this, they can't afford to be anything but. Can they pull things together in order to survive? Or will this be the impetus for the worst wrestling breakup since Nikki Bella and John Cena? 

That's a lot of questions for one match to answer. The fact I have confidence AEW is capable of pulling it off is why Dynamite is must-see television every Wednesday night.

Jonathan Snowden covers combat sports for Bleacher Report.