During last Wednesday's Blood and Guts episode of All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite, a version of the War Games match took place that ended with MJF throwing Chris Jericho from the top of the cage. It was a great spot, but one that's been criticised due to the fact that it was blatantly obvious Le Champion landed safely on padding.
Now, that was obviously to be expected, but the issue was that it was so poorly disguised. As a result, this has gone down as the second botched ending to a major AEW show.
Talking on his Talk Is Jericho podcast, Jericho opened up about how the stunt was created and the reaction online from fans. He explains that, after numerous tests, the decision was made to use "a black gym mat that was about six feet high" to cushion his fall. "That was on the bottom," he continues. "Then there were a bunch of cardboard boxes."
"It takes the breath out of you," Jericho said of the fall. "Trust me, I’ve seen a few people bagging on the fact that it was a crash pad. Once again, no crash pad. It was cardboard boxes. I don’t give a sh*t if it was a crash pad. It’s one of those things that we’re doing that. Are we qualified to be stuntmen? Obviously, it hurts. You’re paying the price, but I could move my arms and legs."
As for that reaction (which has even seen a few WWE Superstar take veiled shots at Jericho), he's not letting it get to him. "It was only later on when I started hearing people thought the fall was on a crash pad and it didn’t look great," Jericho explains. "For me, I watched it back and I thought it looked amazing. There’s some hardcore wrestling fans that were bagging on it, and that’s fine. You have the right to bag on it."
It was far from the best ending to the show, but one AEW can hopefully learn from moving forward. However you look at it, Jericho pulled off one hell of a stunt, and it took some guts (no pun intended) to make such an incredible leap from the top of that cage to land on some padding and a few cardboard boxes.