Chris Jericho Recalls Thinking He Might “Have To Kill” Nick Gage During AEW Match

GCW World Champion Matt Cardona was on a recent episode of Talk Is Jericho. Cardona and Chris Jericho discussed Cardona's match against Nick Gage where he won the GCW World Championship. Jericho also spoke on his experience with Gage at AEW Dynamite: Fight for the Fallen. He recalled his expectations for the match.

"You don't really know what to expect," Jericho admitted. "For me, I had a shirt on as well, and I had gloves on, but I had to cut the fingers off because you still have to use your fingers to manipulate and do things. And sliced there, which really hurt the hand, and then the back, getting planted on the broken tempered glass.

"And you just feel the [Jericho makes a cracking sound]. There was a part where on your match and mine where you see our back, because I remember thinking, I don't want this to be a bloodbath. I just want this to be pretty intense and pretty violent, and then there's a scene though, right towards the end, where there's blood coming out. I'm like, we're so gonna get kicked off. There's no way they're gonna let this work!"

Domino's reportedly were not happy with the pizza cutter spot during the match, and Gage apologized after the news came out. Jericho discussed his interactions with Gage in and out of the ring, and he revealed what kind of messages he got when his match with Gage was announced.

"Somebody was saying, 'You got to have Nick on Talk is Jericho,' and I'm like, I don't really want to have him on Talk Is Jericho because I like the idea of this match that we had, just kind of leaving it alone because it was very violent," Jericho said. "The thing about him is I had so many people text me before the match saying, 'You got to watch out for this guy,' and they're not people in the business. They're fans.

"I had a lot of people that were in the know but not maybe wrestles per se, saying, 'You got to watch this guy. If he tries to shoot on you, you got to take him out. You got to watch this, watch this.' I'm thinking to myself, this guy is playing this psycho character. And when you talk to him, he's a pretty cool guy. But when you look into his eyes, there's something not right. He has the years of jail in his head and all these bumps that he's taken. So when people are saying that, you're like, oh, you don't understand, he's just playing a character. But when you see him, you're like, if this guy does decide to go rogue, what am I going to do?"

Jericho recalled a spot in the match where he thought things were going too far. However, he explained why Gage was not doing it with malicious intent.

"We had a spot in our match — it wasn't really a spot. Obviously, ours was on TV, so it's a little different than yours because there's a time constraint, and I think Nick was a little nervous for that reason. Plus, we drew over a million people," Jericho noted. "So, it's obviously the biggest crowd he's ever wrestled in front of in TV land, and he gave me a piledriver on the glass and smashed the stuff over me. And then he breaks the glass, and he kind of sticks me with it.

"And then, before he goes to get more light tubes, he comes back and do it some more. And I'm like, 'You've done it enough, dude.' He came back the second time, and this time, he was really getting me. If you see this one here, this is not a razor. It's not a gimmick. It is a literal light tube glass abrasion from that sticking, and that's why I was like, if this motherf*cker keeps going. I'm going to have to kill him because enough's enough already. But I don't think he was doing maliciously. That's just him in this zone."

Cardona and Jericho then commented on Gage's use of the pizza cutter, recalling Jon Moxley on Dark Side of the Ring, talking about how his tongue got cut by it. Jericho spoke on the pizza cutter, and he addressed those that think he should not have done the match.

"The pizza cutter, as well, is completely legit," Jericho stated. "Put a pizza cutter up to your forehead and lightly press. Then imagine a guy literally coming back and forth. I'm glad that I did it. Same as you, I had a lot of people go, 'Jericho didn't have to do that. Cardona didn't have to do that.' If you know anything about us as performers, there was no reason why we wouldn't do it. It's part of the story."

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