Chris Jericho Explains Motivation Behind AEW All Out ‘Dusty Finish’
“If you can get people to believe the story that you’re telling, then you’ve done a good thing.”
After failing the final Labour of Jericho, Chris Jericho put his career on the line against MJF at AEW All Out. After a spirited back-and-forth encounter, fans in the arena were convinced Jericho had lost before AEW pulled off a ‘Dusty finish’ and reversed the decision, Jericho escaping with the win and his career.
Now, in conversation with Stephanie Chase, Jericho has detailed the process behind the bout, and why he feels the finish worked so well:
“I think it was once again, a great part of the story. Why would MJF and Jericho have one more match? What’s in it for MJF, so to speak, because nobody saw it coming that he was going to beat me in the ‘Labours or Jericho.’ Everybody thought ‘Chris is going to win’ and not only did I not win, but tapping out the way I did, people were very, very shocked and surprised about it, which is cool, it shows that we took them into a different direction, swerved them. So then I thought if we’re going to do one more match at the pay-per-view, which we really wanted to do and wrap it up there,” Jericho noted, “What could be at stake? And I thought my career is the way to go.”
As for the effectiveness of the Dusty finish, Jericho claims the build up to the match created legitimate ambiguity:
“Well, no one really knows for sure, you know? They’re pretty sure Jericho’s not going to be done wrestling, but what if I am? I think that’s why we did that finish with the foot on the rope and people were really shocked, like ‘Oh my gosh, they actually did it!’ And for that 30 second period they believed it was done. That’s what wrestling’s all about — if you can get people to believe the story that you’re telling, then you’ve done a good thing,” Jericho explained, “and that’s exactly what we did.
“People legitimately, I think, were very surprised, at that ‘false finish’ that we did because at that point in time they thought ‘uh oh… there’s a chance this could be real,’ especially when we started playing MJF’s music and made the announcement. [The reaction was] ‘No… no. Not like this!’ And then of course, we switched it and moved forward and I won, but I think that was part of the fun, how far can we take this? Let’s take it all the way, let’s have an announcement, have the music playing and let’s do everything,” Jericho said. “Let’s really make people think this is the end, and I think we were able to do that.”
HT: WrestleZone
