While 2021 is now in the history books, Chris Jericho believes his match against Nick Gage from last year's event deserved a five-star rating.
Over the three-plus decades of his wrestling career, The Demo God has competed in some of the memorable matches that define his incredible legacy. However, his bout against Nick Gage in a death-match stipulation on the July 28th edition of AEW Dynamite was the most gruesome he has ever competed in throughout his legendary career.
From glass tubes to chairs, there weren't any weapons off-limits that night, and both men's cruel intentions were explicitly visible. Chris Jericho, who portrayed the Painmaker persona, defeated Gage during his five labors of Jericho storyline.
While speaking about the match during his Talk Is Jericho podcast, Chris stated that it was one of his favorite matches of his career. The former WWE Superstar believes that clash should have gotten a 'five-star,' instead of the four-star given by Dave Meltzer:
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"We did the match with Nick Gage and came up with all the cool spots that you saw. One of my favorite matches. You talk about a five-star match. I don’t know if there’s such thing as a five-star deathmatch. Of course, there should be and of course there is. In my opinion, it was a four and a half, five-star match." (H/T- Sescoops)
Jericho further added that if he ever made his 'addendum' to his 'List of Jericho' book, he would rate his match against Nick Gage a five star.
The 51-year old star also made a bold prediction, stating that he would never compete in a deathmatch again:
"If I were ever doing an addendum to my List of Jericho book, I [will] put it in there as four and a half stars [or] five stars. I never had a full-fledged deathmatch before. I’ll never have a full-fledged deathmatch again. But that night, we had a great one."
It's worth recalling that the bout also received an equal share of criticism for depicting massive blood on television.
Recently, Chris Jericho returned to AEW programming after a short hiatus
After being away from AEW programming due to his Fozzy band tour, Chris Jericho finally made his return this week on AEW Dynamite: New Year's Smash. The Demo God saved Eddie Kingston, Santana, and Ortiz from taking a post-match beatdown from Daniel Garcia and 2point0.
Surprisingly, Kingston didn't look pleased with Jericho's return, and he confronted the veteran for showing up to their aid. It will be interesting to see how their storyline unfolds in the coming weeks.
What do you make of Chris Jericho's statement? Sound off in the comments section below.