Former AEW star claims Tony Khan was "pissed" over controversial Chris Jericho spot; says it was "100% unplanned"

AEW recently marked the fifth anniversary of its flagship TV show. The All Elite fanbase and current and former stars are still reminiscing on various Dynamite moments, good and bad. Chris Jericho was involved in one of wrestling's biggest mishaps in the AEW ring, and now a controversial star just revealed the real story behind what happened, and how Tony Khan reacted.

All Elite Wrestling has pushed the cable television envelope in its first five years of Dynamite. This often backfires, as we saw at the third annual Fight for The Fallen episode on July 28, 2021, where Death Match veteran Nick Gage debuted in a main event loss to Jericho's alter-ego, The Painmaker. The 13-minute No Rules match saw Gage carve Jericho's forehead with a pizza cutter, right as a picture-in-picture ad for Domino's Pizza aired. The moment went viral, but the backlash was swift as the 63-year-old pizza brand indicated it would pull all Dynamite advertising. Domino's denied any segment involvement or foreknowledge, and said they share viewers' concerns about the incident and the content of AEW's TV-14 program.

The King Of Ultraviolence apologized to Domino's on X, while Jon Moxley declared the incident to be a coincidence, adding that the company should "chill out" and let Gage sell pizzas for them. Joey Janela is affiliated with Gage through their ties to GCW, and at the time he was still employed by AEW. The Bad Boy took to X today to share the real story behind the Domino's pizza incident.

"This was 100% unplanned lmfaooo Dominos was p***ed, Tony was p***ed & network was p***ed. I was told 'You never speak about this again, and you make sure everyone in GCW doesn’t ever bring this up on social media, commentary or whatever ever again' I was like what the f**k does this have to do with me? I didn’t book Nick Gage, you wanted Nick Gage and you got Nick Gage. I was guilty by association lmfao," Joey Janela wrote.

Janela's uncensored tweet can be seen here.

Screenshot of Joey Janela's censored tweet on X (Photo Credit: Joey Janela on X)

Gage has never been booked again by AEW. Janela was released when his contract expired on May 1, 2022, but his final match was a loss to Lee Moriarty on January 15 of that year at the AEW Dark tapings.

AEW WrestleDream updated lineup

All Elite Wrestling will make its debut at the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Washington for the second annual WrestleDream event. The pay-per-view will take place next Saturday, October 12.

Officials have booked six WrestleDream matches as of this writing. Below is the updated lineup:

1. Zero Hour Pre-show, ROH World Television Championship Match: Atlantis Jr. (c) vs. Brian Cage
2. ROH World Championship Match: Mark Briscoe (c) vs. Chris Jericho
3. Open Challenge: Darby Allin vs. TBA
4. TNT Championship Match: Jack Perry (c) vs. Katsuyori Shibata
5. International Championship Triple Threat: Will Ospreay (c) vs. Ricochet vs. Konosuke Takeshita
6. World Championship Match: Bryan Danielson (c) vs. Jon Moxley

The WrestleDream Zero Hour pre-show is set to air live and for free at 6:30 pm ET on X, Facebook, and YouTube. The main card will then begin at 8 pm ET on pay-per-view.