Many wrestling fans on both ends of the spectrum, be it AEW or WWE, consider Chris Jericho as one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. Constantly reinventing himself, the man has proven to be a hot commodity even in his 50s. Leading AEW as one of the company’s top stars, and signing since day one, Jericho has been a part of some of the biggest moments in the company’s history, both good and bad. One of the most polarizing moments would be a match during the summer of 2021 that saw the legend assume the face of GCW, Nick Gage. Facing each other in a death match on live television, the two men would star in a brutal and bloody adventure that would draw the ire of one of AEW’s biggest sponsors thanks to violence and the specific use of a pizza cutter.
MJF brought in Nick Gage to face Chris Jericho in Fight For The Fallen
During the summer of 2021, All Elite Wrestling was at its peak, with big fights including Hangman Page vs. Kenny Omega, Christian Cage vs. Kenny Omega, Kris Statlander vs. Britt Baker, Miro’s reign as TNT Champion, Cody Rhodes vs. Malakai Black and a number of other high-profile fights for the company. During this time as well, MJF vs. Chris Jericho would take center stage, as MJF would put Jericho on the buzzer, making him face a series of surprise opponents to get a singles match against him. Taking place in Fight For The Fallen, Jericho’s wildest opponent would be an infamous deathmatch fighter.
Representing GCW, MJF would bring in Nick Gage to fight Chris Jericho in a proper deathmatch that fans could never have predicted in the months before. In order to fight MJF later, Jericho would have to defeat the hardcore legend, while completing Labors of Jericho.
The death match between Nick Gage and Chris Jericho was a bloody affair
Taking place during the 2021 Fight For The Fallen special, Nick Gage vs Chris Jericho would certainly be the deathmatch that was announced, with broken light tubes, lots of blood, tables and weapons galore, fans would be given a once in a lifetime opportunity at the life of watching Jericho wrestle in a match similar to the GCW and CZW style made famous by the likes of Jon Moxley, Sami Callihan, and Nick Gage himself.
While Chris Jericho would defeat Nick Gage and ultimately face MJF, he would not emerge unscathed, nor would AEW as a whole. Jericho would end up bleeding profusely during this match, something fans hadn’t seen from one of the greats in a long time. However, even bigger than Jericho working a death match, he and Gage would cause some trouble via a pizza cut point that would lead to a problem with one of the main sponsors of AEW and TNT in general, Domino’s. Pizza.
Domino’s threatened to pull their AEW ads due to the fight
After the match between Jericho and Gage, noting the placement of a picture-in-picture ad for a Dominos ad while Gage was using a pizza cutter to slice open Jericho’s head, a Domino’s spokesperson would share this quote with Variety: “Domino’s He was not involved in, or had any prior knowledge of, the gory scene in the main event of ‘AEW: Dynamite’ on Wednesday night that featured wrestler Nick Gage apparently cutting off Chris Jericho’s head with a pizza cutter. concerns expressed about this incident and the content of this TV-14 rated program, and we are evaluating our advertising presence going forward.”
Following the news that Domino’s might pull its ads from AEW TV, several wrestling journalists followed up with reports that WWE was trying to pull strings so that journalists pushed the story harder to create more bad press for AEW, during a period where the ratings for WWE Raw and AEW Dynamite were closer than anyone could have expected. Dave Meltzer, Voices of Wrestling and David Bixenspan everyone noted that there were rumors that WWE was not only trying to get Domino’s to pull their AEW ads due to the bloodbath, but that Vince McMahon’s company was calling most AEW advertisers to convince them to drop the brand. This would get nowhere, as AEW still has its sponsors and regularly features bloody battles on their weekly television.