Chris Jericho On Tapping Out To MJF And The Added Desperation In The All Out Match

Chris Jericho likes telling the best possible story and his matches and he can feel the palpable desperation in his story leading to AEW All Out.

Chris Jericho will face Maxwell Jacob Friedman at AEW All Out and should he lose, he will lose the right to wrestle in AEW. Chris Jericho has already lost to Maxwell Jacob Friedman 3 times. However, he says it’s all a part of the story.

Speaking with Sports Illustrated, Chris Jericho explains why he believes they needed the added level of desperation in the match on September 5.

“I thought it was a really important detail that I tap out to MJF,” Jericho says. “In pro wrestling, a clean submission for a babyface is something that never happens. It’s a sign of weakness if you tap out, even though we see it all the time in UFC. Sometimes, submission losses are even worse because you’re making this decision to tap. In WWE, babyfaces don’t tap out. If they do, they’re lower-level babyfaces. Star babyfaces don’t give up; they pass out. That all started a long time ago [at WrestleMania 13] when Bret Hart had Steve Austin in the Sharpshooter and he passed out. So it was different with me and MJF. This was not me passing out, it was a legit tapping out and a facial expression afterward.

“It’s an important part of the story. Not every show can be Return of The Jedi. There needs to be some Empire Strikes Back in there, too. I remember Empire Strikes Back, seeing Han Solo go into the carbonite and Luke getting his hand chopped off. Then I had to wait three years, all pissed off. But it’s all part of it. So I thought, in our match, what we did added a different layer—not only did MJF win, he made me tap. That paints an even more desperate picture for me entering this rematch at All Out.”

Recently, Chris Jericho stated that he would never fully announced when he was retiring. Learn more here.