When Mike Tyson showed up on AEW Dynamite, he didn’t come alone.
Confronting Chris Jericho in the closing segment of Wednesday’s show, Tyson was flanked by former UFC Champions Vitor Belfort, Rashad Evans, and Henry Cejudo. The segment broke down into a scuffle between Team Tyson and The Inner Circle, which turned out to be a SportsCenter moment for AEW.
Speaking to ESPN, Jericho discussed Cejudo, Evans, and Belfort being involved in the segment.
“There was so much star power in that ring Wednesday night. We kind of didn’t focus on it as much as we should have. I had no idea these guys were even there. I think they just came to hang with their boy. You bring your posse to the ring. Vitor Belfort is here and Henry and Rashad Evans. I’m like, “What?! What are you talking about?” It happened so quickly. I would have loved to have gotten enough camera time with all of them. It was very fast. I had to worry about Mike Tyson.”
He continued, “With all these other guys in the ring, there’s a whole plethora of things you can do. I would assume they weren’t there just to hang around. I assume all of them are there because they want to be a part of the business. It’s a very exciting idea when you’re not in pro wrestling to do something like that. All of those guys are fighters. They have the mentality of a fighter. They’re all showmen too, to an extent. Or they wouldn’t be UFC champions or in Mike’s case, one of the greatest boxing champions of all time, if not the greatest.
When you watch it back and just see how wild and woolly it was, that’s exciting. Afterwards, everybody was all pumped up. It’s an exhilarating feeling. Had there been 10,000 people there it would have been even more exhilarating, but for what we are working with, I think it’s one of the most exciting segments that we’ve done — or what any company has done — in the pandemic times. Or maybe even ever. I love that s—. If I’m feeling it as a 30-year vet, I know damn well that those guys are feeling it being in a wrestling ring for the first time. If those guys want more, they know where to find us. If those guys want to be part of AEW, we’d be more than happy to have them.”
Belfort has already stated that he would love to team with Tyson in AEW while Cejudo has made no secret of his wrestling aspirations following his UFC retirement.
While Jericho believes there could have been more focus on the UFC stars, one more who stole the segment was actor Mikey Gooch. You can learn more about Gooch by clicking here.
