AEW’s The Inner Circle Discuss Mike Tyson Segment

Chris Jericho had his Inner Circle as guests on Talk is Jericho. They discussed the now infamous Mike Tyson segment.

Standing across the ring from some real bad-ass fighters had it’s effects on Santana:

“I was looking across the ring at Vitor and then Rashad Evans. I didn’t even know he was gonna be there. I looked at him, and I was like, ‘yo, that’s Rashad Evans?’ I was like, ‘oh man.’ I was like, ‘I need a knife or something.’ I can’t take these guys on legit. I’m about to step behind Jake and be like, ‘yeah, get him Jake.’ I was a little intimidated. I’m not gonna lie.

“At one point, I looked at Ortiz because I didn’t know all these guys were coming out with Tyson. At one point, they’re all lined up in front of us, and I look at Ortiz. I was like, ‘yo, I need a clean pair of drawers.’ I think it’s about that time.”

Jericho continued to give Jake Hager a bit of a hard time about how the fighters weren’t worried about facing them. Hager said he had to remind him that he had crossed paths with a few of them during his days as a college wrestler:

“Bro, I was ready after that. I had to remind Henry I was at Oklahoma when he came in for a recruiting trip. I wrestled against Rashad Evans in 2003, so I let these guys know that hey, we’re right there.”

Jericho talked about how it was difficult to get the segment organized and he wanted it to come across as chaotic. Apparently, that’s an easy thing to do with Tyson and his crew involved.

“Tyson’s there and he’s got this rogue’s gallery of murders, and I’m not a UFC guy. I didn’t know, this is no disrespect, Henry Cejudo and and Rashad Evans. I knew Vitor Belfort, but I thought who’s this big Russian guy? Apparently, he’s from Brazil. So we’re talking to him. I’m trying to explain to these guys. These guys all have dead eyes. They’re just like looking at me, and there’s no planning. There’s no rehearsal. There’s no script.

“They’re going to do whatever they want. It’s just going to be a big, I used the word riot not knowing that two days later there really would be riots, but I said, ‘I just want a big riot and a big mob scene.

“So I’m standing face-to-face with Tyson. I got Jake over here and there’s I think Sammy’s there and there’s a line of a guys, and you guys know, when a fights going down, you’re looking at the guy you’re fighting with, but I’m looking here too. And I’m seeing this idiot. I can tell this guy looks crazy. Rashad looks crazy.

“It was a great segment because of how crazy it was, which is what we wanted. You don’t have Iron Mike out there to do fancy, choreographed spots. It’s just one big riot, mob scene, lunacy, and we got a hell of a lot of coverage for it. Hopefully we can do more with them, and he’s got a squad. We’ve got a squad. So hopefully that leads to more stuff.”

We’ll have to see where things are going to go from here, but Jericho will be facing another baddest man on the planet at Fyter Fest when he takes on Orange Cassidy.

Big thanks to Wrestling, Inc. for the transcription of the quotes.

• Jake Hager
• Inner Circle
• chris jericho
• AEW

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