Action Andretti Reveals How Upset Victory Over Chris Jericho Happened

Action Andretti has explained what it was like when he got to pick up the biggest win of his wrestling career over Chris Jericho on AEW Dynamite.

Following his ROH World Championship loss against Claudio Castagnoli at ROH Final Battle 2022, Chris Jericho wanted a match to get himself back on track. That led to a Dynamite match at Winter Is Coming on December 14, 2022.

The opponent chosen for Jericho on that Dynamite episode was Action Andretti, who was a relative newcomer to the wrestling television audience. Going into the match, Action Andretti was only a professional wrestler for about three years while Jericho had been wrestling for over 30 years at that point.

While it appeared that Jericho would beat the “jobber” Andretti in the match, it ended up being a lot more competitive with Andretti picking up the win with a standing Shooting Press that won him the match in about ten minutes.

During the latest edition of the AEW Unrestricted podcast, Action Andretti detailed the process of how his monumental upset victory over Jericho took place.

“I mean, my thoughts were everywhere after that match. There was a lot to soak in and then realize like what just really happened out there. I had a lot going on in my head before the match, and then all the things after. I knew I just accomplished a huge thing in my life, like the biggest accomplishment I have ever accomplished in my life.”

“I knew that it was going to change from there and it was most likely not going to be the same, and it has not. I was very overwhelmed in a way with several different emotions after that match. I knew things were going to change for the better for me, and it felt great.”

Prior to his AEW Dynamite debut, Action Andretti wrestled on AEW’s YouTube shows Dark and Dark Elevation while impressing a lot of people in the company. He talked about how wrestling AEW’s QT Marshall led to this opportunity against Jericho.

“A couple of months prior to that, Q.T. Marshall and I wrestled and we had a phenomenal match and it was very good. The crowd was very into it. The crowd was very behind me, which was something you don’t see coming in as an extra too much, you know, getting the crowd behind you. We went out there and we had a really good match together. Like I said, the fans were really into it.”

As he continued, Action Andretti mentioned that getting flown out to Dynamite in December was the first time he had been flown out to a wrestling show.

“Chris happened to see that match that night. He really liked what he saw out of me. A couple of months later, I got an email to get flown out to Texas for AEW. I had no clue what I was going out there for, but I’ve never flown out before for any AEW event or wrestling event, period. I’ve never been flown out before. That alone was new for me.”

When he got to Texas for that Dynamite match, Action Andretti admitted he had no idea what he was doing on the show.

“I got to Texas the night before Dynamite on Tuesday. No clue what I’m doing. Seeing all the wrestlers around like they know each other. They don’t know who the hell I am. I’m the new kid here. Like, what’s this guy doing here? Then we got to TV that next day and I saw the announcement that Chris Jericho is going to be in action, no pun intended. I had my fingers crossed, like, hey, maybe that’s something I could do. I remember seeing the House of Black in action as well. You know, I was like, maybe I’ll just be doing the six men with them. Who knows what I’m doing here?”

Action Andretti would go on to talk about the match with Jericho as well as the reaction to the match.

“I got the conversation that I was gonna be wrestling Chris that night. I couldn’t believe that was going to be happening, that I was just going to be wrestling him in general. Getting out to wrestle on live TV for the first time was an incredible thing to hear.”

“We put the match together. We said what we’re gonna do out there and made magic happen. Here we are now, months later, and people are still talking about the whole thing, so we definitely made a moment happen out there.”

“I just feel honored to be able to be the one that was the guy in there with Chris to make that moment happen that people are still talking about. That night had the whole wrestling world talking. It was incredible.”

Since his win over Jericho, Action Andretti has been featured a fair bit on AEW TV although he’s not currently involved in a story. Meanwhile, Jericho will have to meet Ricky Starks in singles action once again at the Revolution pay-per-view on Sunday, March 5th.