“Ridiculous” Backstage Issue Almost Caused AEW Match To Be Scrapped

The path to AEW Dynasty has been far from straightforward.

On April 3, Tony Khan announced that Chris Jericho would defend his ROH World Title in a “Mask vs. Title match” against Bandido at Dynasty. The announcement came after Jericho challenged Bandido to the match, but only if he agreed to put his mask on the line.

The announcement was something of a surprise as just hours earlier, Khan had been questioned on a media call about why the match hadn’t been confirmed. In response, he said the match wasn’t confirmed for “good reasons,” before mentioning having to “play things safely.”

These comments led fans to wonder whether Bandido was injured, but when the match was announced, there was no mention of Khan’s previous concerns.

Title Match Almost Never Made AEW Dynasty

Writing in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that the delay to the announcement was due to an issue involving “Bandido’s representatives.” Furthermore, the match was still up in the air early on April 3, before things were finally ironed out and the match confirmed.

He said they never officially announced it and indicated that perhaps Bandido wasn’t going to be available, but that he certainly gave the expectation that the match would take place at some point soon. When Jericho issued the challenge, he gave the date for this show.

Right now, we were told earlier in the day and it was still up in the air due to an issue involving Bandido’s representatives. That has all been worked out and the match was back on the show as of the evening of 4/3, but it was described as a ridiculous few weeks in finalizing the match for the show.

Later in the same issue, Meltzer surmised that the match stipulation all but confirmed Bandido would be winning the World Championship as he wasn’t going to lose his mask. He added that this was especially interesting as Jericho was made champion to drum up interest regarding a TV deal, and no deal has been signed.