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TBS Opposed Chris Jericho Appearing At ROH Final Battle

Chris Jericho ROH Final Battle

A new report has suggested that Tony Khan and AEW had a fight on their hands with their broadcast partner TBS to get Chris Jericho on Ring of Honor programming.

On December 10th, Ring of Honor produced the third pay-per-view event of the Tony Khan era as Final Battle took place in Texas. The main event of that show saw Chris Jericho defend his Ring of Honor World Championship against Claudio Castagnoli. The Blackpool Combat Club man was able to dethrone Jericho thanks to his giant swing but the bout almost didn’t take place.

Writing in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer noted that the title match was originally set to take place at Full Gear after AEW’s broadcast partners at TBS voiced their opposition to Chris Jericho being part of an ROH-branded event:

“Sam Linsky [Associate General Manager and Senior Vice President of Scripted Original programming] and TBS actually were at first against Jericho, as one of the top guys in AEW, appearing on this PPV show.”

“Because of that, at one point the plan was for Jericho to lose in the four-way at Full Gear to Castagnoli, but that result reversed when everyone got on the same page regarding not being against Jericho being on an ROH PPV show.”

Chris Jericho made headlines when he was back on AEW Dynamite at Winter Is Coming when he suffered a shock defeat to Action Andretti.