Report: Original Plans For Chris Jericho To Drop ROH World Title Revealed

The Ring of Jericho era came to a thudding end at last weekend’s ROH Final Battle, when Jericho lost the ROH World Championship to Claudio Castagnoli in the night’s main event.

Jericho had reigned as champ since defeating Castagnoli at Grand Slam 2022, but according to a report from Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Jericho wasn’t originally scheduled to drop the title at Final Battle, with AEW/ROH President Tony Khan considering having Jericho drop the title at AEW Full Gear in November.

Meltzer alleges that Khan always envisioned Jericho dropping the title and ending the BCC vs. JAS feud at Final Battle, but received some opposition from TBS execs who did not want Jericho to wrestle at Final Battle, as they saw Jericho as one of the top names in AEW and did not like the idea of him working an ROH PPV. Eventually, everyone seemingly came on board with the idea of Jericho working Final Battle, and Jericho did the job to Claudio, tapping out to the big swing to end his title reign at 80 days.

Jericho did defend the ROH World Championship at Full Gear, defeating Claudio Castagnoli, Sammy Guevara, and Bryan Danielson in a four-way match.