Chris Jericho captured the Ring of Honor World Championship for the second time during Wednesday night’s “AEW Dynamite,” defeating Mark Briscoe in a ladder match with some help from The Learning Tree. Discussing the match on “Wrestling Observer Radio,” Dave Meltzer offered a possible explanation for Jericho’s title victory.
“I think that if they are working on an ROH television deal, then it probably is beneficial for them to be champion, to try and close that deal,” Meltzer said.
The writer then confirmed that Tony Khan is in the process of trying to secure a TV deal for the brand. AEW recently re-upped with Warner Bros Discovery, ensuring “Dynamite” and “AEW Collision” remain on TNT/TBS as well as heading to streaming platform Max. However, ROH was not included in that agreement.
Meltzer praised the Jericho-Briscoe match from last night, marveling at Briscoe’s mobility after a career full of death-defying stunts. Both Meltzer and co-host Bryan Alvarez stated that it was possible that Khan would run another rematch between Jericho and Briscoe and ROH Final Battle later this year, which would allow Briscoe to compete in the Continental Classic and take some losses before winning the title back from Jericho.
This is Jericho’s second time as champion, with his last reign also coinciding with rumors that Khan was seeking a media rights deal for ROH. However, no outside agreement materialized, and ROH has since been relegated to its own online streaming platform and appearances on AEW programming.
Following the win against Briscoe, Jericho’s next challenger stepped forward — Tomohiro Ishii of New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Jericho successfully defended the ROH World Championship against Ishii during his initial reign in November 2022. Though Ishii has previously held the ROH Television Championship, he has not yet held the brand’s world title.
Source: Wrestling Inc. with credit to Wrestling Observer Radio
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