MMA Style AEW Match Was Apparently Wardlow’s Idea

On the June 18th episode of AEW Dynamite, Jake Hager squared off against Wardlow in an MMA Rules Cage fight. The fight was certainly highly anticipated as fans wondered just how legitimate it would turn out to be.

It was certainly a very physical and brutal affair as both titans took each other to the limit in the fight. In the end, when all was said and done, Jake Hager was the victor in the fight.

While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Chris Jericho revealed that while Jake Hager is the undefeated MMA fighter, it was actually Wardlow who came up with the idea of the MMA style match on AEW Dynamite.

”That was a suggestion by Wardlow months ago. We had it scheduled two separate times and things just changed. One time, somebody was hurt or couldn’t make it. The other time, it didn’t fit the angle where we had it slotted. The funny thing is, we had to do that match before we went back on the road because obviously you have to build that cage and we wanted an actual MMA cage and wanted it as close to an MMA fight as possible because Jake is an MMA fighter. We had the cornermen, Aubrey had the black ref jersey, the way Justin Roberts announced it. We really put a lot of time into making it different from anything else you had seen, but it had to be taped because of [the cage]. It was the last taped show we had available and we could create and change the story to put it in there.”

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The MMA Style match was certainly an interesting one to say the least, but it also received a mixed response from fans and pro wrestlers alike. Regardless, it will be remembered for a long time and we wonder if AEW will hold another MMA style match someday.

h/t to Fightful for the quotes.