New on Sports Illustrated: Mike Tyson Is Now Embroiled in a Wrestling Feud With AEW’s Chris Jericho

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People hoping to see Mike Tyson fight one last time might have to settle for a fake fight.

Sure, why not?

Jimmy Traina wrote earlier this week about

the allure a final Mike Tyson boxing match might have during our current sports drought. We might have to settle for a wrestling match. 

Tyson has spent the past few days working with All Elite Wrestling, the upstart promotion funded by the NFL’s Khan family. He presented AEW’s TNT Championship at its Double or Nothing pay-per-view on Saturday and was back on the company’s weekly TV show, Dynamite, last night. Tyson, backed by a crew of former UFC fighters, showed up at the very end of the night to square off with former AEW World Champion Chris Jericho. 

The whole thing is a little inscrutable if you’re not familiar with Jericho (the premise of the segment was that Tyson’s crew drank all of Jericho’s meme-inspired champagne) but you don’t need much background to enjoy what ensued. 

Jericho and Tyson went toe-to-toe in the ring, at which point Tyson tried to tear his shirt in a menacing manner, only to fail miserably. The two starting shoving and eventually the scene devolved into a massive brawl that absolutely did not abide by social distancing guidelines. 

The genesis for a wrestling feud is always stupid, especially when it involves a celebrity like Tyson. In this case, the basis for his beef with Jericho is a storyline from WWE more than 10 years ago. Tyson teamed with Jericho on an episode of Raw but turned on him at the end of the match, leveling him with a knockout punch that allowed DX to retain the tag team championship. 

Wednesday night’s segment was a big splash to close the show but it sounds like AEW isn’t going to drop it there. Both Tyson and Jericho filmed videos for AEW’s social media pages saying they weren’t done with each other. 

People hoping to see Tyson fight one more time may have to settle for a fake fight, but if Jericho is involved it’s guaranteed to be entertaining. Jericho is one of the most creative minds in professional wrestling today. He was a key part of the spectacular “Stadium Stampede” match at Double or Nothing. There’s no doubt he and AEW could figure out something unique to do with Tyson, perhaps at the All Out pay-per-view in September. 

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