When Eddie Kingston said he wanted barbed wire everywhere for his upcoming match against Chris Jericho, it wasn’t too much of a surprise. He’s made no bones about the fact that he wants to see Jericho bleed, and it’s the kind of stipulation that fits the Mad King’s ethos perfectly.
Then it was announced that the Jericho Appreciation Society would be suspended above the ring in a shark cage, and some eyebrows were raised.
As it turns out, that addition to the Barbed Wire Death Match, which will take place on Wednesday, July 20 as part of Fyter Fest Week 2, came at the request of AEW’s broadcast partner, which has something big and shark-related to promote.
Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio had the scoop this week.
“The shark thing I guess is the gimmick having to do with Shark Week,” Meltzer said. “Discovery asked them to do a tie-in so they came up with a match to do a tie-in in.”
Before anyone starts accusing AEW of selling out, you may recall that the promotion is no stranger to even heavier corporate theming for the occasional match. Who could forget the Cracker Barrel Clash from All Out 2019, after all?
But jokes aside, AEW has good reason to comply with any reasonable request on the part of Warner Bros. Discovery, as the two sides continue to ponder their future together. AEW’s current TV deal with TNT and TBS expires in 2024, and was signed prior to the merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery creating an even larger — and simultaneously, more cost-conscious — media conglomerate.
One would assume there’s at least a bit of a crossover audience between AEW and Shark Week, so this particular bit of product placement isn’t even that jarring. Now if they end up wrestling over a pool of sharks, this writer reserves the right to walk that comment back.
Shark Week kicks off just a few days after Kingston and Jericho do battle, running July 24 through July 30 on Discovery and Discovery+.