Chris Jericho appears at GCW event, attacks Matt Cardona and Effy

AEW’s Chris Jericho made a surprise appearance at GCW Highest in the Room 3 Saturday in Los Angeles, attacking both Matt Cardona and Effy.

Cardona was taking on Effy in a singles match and after a low blow, Cardona was about to hit him with a belt shot when a disguised man hit the ring. He nailed Cardona with a bat, leading to Effy hitting a rough rider to pick up the win.

Effy was confused as to who the man was and then Jericho revealed himself, followed by a Judas Effect to Effy for good measure. Jericho then removed his sweatshirt to reveal an AEW t-shirt and laid in a few more bat shots to both Cardona and Effy before leaving to boos.

Effy was in the news three weeks ago after comments he made about Tony Khan and his father, Shad, on a podcast were then followed by Ricky Starks being pulled from several GCW dates. Starks was supposed to be on Saturday’s card against Cardona but was then replaced by Effy. Willie Mack, who occasionally still works for AEW and ROH, was also pulled from GCW appearances this past week.

Both AEW and GCW will be running the Hammerstein Ballroom as AEW/ROH is holding three shows there this upcoming weekend while GCW will appear there on January 19th — something that also became a public issue three weeks ago.

It’s unclear as of this point as to whether Jericho’s appearance is an olive branch between the two companies or an previously agreed upon one-off build to Jericho and Cardona’s ROH World title match at Final Battle this Friday.