Chris Jericho may have legitimately fractured his elbow on cardboard

Chris Jericho was thrown off the top of a steel cage on the Blood & Guts episode (May 5) of Dynamite. Even though he clearly fell onto a bunch of cardboard, AEW commentators played it up like his career might be in jeopardy. At the very least, it seemed like Jericho would be off television selling his cardboard injuries for a few weeks.

That’s why so many fans were surprised and/or flabbergasted when the leader of the Inner Circle returned on last night’s (May 12) Dynamite. He ruined The Pinnacle’s coronation with a Bubbly Bath and then teased a Stadium Stampede match for Double or Nothing on May 30. Jericho missed zero episodes of Dynamite after taking one of the biggest bumps in the history of the promotion. This didn’t seem to make much sense.

Well according to Wrestling Observer Live’s Bryan Alvarez, Jericho actually suffered a legitimate elbow injury when he fell on the cardboard at Blood & Guts:

“Why in the world was Chris Jericho back? He got thrown off a cage! That guy’s supposed to be dead, and he’s back a week later.

Now with that said, did you see that [cast] on Chris Jericho’s arm? He fell off that cage, and I think he fractured his elbow. I forget the exact injury, but it’s a legitimate elbow injury from falling off the cage. So he fell off the cage, he legitimately hurt himself, and then we’ve had a week of everybody talking about how fake it looked.”

“He whacked his elbow on the landing, and like he fractured his elbow, and now he’s got that big thing on his arm.”

Alvarez clarifies that this wasn’t a situation where Jericho already needed work done on his elbow and so an injury was written into the storyline. Alvarez reiterated that Jericho suffered a legitimate elbow injury on the fall off the cage. For what it’s worth, the AEW commentators referred to Jericho’s injury as a dislocated elbow earlier in the broadcast.

I’d recommend taking this tidbit with a grain of salt for now until another source confirms it. With that said, I can’t get enough of these Jericho cardboard stories, so I hope there is indeed more to come.