WARNING: The following article contains a video with graphic imagery.
Pizza restaurant chain Domino’s (formerly known as Domino’s Pizza) is distancing itself from a recent segment on All Elite Wrestling (AEW) television in which a pizza cutter was used as a weapon during a death match between Nick Gage and Chris Jericho.
During last night’s AEW Dynamite: Fight for the Fallen show on TNT, Gage — a known aficionado of death matches — made his way to the ring for his match against Jericho with a pizza cutter in-hand. While Jericho would ultimately reign victorious, it wasn’t before Gage used the pizza cutter to saw at Jericho’s forehead, drawing blood in the process. Coincidentally, this spot was immediately followed by a commercial for Domino’s, which showed a pizza cutter being used for its actual intended purpose.
Domino’s was apparently unamused by the coincidence. “Domino’s was not involved, nor had any foreknowledge, of the gory scene on the AEW Dynamite main event Wednesday night that showed wrestler Nick Gage apparently slicing Chris Jericho’s head open with a pizza cutter,” company spokesperson Jenny Fouracre-Petko said in a statement to Front Office Sports.
Moreover, Domino’s is evidently entertaining the idea of pulling its advertising from AEW Dynamite‘s Wednesday night time slot on TNT. “We share the concerns expressed about this incident and the content of this TV-14 rated program, and are assessing our advertising presence on it going forward,” Fouracre-Petko added.
As previously mentioned, Nick Gage is known for death matches, so him using the pizza cutter for something other than slicing up a pie wasn’t exactly surprising for most viewers. Having made his professional wrestling debut in 1999, Gage was actually the first-ever CZW World Heavyweight Champion. For the uninitiated, Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) is a promotion known for its ultraviolent approach to wrestling.
While AEW’s own Chris Jericho isn’t exactly known for being a hardcore-style wrestler himself, he did turn up for his match against Gage under his “Painmaker” persona. Jericho originally debuted the “Painmaker” character as a more violent, unhinged version of his wrestling persona during his most recent stint in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) prior to the formation of AEW.
Source: Front Office Sports, Twitter
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