Chris Jericho became the first world champion of AEW on Saturday night in Chicago. But he has lost the title – quite literally, but not to another opponent – less than a day later.
Former WWE legend Jericho won the belt by defeating “Hangman” Adam Page at the upstart wrestling promotion’s All Out pay-per-view at the Sears Centre Arena last weekend.
Fans on social media at first thought the incident was a storyline for AEW, which launches its weekly television programme on US network TNT next month. But police in Tallahassee, Florida, confirmed to wrestling news website Fightful the theft was real and that the case is still open.
“The victim reported the theft of his championship wrestling belt while he was eating inside Longhorn Steakhouse,” read a police report, obtained by Fightful on Tuesday night.
“The victim stated he arrived at the Millionaire Club Airport Lounge and placed the belt inside his rented limousine. The limo driver shuttled the victim to Longhorn for dinner. The victim remained at Longhorn while the limo driver returned to the airport. The victim had taken the wrong luggage from the airport and the driver took it back to the terminal.
“When the driver picked up the victim from the restaurant, the belt was missing. Responding officers searched the limo and airport for the belt without success. On-call CID was consulted, and forensics responded to the scene.”
The grand theft report was filed by Jericho at the 2400 Monroe Street restaurant at 7.13pm on Sunday night.
AEW took the incident in good humour. Cody Rhodes, performer and executive vice-president, tweeted: “I prefer Outback Steakhouse.” Fellow star and executive Matt Jackson of tag team The Young Bucks tweeted: “Oh FFS”.
Jericho even seemed to turn the real-life drama into a wrestling storyline, posting an in-character promo on Twitter as he reclined in a jacuzzi at his Florida home with a bottle of champagne.
“Unfortunately less than 24 hours after I became AEW champion, with blood streaming down my face, after one of the hardest matches I’ve ever had in my life, some low life scumbag committed grand larceny and robbed me of the AEW championship,” the 48-year-old former WWE champion said in the video.
“Now as I sit here in my palatial estate in my beautiful mansion, getting ready to have a bit of the bubbly, I’m just imagining what I would do to the son of a b**** if he was here right now. And as a result, I am launching a worldwide investigation using the top private investigators in the world today to find out who committed this crime.
“And trust me, as the AEW champion, I promise to regain, restore, find and reclaim the AEW championship, and once again give you another reason to give me the thank you I deserve. You’re welcome.”
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