As Chris Jericho prepares for the most important match of his second reign as the Ring of Honor Champion, taking on the “Indy God” Matt Cardona at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, a lot has been hinted at about where the two former Superstars worked before their respective runs in AEW, WWE.

And yet, in Jericho’s opinion, reminding fans about Cardona’s past isn’t necessarily meant to hurt him but instead act as a way of pointing out how he got to this point. If anything, Jericho actually likes the way Cardona works in the ring, to the point where his style reminds him of “The best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be,” Bret “The Hitman” Hart.

“Just the fact that we are doing this is special. The fact that it's in Hammerstein, with the vibe that is expected. I don't think anybody expected Matt Cardona to answer this challenge. He's not an AEW regular. We haven't seen him a whole lot. Chris Jericho, being the Ring of Honor Champion, two years I did it as the Ocho and here we are again as the Nueve. There is a lot going on with Ring of Honor. There is a lot of potential television deals to be talked about and discussed. ‘Ring of Honor has such a wrestling style.' Wrestling style is selling out venues with a good story and two good characters that people want to see get in the ring. That's what we've done,” Jericho explained via Fightful.

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“I'm very happy with this build we've created the last three weeks. I don't think it could have gone better. I know ticket sales have pretty much doubled after this match was announced. We're going to sell out, if we haven't already. It's going to special just by the fact that we're there. I'm excited about it. Matt Cardona has done a good job of reinventing himself and recreating himself, and dare I say, he reminds me a lot of Bret Hart. Everything he does is very solid. It looks great. It's very meat and potatoes in the best way. Matt is not the type of guy who is going to do a moonsault off the top of the balcony, and neither am I. We'll leave that to the guys who do that. I expect we're going to beat the shit out of each other with a raucous crowd who are sick of Jericho proclaiming to be the King of New York and coming to Hell's Kitchen in the Bronx via the Staten Island Ferry.”

Alright, no matter who secures the win at Ring of Honor Final Battle, Cardona has to be ecstatic about how the feud has already shaken out, as being compared to the leader of the Hart Foundation is about as good a compliment as one can get in professional wrestling. If the two men can put on a show in Hammerstein, it might just go down as a career highlight for both.