Last night, Arrow gave fans some wild reveals and a crazy cliffhanger with its fifth season's mid-year finale, and actor Stephen Amell was predictably hyped up for all of it. But hours before episode began, Amell took a moment to remind everyone about his pro wrestling prowess by laying some smack(down) talk onto WWE superstar Chris Jericho. Is he trying to start up new feuds?
Aw yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Stephen Amell likely doesn't aoon have a whole lot of off-time in his career, what with the rest of Arrow's fifth season needing to be filmed. But after that? Perhaps the actor is looking to scratch a squared circle itch that he first picked up last year when his hardcore WWE fandom turned into an actual (albeit small-scale) storyline, with Cody "Stardust" Rhodes as his antagonist.
Chris Jericho, who has been a household name in wrestling for two decades, has been more sporadic with his appearances in recent years. His current stint reportedly wasn't planned to last as long as it did, but the popularity of his "List of Jericho" gimmick has been enormous, thanks in part to his skills with the mic. The list consists of anyone within the organization that pisses him off, and it absolutely sounds similar to the notebook that Oliver Queen acquired from his father, in which all of then-Starling City's seedy citizens were written down. Amell has a point. Now let the battle rage on!
You might look at what was said and shrug it off, thinking, "Come on, that's just one mostly harmless tweet." And to that, I would rip off my tearaway shirt and throw you into a turnbuckle, son! Stephen Amell's introduction to the WWE was the result of many back-and-forth "conversations" on Twitter, with Cody Rhodes insanely acting as if the Green Arrow was Amell's actual alter ego. That's how beefs work these days, folks, and it capped off with Amell getting a tag team fight at Summer Slam, one of the company's biggest pay per view events. Jericho might need to add some fresh ink to that list soon.
Wrestling's relationship with Stephen Amell and the DC TV universe on The CW goes both ways. Cody Rhodes ended up getting a role as a one-off (maybe) baddie Derek Sampson, who fell into a vat of the drug "Stardust" (and other chemicals), which led to him gaining super-strength. Over on The Flash, former wrestler Adam "Edge" Copeland played comic villain Atom-Smasher in Season 2. Perhaps if all of this goes beyond a tiny Twitter tiff, we can look forward to seeing The Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla, Chris Jericho, trading punches with Oliver Queen on Arrow in the future.
We'll be waiting until February 1 to catch up with Arrow and the rest of Season 5, but in the meantime, the WWE is here to keep you busy with Raw and Smackdown. And you can head to our midseason premiere schedule to see what will be hitting the small screen before and after Arrow returns.
