WWE and AEW went head-to-head at the New York Toy Fair in February as both promotions showed off their latest line of action figures.
Chris Jericho was present at the event to represent AEW and when he wanted to check out the WWE set-up, he had some trouble entering the room.
"I was downstairs and I wanted to see the WWE setup and they said I couldn't go," Jericho said on Major Wrestling Figure Podcast. "I was like, 'the fuck I can't. I've made these guys millions of dollars in action figures, you're telling me I can't go up there?' I walked up there and there's a security guard who won't let me in but one of the guys who works for [Mattel] was like, 'come on in.' I came in and was filming stuff on Instagram and the guy said, 'please don't post that, I could lose my job.' I'm like, is this where we're at? You're going to lose your job because you let 'the enemy' into just look -- by the way, it was a real shitty set-up the WWE had compared to [AEW's]. I was very surprised. WWE is usually so spot-on when it comes to those things. Especially being in New York and knowing [AEW] was going to be there."
Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins noted that they believed WWE knew AEW would "kick their ass" at New York Toy Fair and they were saving their bigger reveals for Axxess during WrestleMania week, which ended up being canceled.
The duo also noted that they had trouble getting into the room as well, even though they worked for the company at the time and were there to promote the figures.
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