Chris Jericho reports AEW world title belt stolen, police confirm, less than 24 hours after becoming first champion
- Police investigating report of grand theft at Tallahassee airport on Sunday night
- Former WWE star beat ‘Hangman’ Adam Page for the championship at new promotion AEW’s All Out pay-per-view on Sunday night
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.”
