‘Cobra Kai’ Season 5: Did You Catch Stingray’s Pitch-Perfect AEW/Chris Jericho Reference?

There’s a lot to love about the new season of Cobra Kai, but one of the most entertaining aspects of the new season is the return of the man, the myth, the legend: Stingray. Played with affable aplomb by theatrical dynamo Paul Walter Hauser, the former Cobra Kai jester returned in Episode 5 (“Extreme Measures”) from his stint in the hospital after helping the diabolical yet charismatic Terry Silver frame John Kreese for his brutal attack.

Related, “Extreme Measures” is such an incredible half-hour of television that Stingray’s appearance isn’t even the most surprising return of the episode.

Stingray always seems to make the most out of his all too brief appearances on the show (his little stingray shuffle up the steps in the season finale is a true chef’s kiss), and his Season 5 stint is no different. One of our favorite pop culture Easter eggs of the season is Stingray’s sneaky reference to All Elite Wrestling.

Hauser is an avowed fan of professional wrestling, even adding a few AEW references into Queenpins, a 2021 comedy in which he appeared alongside Kristen Bell, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, and Vince Vaughn. Hauser was at it again in Cobra Kai. In Episode 5, Daniel and Chozen, two adult men who once fought to the death as teenagers while a group of able bodied adults looked on, are staking out Stingray’s new place. This is normal behavior in the Cobra Kai universe, by the way. When Stingray pulls up, in Johnny’s old car nonetheless, he’s singing a song, one he continues to perform as he dances into his posh new pad.

That song just so happens to be Chris Jericho’ popular AEW theme song “Judas” (a tune performed by Jericho’s heavy metal band Fozzy).

How exactly did this unexpected cross-genre tag team happen? It turns out we have Paul Walter Hauser to thank for Chris Jericho’s musical Cobra Kai debut.

“That was Paul,” Cobra Kai co-creators Jon Hurwitz, Josh Heald, and Hayden Schlossberg told Decider during a recent interview. “It’s so funny because we’re on set and we have our production hats on, and he’s singing this song, which means there’s an expense associated with it if we keep it. So we had a version where he wasn’t singing the song, and we filmed that as well. But we just thought it worked so well… dramatically, we like that touch for the character. So we ponied up and paid a little money.”

Not only did Hauser add the song, he also helped Team Cobra Kai score a discount on the tune. That’s just classic Stingray.

The fifth season of Cobra Kai is now streaming on Netflix.