Jericho recalls convincing talents that AEW is a sure thing and discusses MJF’s promo on Sting.
This Saturday, Chris Jericho along with TNT Champion Sammy Guevara, Santana, Ortiz and Jake Hager will be competing in a Minneapolis Street Fight at Full Gear against Scorpio Sky, Ethan Page, Dan Lambert, Junior dos Santos and Andrei Arlovski.
Jericho is celebrating his 51st birthday and an interview he recorded with Richard Deitsch was released today. Jericho spoke about the growth of All Elite Wrestling and he remembered having phone conversations with the likes of Jon Moxley, FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler), Matt Hardy and the late Jon Huber (Brodie Lee) about coming to AEW when they were somewhat hesitant about making the jump.
I love all of the guys that have come in lately. CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Adam Cole, all these guys. We’re the ones though who made it safe for those guys to come here. I remember getting on the phone with Jon Moxley and Matt Hardy and Brodie Lee, God bless him, FTR and saying, ‘You guys need to come here’ and still kind of like, ‘We’re not sure’ or, ‘Should we do it?’ ‘Guys, I’m telling ya, just take the step. I’m telling you that you’ve got wings. All you gotta do is take the step off the building and you take that scary step and you suddenly shoot up.’ We don’t have to convince anybody anymore because now it’s the safe place and the cool place to come. I take great pride in that and I think Cody [Rhodes] does and Kenny [Omega] and The Bucks and Hangman Page and Moxley and Orange Cassidy and MJF and everybody that was here kind of in the initial stage. Sure CM Punk is here. They wanted CM Punk at the beginning, he didn’t want to come because he didn’t want to come if it was kind of taking a chance and good for him, that’s great, now he’s here. We don’t ever have to try and get somebody on the phone and convince them to come here anymore because now people know this is the place to be and I take great pride in that because we took a chance. It was a gamble. If it failed, alright, I’ll go crawling back to WWE or maybe I would just go to New Japan and not worry about wrestling in the States anymore. But if we make it, suddenly Jericho’s legacy is even more locked in because I helped start this new company that basically changed the course of the entire wrestling business in less than two years.
On the road to Darby Allin versus MJF at Full Gear, MJF had a segment with Sting and prior to the segment getting physical, MJF mentioned that Sting would end up like Lex Luger who is in a wheelchair. Jericho does not think that is getting heat. He said comments like that make people uncomfortable.
You know, for example, I think there was a line a few weeks ago that MJF used about Lex Luger being in a wheelchair to Sting. I don’t think that gets heat, I think that makes people feel uncomfortable. I think it makes people feel bad and you don’t want that, you know what I mean? So there is a fine line between you know, using real life issues and going too inside baseball where it’s like, ‘I don’t know what this guy’s talking about but it just doesn’t feel right,’ you know what I mean? And to me, that is the fine line of a pro wrestling promo. If it’s something in the universe that people know, then you can use it. It’s been on the show or something. If it’s something behind the scenes, ‘Oh your dad was a drunk’ and it’s like, ‘Where did that come from? His dad’s a drunk? Well that sucks. F*ck, my dad was a drunk too and he used to beat the sh*t out of me. F*ck, I don’t wanna watch this show anymore.’ That’s the way I feel it. I don’t think it gets more heat. I think it actually gets reverse heat which is people just going, ‘Eh.’ We know this is a show. It’s like you’re watching the new Star Wars movie and they go, ‘Hey, you know, Kylo Ren, your mom had an abortion in real life when she was 16.’ It’s like what does that have to do with f*cking Kylo Ren? It’s two different things, right? So I think there’s a fine line to it. You can make things seem real with intentions or the way you say things or the words you use, that makes it real.
As of this writing, here’s the match card for Full Gear:
- AEW World Title Eliminator Tournament Final: Bryan Danielson vs. Miro
- AEW World Championship: Kenny Omega (c) (w/ Don Callis) vs. Hangman Adam Page
- AEW Women’s World Championship: Britt Baker (c) (w/ Jamie Hayter & Rebel) vs. Tay Conti
- Minneapolis Street Fight: The Inner Circle (Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, Santana, Jake Hager & Ortiz) vs. Scorpio Sky, Ethan Page, Dan Lambert, Junior dos Santos & Andrei Arlovski
- AEW World Tag Team Championships: The Lucha Brothers (Rey Fenix & Penta El Zero M) (c) (w/ Alex Abrahantes) vs. FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) (w/ Tully Blanchard)
- Darby Allin (w/ Sting) vs. MJF (w/ Wardlow)
- CM Punk vs. Eddie Kingston
- Falls Count Anywhere Match: Superkliq (Adam Cole & The Young Bucks) vs. Jungle Boy, Christian Cage & Luchasaurus
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Sports Media with Richard Deitsch with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
