Chris Jericho Talks About AEW Being The Hot Company Right Now
With the build up to AEW's next event All Out in full swing, Chris Jericho appeared on the Busted Open radio show to talk about the upcoming event.
During the conversation, Jericho addressed the momentum that the company currently has and how he experienced this with WCW back in 1998 when it was beating the WWE in the television ratings for its show WCW Monday Nitro.
"We are the hot company right now," Jericho explained. "I experienced this in WCW in 1998 when we were selling out stadiums. We had six stadium sellouts in a row and the reason for that is because we are hot right now.
"We are hot right now and you want to put on a show Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday whatever you want to do, the bottom line is we don't care. We are doing our own thing and we are hot right now and anything that is done as a defensive reaction to us being hot just makes us hotter and makes us cooler.
"There are a lot of different diversity in AEW and the reason for that is because we allow them to be whoever they are. If you work for AEW nobody is going to mess with you. Nobody is going to tell you what to do. There is no style, it's just you being you and maybe that is one of the reasons why we are so hot right now."
Jericho was announced as being a part of AEW on January 8 and since that date the company has gone from strength to strength and doesn't even debut its TV show until October 2.
Jericho spoke about whether he saw the landscape of the pro wrestling industry changing when he came on board with AEW.
"I didn't see it coming," Jericho said. "Who could see it coming? We have seen a lot of wrestling companies come and go but the difference is that wrestling companies who start out need money and a lot of it, and suddenly you have a family [Khan family] that has that and that means everything.
"You also had a group of guys whose contracts were ending at the same time. Take myself and Jon Moxley out of the equation, and most of these guys people haven't seen on a nation-wide basis.
"When have you ever had? Then, throw into the mix the TNT Network who threw their hat in the game and bringing AEW out, that's the factors that made it what it is. Did I see it coming? No, but as soon as we sold out Las Vegas quickly, people were still making excuses.
"Then we sold out Chicago, people were making excuses, and then Washington D.C happened and people were saying, okay, we'll see what happens and then that building sells out, why? Because we are cool and we are hot. It's hot right now.
"Is it going to last forever? Of course not, but I do see it selling out for the first 10-12 weeks because it's the coolest thing, everyone has to be part of it. That is what show business is, word of mouth. Still, we haven't even had a show yet, with the exception of the pay per view we had in Las Vegas and a couple of small ones, but everyone is talking about our company and seeing what it is all about and we actually also do a TV show.
"I think you will be pleasantly happy watching our TV show because it is going to be different than anything you have seen nowadays. Once that word gets around I think it is going to sustain itself for months."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Busted Open with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Peter Bahi contributed to this article.