Chris Jericho Recalls Convincing Jon Moxley, FTR & More To Make Jump To AEW

Chris Jericho has recalled convincing the likes of Jon Moxley, Matt Hardy, Brodie Lee and FTR to take a chance and join AEW.

Speaking with Richard Deitsch, The former AEW Champion noted that he no longer has to convince anybody to join the company, pointing to CM Punk, Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole signing with AEW over the summer.

Explaining that he personally reached out to a number of current AEW names before they signed, Jericho said:

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.

At Full Gear on Saturday, FTR challenge The Lucha Brothers for the AEW Tag Team Championship. Danielson is also set to take on Miro in the AEW World Championship Eliminator finals, and CM Punk will square off with Eddie Kingston in singles action.

Jericho will be in action on the pay-per-view, teaming with Jake Hager, Sammy Guevara, Santana & Ortiz of The Inner Circle to do battle with Ethan Page, Scorpio Sky, Junior dos Santos, Andrei Arlovski and Dan Lambert in a Street Fight.

Quote via POST Wrestling.

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• ftr
• chris jericho
• Jon Moxley
• AEW

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