Chris Jericho On AEW: ‘We’re Not Trying To Beat WWE’

Speaking on the latest episode of his ‘Talk Is Jericho’ podcast, Chris Jericho opened up about about his current relationship with WWE and what his goals are in AEW going forward.

Jericho shocked the wrestling world by appearing at the AEW ‘Double or Nothing’ rally in Jacksonville on January 8, and has since made it clear where he sees himself for the next few years.

“I love the WWE. I respect the WWE. They go through ups and downs creatively and stylistically and character-wise, but it’s the WWE, it’s the biggest wrestling company in the world. You’re not going to beat it. But we don’t want to beat the WWE.

“We’re not planning on that. That’s not the mindset of AEW. The mindset is to provide an option, an alternative for wrestling fans. Something that you haven’t seen before or something that you haven’t seen in a while.”

He also discussed the time when he approached Vince McMahon with the idea of staging a champion vs champion match between himself and Seth Rollins when they were Intercontinental Champions of their respective promotions.

“I pitched the idea to [Vince] and called him, ‘I would love to do an Intercontinental Champion vs. Champion match at SummerSlam: Jericho vs. Seth Rollins.’ And Vince was like, ‘I don’t know how that would work and can we do it?’ And was like, ‘Harold [Meij] is the president of New Japan, he wants to expand and I bet you we can figure something out.’ And this was something that happened all the time in the 70s and the 80s with Bruno Sammartino was always going to New Japan via WWE and Andre The Giant and Stan Hansen when they were having talent trades with Dynamite Kid and Tiger Mask…

There’s no such thing as just WWE, just New Japan. Why couldn’t we give the fans a dream match? A double main event of Rollins vs. Jericho, Title vs. Title and you don’t even have to have a winner?… Never heard back. Made the call, pitched the idea, and never heard back.”

Thanks to WrestleZone for the transcription.

• chris jericho
• Vince McMahon
• AEW
• wwe

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