Former WWE Champion Chris Jericho has made the jump to AEW from the WWE and is now looking forward with his new venture.
While doing a recent episode of his Talk is Jericho podcast, he detailed his decision to join the newly launched promotion. This is where he brought up his mindset with the decision after having talks with WWE prior to his signing with AEW and how they were “amicable.”
Jericho would state on this podcast that he wouldn’t have made the decision to sign with AEW if the promotion didn’t have a good television deal on the table. It should be noted that the promotion, which is just a few weeks old, has yet to announced a TV deal.
Part of an excerpt of him reflecting on this moment came when he compared leaving WWE for AEW to when he departed WCW for WWE.
“Tony Khan came in with this offer, which was the biggest offer I’ve had in my career. I thought, ‘If you’re going to get this offer, you know you’re going to have some real focus.’ When Tony puts his money where his mouth is, I really had to think,” said Jericho. “It’s hard because I worked for WWE for 19 years and love WWE. But I put myself in 1999 Chris Jericho’s shoes when I was thinking of leaving WCW and thought, ‘How much further can I go in WCW under these rules and conditions?’ I realized I couldn’t go much further. I wasn’t earmarked to be a top guy. When WWE came in and put their money where their mouth is…not just the money, the ideas, the attitude and excitement. It wasn’t hard for me to step away from WCW and go to WWE.”
Jericho continued, “I put myself in those shoes. Could I walk away from WWE and go to AEW? After some introspection, the answer was yes. AEW was showing me respect and having expectations for me. I have to do great work and go the extra mile to make it work. In WWE, it doesn’t matter what I do. It’s still WWE. In AEW, it does matter what I do. I have to use my experience to help build this company. And that’s exciting. I didn’t do this for the money — the money is great, don’t get me wrong — but I did this for the chance to do something different and be challenged. That’s why I still wrestle.”
You can listen to the entire podcast by clicking on the player below:
H/T to Fightful for the transcript
