AEW World Champion Chris Jericho spoke with SI.com ahead of his match at Tokyo Dome for NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14 this past weekend where he spoke about a wide range of topics.
During the interview, Jericho talked about his skill of knowing when it’s time to change up his character, which he has mastered throughout his career in the pro wrestling business.
Jericho started out by talking about what he would be doing if he were still in WWE.
“If I was still in the WWE, I would still have to be doing ‘The List’ and it would feel so old,” said Jericho. “I love all the great stuff I did in the past, but to go out there and say ‘Raw is Jericho’ or ‘I’m the Ayatollah of Rock ‘n’ Rolla’ would really feel like a rock and roll band that tours that never puts on a new record and tours every summer.”
Jericho thought it was best for him to jump from WWE to join AEW, which at the time early last year, AEW didn’t have a television deal in place. Of course, they landed a big one by airing their weekly television show, Dynamite, every Wednesday night on TNT.
The AEW star also talked about his character re-invention to bands playing new songs and used DX as an example during the conversation.
“I have a great list of hits, but a lot of those will never be played again because I’m too busy concentrating on new hits and performing at the highest level,” said Jericho. “It’s hard to leave all the old gimmicks and catchphrases, and take a chance, but if you don’t do that, it’s like DX coming to the ring in 2019 and yelling ‘Suck it!’ It looks like a relic from the past, and I never wanted to be that.”
