Sports Illustrated has published an interview with AEW World Champion Chris Jericho. During the discussion, Jericho spoke about his primary objectives with the upstart promotion.
“One of my mission statements in AEW is to build new talent,” he said. “People complain, ‘We don’t have any idea who this people are!’ It’s only been nine weeks, and we’re focusing on one person every couple of weeks.”
Jericho added, “Building new stars will make this promotion successful. This past week gave Sammy Guevara some spotlight, as well as Ortiz, Santana, and SCU.”
Jericho vs. Moxley
Last week’s edition of AEW Dynamite ended with a stare-down between Jericho and Jon Moxley, who is being positioned as Jericho’s next pay-per-view opponent.
Jericho enjoyed working with Moxley in WWE, but said things are very different for both competitors at this stage in their careers.
“That feud in WWE was really damn good, but we’re both so different now,” said Jericho. “It won’t be the same. Moxley was never this confident or this good in WWE. As Moxley said in our ‘Talk is Jericho’ podcast interview, he didn’t know who he was in WWE. He was constantly at odds with the creative and at odds with himself. This is a completely new guy. Dean Ambrose was only a portion of his career. To me, Moxley is the real guy. And there is a new-look Chris Jericho with all this creative freedom in AEW, so it’s going to be very intense and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
As for the people who believe AEW is rushing too quickly into a Jericho vs. Moxley feud, the Inner Circle leader says people need to have faith in their storytelling.
“I know a lot of people have already said, ‘This is happening too quickly.’ Everybody needs to sit back, relax, and watch the story unfold. Trust me, we are not rushing anything. I wouldn’t allow it.”
Other topics discussed include his new how his Little Bit of the Bubbly champagne came to be and the unscripted nature of his Thanksgiving Celebration segment from last week’s Dynamite.
Head over to Sports Illustrated to check out the full interview.
