All Elite Wrestling talent Chris Jericho calls AEW President Tony Khan a genius for running Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Jericho appeared on Reinvented with Jen Eckhart and discussed AEW’s first show in New York City. Eckhart asked him what it was like wrestling at Arthur Ashe Stadium on September 22nd. Jericho shared that he enjoyed the experience and praised Khan for hosting an event in that venue.
“It was unbelievable. There is a little bit of genius on Tony Khan’s part because everyone was talking about the Garden in NYC, Madison Square Garden,” said Jericho. He continued, “What people don’t understand is to play the Garden is very expensive for one. So you don’t really make money when you’re at the Garden. You just do it because it’s MSG.”
Khan Decision to Host AEW at Arthur Ashe Stadium
AEW became the first wrestling company to have an event at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Khan called their NYC debut event AEW Grand Slam, promoting a live AEW Dynamite show and a taped AEW Rampage show for September 24th. However, fans attending the event were able to watch the four-hour event on September 22nd. AEW Grand Slam was so successful that Khan wants to run Arthur Ashe annually.
In the interview, Jericho explained what made the stadium unique and thought it was better than MSG. “…The moment I went in there, I was like, oh my gosh. This place is amazing. It’s better than the Garden,” said Jericho. He continued, “…The seats go straight up in the air, so all the noise comes right down into the ring. People are just kind of just over top of you, and it was just really cool to see this place. I was going this atmosphere is off the charts crazy. We don’t need to go to the Garden now because we’ve created a new place for us.”
He suggests other wrestling companies may be trying to run an event at Arthur Ashe Stadium. However, Jericho also believes that the stadium will always be the home for AEW in professional wrestling.
AEW will make its return to New York on December 8th. It will be AEW’s first event in Long Island, NY, at the UBS Arena. Both AEW Dynamite and Rampage will be taking place at the venue.
