Chris Jericho discusses AEW’s philosophy and why he never considered WWE’s direction when weighing his future.
AEW’s first-ever World Champion believes the company’s approach has remained consistent since day one, regardless of what WWE has been doing.
Speaking with SHAK Wrestling (see video below), Chris Jericho was asked about the perception that AEW has been gaining momentum while some fans have criticized WWE’s increasingly corporate presentation and the amount of advertising during its programming. Jericho credited AEW’s recent success to its own product, leadership, and commitment to staying true to its identity rather than focusing on the competition.
“I think it’s the same as always, in that we’ve never worried about WWE — ever, ever. We’ve only worried about our own show, our own product, the quality of what we’re doing,” Jericho said. “And it’s not a perceived upswing. You can see it in the numbers, tickets sold, the ratings. Our ratings, I think, last week [at the time the interview was recorded] were very, very close to the ratings that they were right before HBO Max became a platform for us. So if we’re doing those same ratings, plus there’s the HBO Max, that would tell me — common sense would say we’re doing bigger ratings now than we were doing three or four years ago.”
Jericho went on to say AEW’s philosophy has always been to focus inward, emphasizing match quality and variety rather than trying to emulate WWE.
“And I think all of that is just because, no matter what’s going on around us, we keep our noses to the grindstone and worry about what we’re doing and what kind of matches and quality of matches and variety. We’ve never been a WWE-lite. We’ve been AEW since day one. That’s never changed. And sometimes you like it and sometimes you don’t, but we’ve never changed it.”
Jericho was also asked about the speculation from earlier this year that linked him to a possible WWE return. He acknowledged weighing his options but said his history with AEW ultimately made the decision an easy one.
“Once again, you weigh your options,” Jericho said. “But I helped start AEW. I had a stake in the game. There’s something special about that, you know? I didn’t help WWE. I didn’t help start New Japan Pro Wrestling or CMLL or ECW or WCW or any of those places that I worked in the past. I helped start AEW.”
