AEW star Chris Jericho recently spoke with Stephanie Chase of DigitalSpy and said there was nothing that WWE had to edit from his recent Broken Skull Sessions interview with WWE Hall of Famer Steve Austin because everything the two legends said was the truth.
Jericho confirmed previous reports that said WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon had to give his approval for the interview, along with AEW President & General Manager Tony Khan. He was asked if he was given any direction about what could or could not be talked about by WWE or AEW.
“No,” he responded. “Both Vince [McMahon] and Tony [Khan] had to give their approval. But I think they both trust me and they trust Steve [Austin] and know that we’re not going to do some kind of a wonton burial or talk about a bunch of shit that doesn’t matter. I never would have done this show and Steve would have never had me on the show if the idea wasn’t to talk about my whole career because that’s what people want to hear about.
“I give WWE credit for allowing that, for allowing me to be on the show. There was no involvement as far as edits, we went two hours and seven minutes on the show. I don’t think we talked much longer, maybe another 10 minutes or 15 minutes and most of that stuff was taken out just for time constraints. I know there’s some bonus stories they’re going to be putting up,” he continued. “But it wasn’t like they had to cut anything that we said because everything that we said was the truth and it was real.”
The interview featured a discussion on AEW early on, and at the end, which surprised a lot of fans. Jericho believes that blew people’s minds. Jericho revealed that he and Austin agreed that was the best way to do things.
“I think we blew people’s minds that a) we talked about AEW and b) more importantly that we started talking AEW at the beginning,” Jericho said. “Steve and I both thought that was the best way to do it because so many pundits and critics were like, ‘They’ll never talk about AEW,’ and when we led off the show with that topic, I think it really hooked people to be going, ‘Holy smokes they talked about AEW! What else are they going to talk about?'”
Jericho also said he’s heard nothing but positive feedback on the interview from people in the business. He also commented on what he’s most proud about.
“I’m most proud of the fact that I did it, that Chris Jericho appeared on a WWE program. It was a very groundbreaking moment, that announcement,” he said. “It blew a lot of people’s mind’s and that’s what I enjoy doing. I enjoy doing the unexpected where people see things or they go, ‘Holy smokes Jericho did that. What else can this guy do? ‘
“So to me, just the fact that it was me that kind of opened that ‘forbidden door’ quote-unquote, even further. I take great pride in that. Once again, it’s another thing that Chris Jericho did that probably nobody else could do at this point in time and I like that. I get off on that.”
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