AEW superstar Chris Jericho spoke with Sports Illustrated earlier today to hype up this evening’s edition of Dynamite on TNT, where the Demo God will be taking on FTR’s Dax Harwood in a singles contest, with boxing legend Mike Tyson as the special guest enforcer. Highlights are below.
Says he wanted to do the promo in front of a live crowd:
Originally that promo was supposed to air a week prior, but we held off. It was going to resonate, it needed to be done in front of a live crowd. You never know when a promo is going to hit, but in front of a crowd, I was willing to bet this was going to be a home run, and it did.
How he watched MJF’s first promo with the Pinnacle to get inspired:
You never know exactly what will motivate or inspire you to write, but in this case, watching MJF’s original ‘Pinnacle promo’ was all I needed. I had the promo written within 20 minutes. I took some extra time to really hone in and tighten it up because I knew it had to be sharp. You can’t force it with writing something like this, but when MJF started talking, the muse started to flow. I had my iPhone in hand, my notes app was open, and right away, I knew the points I wanted to hit.
On doing Broken Skull Sessions:
It was great business for WWE, who are now on Peacock, and it’s great for AEW, before we start running by ourselves on Wednesday night with Dynamite. It was an idea Steve and I had, and once Vince approved, and then Tony approved, it was on. From that point on, it was quite easy, much more than you’d think. I heard from so many people who did not believe we were going to talk about AEW. That surprised me. There was no way I could do it if we weren’t going to discuss AEW, and there was no way Steve would do it if we weren’t going to talk about my career, which includes AEW. There were no rules about this—Vince trusted us, Tony trusted us and the conversation was awesome. And we needed to kick off talking about AEW. Steve and I knew that would hook people right away, like, ‘Holy s—, they’re actually going to talk about AEW.’ That showed, right away, it was going to be different.
Eyeing a future world title shot with Kenny Omega:
I’m very proud of my work with Omega. Now we can reverse the roles and do Jericho-Omega III for the world title. That’s going to be a lot of fun.
On his new book:
COVID slowed down the printing process, but I’m very proud of this. It’s a whole documentation of my career. It’s for wrestling fans to look at the world of wrestling from 1990 to now through the lens of my career, and it’s a book you’re never going to see like this ever again.
On Mike Tyson:
I take great pride in longform storytelling. We’ve been working on this for a while, and Tyson is really going to enhance the moment. That’s why I want the Inner Circle involved. I want Santana, Sammy, Ortiz and Jake standing next to him. I want them to get that spotlight. And with Tyson being so unpredictable and unorthodox, this is a huge show. You don’t know what’s going to happen. Mike Tyson isn’t in the back taking directions or reading off a script. You have to be able to go with whatever he does. Whether we’re against Mike or with him, it’s going to make everyone look bigger.
Says he believes this feud with the Pinnacle will make bigger stars out of the Inner Circle:
Whatever I do, I want the Inner Circle involved. This isn’t Jericho and his guys. This is a group of stars that are extremely valuable to the company, and everyone is a bigger star now than before we started the faction. People are going to continue to see that on Dynamite, especially tonight beside Mike Tyson.
