AEW superstar and new ROH world champion Chris Jericho recently spoke with GQ about his weight loss following a blood clot diagnosis, and why he decided to bulk up so much after his departure from WWE in 2018. Check out The Wizard’s full thoughts on the subject in the highlights below.
On his weight loss after suffering blood clots:
“Well, I wasn’t able to wrestle for a couple of months [after the blood clots]. I was still on the show doing commentary and backstage stuff, but nobody saw me with my shirt off. So once I was able to wrestle again, that’s when people saw the big transformation. And it all tied in together with the debut of the [new wrestling faction] Jericho Appreciation Society, so it really was a reinvention. And I was smart about it, because I wasn’t going online and posting, like, “Working on my diet!” with a mirror shot. I was like, “I’m just gonna do all of this, and then when the time is right, people will notice.” And when the time was right, it was like, “Holy shit, what did you do?” I’m thinking to myself, “I’ve been doing it the whole time. I just didn’t post thirst trap pictures to get pats on the back.” I just went, boom—suddenly it’s a whole new guy.”
Why he put on so much weight after leaving WWE in 2018:
“In 2018, I left WWE and I went back to New Japan [Pro Wrestling] for the first time in 20 years to headline the Tokyo Dome. While I was over there, I realized that the Japanese appreciate bigger, more blockier physiques. To them, it equates to a more powerful main-event presence. So when I came back the next year to headline again, I pulled a De Niro in Raging Bull, and I gained some weight just to be blockier—and it worked. When AEW started in 2019, I was still in that mindset [of getting bigger]. I didn’t even realize that I was creeping up. I went to the doctor towards the end of 2019, and it was the first time I’d been on a scale for a while. It said I was 240. I was like, “240? That can’t be right!” I remember saying to the guy, “Do I look like I’m 240?” And the guy’s like, [awkward shrug] “I don’t know.” That was the first time I had to realize, ‘Holy shit, I’m 240 pounds. That’s big.’ So I started to go back down, but then the pandemic happened and threw everything off. AEW was still on the air—we were still working in Jacksonville every Wednesday in an empty arena, just trying to do whatever we could to keep the ball rolling. I wasn’t really thinking too much about staying up to all hours of the morning and eating and drinking. The world was all kinds of fucked up. So that’s when I got even bigger—just not as good shape as I wanted to be. I got caught in a rut.”