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Sportskeeda meets Chris Jericho
Our interview with the "Demo God" Chris Jericho continues below...
It seems like AEW's been going for a long time at this point but I think we're only about a year and a bit into live TV. If someone were to ask Chris Jericho, "How's it going at AEW overall, looking from the outside in," what would you say?
Well, I don't think I have to say anything. I think you just have to look at the results that we've got, the ratings that we've been able to keep during the pandemic, and the demos.
I mean, people think it's a joke, and obviously, I'm milking it for all it's worth with the Demo God and everything, but it's a real legit factor in that television networks and advertisers are over-the-top overjoyed with the demos that we've been able to accrue and the numbers we've been able to accrue in these very important groups.
Most importantly, our show every week... Every show isn't great, but every show is good, more shows are great but they all make sense 90% of the time which is very rare in wrestling. And everything - at least for my stuff - everything always leads to the next part of the story. There's no wasted moments in a Chris Jericho storyline.
If somebody walks through the background, that's because there's going to be a reason for that later on. We are very proud of the storylines that we've created and the great moments we've created considering I think probably we've had more time as a company during the pandemic with no people in the crowd then we did WITH people in the crowd. And the fact we're still able to create new stars, classic matches, classic moments, compelling storylines - fun! That's the most important thing, we're having fun with this and it shows as well. Now that we have, you know, 10% capacity, 15% capacity of paying fans back in our venue, that's huge.
Last week, we had 500 people in our venue and it felt like Madison Square Garden because that was the first organic reactions we've gotten since the middle of March - and you can't replace that. Whether it's 500 people or 50,000, a live crowd is a live crowd and that has really brought back a lot of the fun and the vibe to do with our show and will continue to do so moving forward. So I think we've done a great job as a new company, and as a new company in the middle of a pandemic - which none of us could have predicted. But none of us can change it so you have to go with it, roll with it, make it great and that's what we've done.
Yeah, and that 500 definitely sounded like 50,000, which we're going to mention in a bit, but the one thing I need to mention. You said there, "No wasted moments in a Chris Jericho feud."
I remember, about a year ago, trying to write an article on the 7 best Chris Jericho catchphrases and I struggled to get it down to 7. So Chris Jericho becoming the "Demo God", where did that come from? Did it just come straight out of the mind of Chris Jericho?
It's funny because we're not in competition, but, of course, you're in competition and there was a few weeks that went by where our competitor was beating us in actual viewers and of course you don't want that but they never beat us in the demo. And to me, I wanted to show that to kind of the naysayers who were saying, "The AEW experiment is over."
It's not over because if one company draws a million viewers and they only do 200,000 in this money-making demo and another company draws 500,000 viewers, but draws 400,000 of those in that demo, we win.
Like I wanted to... As a heel, I'm the one that can point that out and so I just thought, "OK, well. I'm going to start arguing with the demos."
I think it was the week that Sasha Banks' match beat mine. She didn't beat mine. My demo crushed them, my demo still crushed Keith Lee's match with Adam Cole, so I take great pride in that and so I just started saying "demo this, demo that" and, of course, being an old Dungeons and Dragons and heavy metal fan, we all know what demigods are and this was the Demo God so it just kind of rolls off the tongue.
Like any catchphrase, you say it once, you see how it goes over, people respond, people write about it, and then you're off and running. Let's make a t-shirt and cement it.
And sell millions of those t-shirts!
Exactly.
Next: Chris Jericho discusses how long he'll stay with AEW, and whether we'll see Chris Jericho in AEW after his three-year contract ends
Coming up: Chris Jericho discusses having real fans as opposed to virtual fans, and whether Chris Jericho should have been higher on the PWI 500
