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Sportskeeda meets Chris Jericho
Our interview with the "Demo God" Chris Jericho continues below...
Read on as Chris Jericho discusses how long he'll continue to wrestle, discusses the rumors of a certain "free agent" - and we get Chris Jericho's thoughts on transitioning into a commentary role.
So we mentioned AEW is a year and a bit on live TV. I believe it was... And correct me if I'm wrong at any point, but I believe it was January last year that Chris Jericho signed a contract for three years with AEW. We're now maybe a year and a half into that, I think.
Yeah, something like that. You're probably better with dates than I am but I remember it was in January. So, yeah, a year and a half in, absolutely.
Do you see yourself staying in AEW beyond that, or wrestling beyond that, or is it something you've not thought about yet?
I never put a time limit on anything that I do wrestling-wise. I mean, I thought, back in 2015, it was time to wrap it up and then I got into the angle with Kevin Owens and things became fun again - which led to me going to Japan, which made it even more fun, which led to me coming to AEW, which is the best time I've had the business in 10 years, 15 years maybe.
So I won't go anywhere. I have no intention of leaving AEW and I have no intention of not wrestling - but even if I don't wrestle ever again, I'll just be a commentator after that - which is something that I never really thought about until I had to do it where we filmed four weeks of TV in one day and I just said, "Well, just put me on commentary. That way we don't have to worry about angles," because I really had no storyline to talk about at the time, "so let me just do commentary." Suddenly, that became a thing. So yeah, there's no reason for me to go anywhere.
I'm very happy in AEW. I'm very creatively stimulated here and I enjoy coming to work every time, every week, every month, whenever it may be, and to me, the fact I'm having as much fun as I'm having and doing the work that I'm doing now after almost 30 years in the business is a testament to the longevity that I have and also to the great environment that AEW is providing for me.
So, Chris Jericho won't be a "free agent" anytime soon, but I need to ask you about someone that, this week, has apparently become a free agent. Brock Lesnar. A lot of rumors that Brock Lesnar might go to AEW. Do you have any thoughts on that at all?
The only reason why the rumor's there is somebody said "free agent". I don't think he's really a free agent at all. I think it would take so much money to pry him away from Vince McMahon on Brock's end and then for Vince to approve that...
I mean, Vince has two billion dollars in the bank. What are you going to spend on Brock Lesnar that Vince isn't going to match? And Vince and Brock have a strange love affair, to begin with.
So would Brock fit in at AEW? Would he pay back his salary that you would pay him to be in AEW? Who's to say, but I think UFC, AEW... I think it's just another one of the dances that Vince and Brock like to have where Brock's contract expires, Vince lets it expire, and then they stay away from each other until the next Saudi Arabia show or the next show that has people in the crowd, or WrestleMania, whatever it may be. So I don't think Brock is really a free agent in the sense of the word, I just think he's like currently not under contract right now.
The amount of money it would take him to tear him away from from the world of WWE would, A, be astronomical, B, Vince will never allow it to happen and, C, I don't know if you could make that investment back, or if it would even be worth it for AEW at this point in time or UFC, or any company other than WWE.
Yeah, but you've got to admire the negotiating tactics, I guess, in some way.
Absolutely. He's a very, very smart guy and Vince is a very smart guy as well, so I think they appreciate the duel that they have with each other.
Next:
- Chris Jericho discusses having real fans as opposed to virtual fans
- Chris Jericho gives his thoughts on MJF
- Chris Jericho discusses the WWE ThunderDome
Coming up:
- Chris Jericho reveals whether he should have been higher on the PWI 500 and whether Jon Moxley was a worthy chart-topper
- Chris Jericho discusses having fans back at AEW shows
- Chris Jericho reveals how he tried to recruit Jon Moxley to AEW 18 months ago
