"On Chris Jericho’s back completely" - Former AEW World Champion takes full responsibility for the promotion's early success

Chris Jericho is one of the biggest names in professional wrestling and a true icon within AEW. The star recently took responsibility for AEW's early success when he recalled the promotion's initial struggles.

Chris Jericho has been called "The Master of Reinvention" due to his uncanny ability to remain relevant throughout his career. At 51, Jericho is still a major name and active star on the roster, compared to many of his former peers who have either passed away or retired.

During the latest episode of Talk Is Jericho, the inaugural World Champion opened up about the early stages of getting All Elite Wrestling off the ground alongside owner and president Tony Khan.

"It took me a while to really believe what Tony was talking about because what you need to start a company is you need money and a lot of it, which the Khan family has. You need a great television deal, which we didn’t have at the time, but we finally got it with TNT and TBS. So when I really started going to AEW, it really ignited my passion and love for wrestling," Jericho said.

Jericho continued, claiming that he held the promotion during its first few months.

"The first three or four months in AEW was on Chris Jericho’s back completely. So it was, if we can make this work, suddenly there’s a whole different level of legendary status." (H/T: WrestlingNews.co)

According to reports following CM Punk's brawl with The Elite, Chris Jericho has significantly stepped up backstage as a locker room leader. In a fiery promo on last week's episode of Dynamite, he claimed that AEW was his company and that no one was going to take it away from him.

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Chris Jericho claims that Vince McMahon once asked him to back out of his AEW deal

Chris Jericho parted ways with WWE back in 2018. He then returned to Japan, debuting as "The Painmaker" in NJPW and battling Kenny Omega and Tetsuya Naito. The veteran eventually made his way into AEW and debuted during the inaugural Double or Nothing pay-per-view.

During an episode of Talk Is Jericho, Chris Jericho recalled a conversation he had with Vince McMahon shortly after receiving an offer from Tony Khan.

"I said here’s the offer that I’ve gotten from this new company and Vince says to take it. I think he thought I was bluffing. I took it then about a week later Vince was like 'you took it?', I said yeah! He said, 'can you get out of it?'. No! You told me to take it, why would I try and get out of it?"

While Tony Khan picked up the former Y2J during a crucial point, many fans have been clamoring for him to return to WWE. Could the inaugural AEW World Champion someday decide to go back to WWE? Or will he cement his legacy as a foundational star in All Elite Wrestling?