During a recent appearance on the “Sunday Night’s Main Event” podcast, Chris Jericho commented on the criticisms that AEW has too many factions, his backstage role in AEW, and more. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On his current position in AEW: “I think I literally have a position as ‘Senior Advisor to the CEO.’ When they were talking about EVPs and all that sort of thing, I was like, I don’t want to have anything to do with it because these guys are doing a lot of work at the beginning finding sponsors, going to Cracker Barrel, helping to book towns [and] doing all this stuff. I was like, I don’t want to have anything to do with that, but when you’re talking about the creative side of things, I mean, obviously I worry about what Chris Jericho’s storyline is first and foremost.
On working with Tony Khan: “I don’t know if I have a lot of say. Obviously, Tony’s the boss, and that’s one thing that’s really grown over the last year is that people understand, and I knew it from the start, but I think a lot of the guys thought, oh we’re a big committee and a big team. No, there needs to be one boss, and that’s Tony Khan and then file down from there. So I have some say when I’m asked my opinions, but I also don’t know everything that’s going on on the show, nor do I want to because worrying about 30 or 40 different storylines is quite a lot of pressure.
Tony loves that. He’s a stats guy. He’s a numbers guy. He could remember all of that stuff, and I think he really enjoys that. And so if he’s looking at a certain section of all of this and asks my advice or opinion or tells me things that he’s doing, I’ll give my feedback, but I would say an advisor is a great way to kind of explain what I do for AEW and not just for Tony Khan but for a lot of the guys. I mentioned it on Broken Skull Sessions, I have a line out at my door sometimes of people wanting to talk to me, whether it’s the production guys or whether it’s the talent [or] everybody in between to hear my advice or get my thoughts or opinions. I appreciate that and look forward to it.”
On the criticism that AEW has too many factions: “It’s not something I’ve been privy to, but what I think is that Tony Khan likes factions. If you work in New Japan, everyone’s with a faction. When I go there, I feel lonely because it will say so and so is part of this faction, then it’s, Chris Jericho, ‘solo’. I got no friends. I think he likes having the factions, and here’s the real reason why, my opinion, you have to ask him, is I think he likes having people involved. And everybody on our show has a purpose and a point, and I would never suggest that someone doesn’t get TV time. So when you put together, for example, The Factory with QT [Marshall] and then now, Anthony Ogogo gets TV time [and] Nick Comoroto. My point is that they’re getting TV time, and they’re on the show, which they wouldn’t be if they weren’t involved in this faction.
I know one of the things people were saying was, ‘There was 75 people on Dynamite last night,’ and that might be true, but look at what we’re doing on that Dynamite where there were 75 people. For example, the main event was Jungle Boy vs. Darby [Allin] and the crossover with [Hikaru] Shida vs. Tay [Conti]. We are building our own stars, and if you have to see 75 people on the show, just go with it because out of those 75, hopefully over the next three or four years, we will build them all into stars. Some will be opening match level, some will be main event PPV headliners but that’s how you get started, giving these guys experience and getting them face time on TV where people know who the hell they are. And that’s very important when you’re trying to build your company from scratch, which is what we’ve done.”
