Former AEW World Champion Chris Jericho spoke with NOW Toronto about performing in Canada for AEW Dynamite this week. Jericho will defend the ROH World Championship against Bryan Danielson on this week’s show in Toronto.
Despite being billed from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Y2J isn’t worried about receiving cheers over his opponent.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On performing for AEW in Canada this week: “It’s been a long time coming. Right out of the gate we were a big hit in Canada. I know our numbers on TSN are really good. But we had this little thing called the worldwide pandemic that delayed getting here. I was always asking, “When are we hitting Canada? When’s Toronto?” Now that it’s almost time… it’s really exciting. Toronto wrestling fans are off the charts. Whenever someone asks about the best wrestling cities in the world I always say London, Chicago, Tokyo and Toronto. Toronto is loud. You cheer for who you want to cheer for… sometimes that would drive WWE heads of state crazy. They would call it bizzaro land. But that’s the Canadian way. We’ll go nuts for who we like and we’ll boo who we hate. We don’t care what we are “supposed” to do. I’m excited to see the reaction we get.”
On being the heel against Bryan Danielson in Toronto on this week’s Dynamite: “The great thing about AEW is: it really doesn’t matter. People are going to cheer who they’re going to cheer for. I mean Jericho Appreciation Society are the heels. We’re sports entertainers and we’re going to desecrate the legacy of the championship. I’m facing Bryan Danielson, who is one of the most popular wrestlers in the world. But it’s Chris Jericho in Canada for the first time with AEW. I expect a monstrous reaction for both of us. As long as they’re making noise, it’s all I care about. But if you had to ask me, gun to the head, I think I’m probably going to be pretty popular in Canada. Even though Toronto is thousands of kilometers away from Winnipeg.”
On people calling him the greatest Canadian wrestler: “It’s pretty hard to beat Owen Hart and Bret Hart as the greatest professional wrestlers from Canada. I’ll give it to them. If people want to give it to me, I appreciate that. Most important thing, though, as long as people get their money’s worth when they come see Chris Jericho… that’s all I care about. Mission accomplished.”
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