Chris Jericho Talks Industry Impact Of AEW, Calls Himself The Bobby Hull Of Wrestling

Chris Jericho’s impact on AEW has been undeniable, as one of the biggest names to first sign with Tony Khan in 2019 and the promotion’s inaugural AEW World Champion. During an interview with GamesHub, Jericho commented on the financial impact he’s had on AEW, and compared his journey to the promotion from WWE to that of ice hockey legend Bubby Hull jumping from the NHL to an upstart league called the WHA.

“They paid him a million dollars. When he jumped, every player in the NHL got a raise,” he pointed out. Notably, Jericho’s father was a hockey player, and according to the veteran, Hull’s transition into WHA bumped his father’s pay up. “The moment I left WWE, Vince was thinking, ‘It’s happening again — raise everybody’s pay.’ There had been a ceiling for years.”

Jericho further claimed that nobody was paid more than a million dollars on guaranteed contracts in WWE, and added that his move to AEW was such a major needle-mover in the industry. “Guys started earning above it for the first time,” he said. “That changed everything in the best possible way.”

Chris Jericho also noted that the competition between WWE and AEW similarly boosted WWE’s product, just as their rivalry with WCW did, and criticized the fact that wrestling became a monopoly again after the aforementioned promotion’s acquisition. “When I first had a meeting with Tony Khan about this new company, I thought there was no way it would work, because I’d heard it so many times before,” he admitted.

The veteran then shared his belief that a successful wrestling company needs three important things to start: plenty of money, new talent, and a strong TV deal. According to Jericho, Khan had all of that. “That’s all you need to start a company. And then once we started, I knew I had about three months to build as many guys as I could while the spotlight was on me, since I was the only nationally recognized star besides Jim Ross,” he added.

Jericho then claimed that he closely began to work with the likes of Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega, Adam Page, Darby Allin, Scorpio Sky, and Jungle Boy, to all pass on the torch in different ways. “Then I put together the Inner Circle with Sammy, Ortiz, Santana, and Jake,” he recounted. “Suddenly it’s not all on my back — it’s on six backs, then ten, then twelve. That’s how you build a company.”