There is no denying that AEW’s Chris Jericho knows how to make a return. His most recent one to AEW this year was aided by the knowledge he gathered in WWE. Speaking to Renee Paquette on Close Up, he said,
“It was months in the making. I flew in a private jet the night before because I didn’t want anybody to see me. Basically sat in my room for 24 hours. I didn’t see any of my friends. One of my best friends flew in from Vegas for the show, and he didn’t even know I was going to be there. It was a really cool moment, and nobody knew.”
“Tony knew and a few other people, but even when I got picked up at the hotel, the driver was like, ‘I can’t believe it’s you.’ We waited outside on the street and I didn’t even take the elevator to the lobby because if it got stuck…I ran down the stairs. I wasn’t leaving anything to chance. We drove down to the basement behind Gorilla, waited in the car until 30 seconds before, got out of the car, and walked right out.”
“It was something I learned in WWE, where sometimes you don’t have to say a lot; that’s why that promo was two words. It’s a Pat Patterson thing, ‘Why throw everything out at once?’ You got the initial pop of being back on the show, let’s leave it and then explain more the following week.”
“It was great too because the Winnipeg reaction was great, but it got better in Edmonton and better in Vancouver. Kept getting better and better. It was a reset and kind of threw a proverbial cup of cold water in everybody’s faces because nobody knew what was going on, and then it was done.”
Jericho On His Current AEW Run
He also talked about how much fun he’s having in AEW right now. Jericho said,
“What I did was very simply take one word away and just make it Jericho. Suddenly, it’s the topic of conversation. It’s nothing other than something new by keeping it the most basic of basics. That’s now become a thing. It’s the new era of Chris Jericho—the Jericho, the self-titled album era. So, that’s kind of what I was focusing on.”
“Then, of course, when you get back in the ring, you never lose it, but you never know. What’s my cardio going to be like? How am I going to be moving? [Especially when you’ve got someone like Ricochet on the other side of you.] But that actually worked out great because he is so athletic and so acrobatic.”
“I got in there and realized I didn’t really lose a step either. So, he was the perfect first opponent to have. It was a great storyline because he’s an awesome heel. He knows how to be a heel, and that helped me kind of reimagine what a babyface Jericho was like.”
“So yeah, I couldn’t be happier with the first couple months of this return—just how it’s been accepted and how much fun it’s been. That’s the point, Renee. At this time, if I’m not having fun, I don’t want to do it. It has to be fun, and this has been a lot of fun all across the board.”
