Chris Jericho says he's happy for Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows now that they are free and in IMPACT Wrestling.
During their exodus podcast where they explain their time in WWE, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson reveal that they had initially given their word to AEW that they would be joining the team starting with the first episode of Dynamite. Gallows and Anderson openly admit that they were going to be a huge part of the finishing segment of the first episode and they regret not going.
Anderson recalled, "As it got to June, I remember the text from Matt & Nick and they had planned out the entire first debut of Dynamite's main event. Machine Gun music hits, I come out, Gallows comes from behind, we 'too sweet' the Young Bucks and Kenny, turn around, then we beat the fuck out of them. That's the end of the first night of [Dynamite]. It's one of the biggest regrets of my life that it didn't happen. It kills me. We didn't know if it was going to take off on TNT, but we knew with the guys involved, Young Bucks, Kenny, Chris Jericho, those are guys that are successful and are not going to fail. We knew AEW would be successful, we just succumbed to the amount of money and promises, kept or unkept, by WWE. We signed because of the thought that it was going to be our last contract and we were gonna ride it out and wave the WWE flag as high as we could."
Chris Jericho confirmed this story on his latest Saturday Night Special Q&A, revealing that he is happy for the good Brothers landing in IMPACT, but they were initially considered to be a part of the formation of the Inner Circle faction.
“I'm very happy for them. They did a great podcast this week, Talk'n Shop, talking about kind of the whole controversy about when they went back to WWE after we had discussed them coming to AEW for a few months. The Young Bucks, myself, [and] Kenny Omega, kind of convinced Tony Khan that they'd be excellent in AEW and one of the ideas at one point was to have Gallows and Anderson in the Inner Circle,” Jericho said. “Let me just say, I love the Inner Circle. I think we really stumbled onto something great. But keep this in mind, I knew Jake Hager, but I hadn't seen him or work with him in years and never had met Santana and Ortiz other than my cruise where we crossed paths briefly and I didn't know Sammy Guevara at all. So basically having me and Jake had some history and some good matches and some good times, but nothing with the other guys. So you're sticking. It's like forming a band with five separate guys that you haven't even met, you know? Here we are now, one of the best, I think, one of the best factions in wrestling history and we're only not even a year in. So I'm very proud of the work that we've done together and I think there's a lot more to come.”
Continuing on, Jericho would say that he's proud and happy for Gallows and Anderson. He admitted that he was glad they admitted they made a mistake by not joining AEW but he will be looking forward to seeing what they do next including their pay per view, which Jericho says he will watch even though it will be “a total waste of time.”
“So I'm very excited to be working with those guys and we have a lot of good stuff coming up. But anyways, Anderson, Gallows, I'm very excited for them. They're owning the fact that they made the wrong decision and they went to WWE instead of AEW. Business is business. They did what they thought was best for them and their families. They kind of got screwed because of it. These guys are so funny. The two the funniest guys I've ever met, and they've already got IMPACT. They're going to go back to New Japan, they've got the podcast, Talk'n Shop, they've got Talk'n ShopaMania which is going to be a total waste of time. I'm still going to watch it, but I'm proud of those guys and happy for those guys.”
Gallows and Anderson made their debut at IMPACT Slammiversary by helping new World Heavyweight Champion, Eddie Edwards make sure he would be able to celebrate his victory.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit Fightful by linking back to this transcription.
