TNT might accept blood and guts, but they will not accept smoking.
AEW has pushed the boundaries on Dynamite with pizza cutters, light tubes, parking lot brawls, and much more, but one thing they won't tolerate is smoking.
Speaking to Stephanie Chase, Chris Jericho recalled one incident where TNT was angry over Jericho smoking in a segment.
"TNT is rolling with it because the ratings are great and the demo is high. Obviously, there's certain things we've been reprimanded for, there are a few things I could tell you. We're not stupid, if there's something that goes on that the parent company doesn't like, we don't do it anymore. That's why AEW is as successful as we are because we're not afraid to take a few chances and we're not worried about taking chances or getting slapped on the wrist if we do something that we shouldn't do. We just don't do it again," he said.
Jericho continued by saying, "It hasn't been that many times. For me, there's a few times I can recall when they say, 'don't do that again.' One of them was when we beat up Dustin Rhodes in the parking lot and as we left, I lit up a cigar. They did not like that. No smoking allowed on the show. They were super angry about it. No smoking allowed! I was like, "Really, out of all the things, that's what they are mad at?' They were very adamant, they didn't want any smoking on the show and if we did it again, I don't know if this was used but the way it was told me was, 'we'll pull the show if you guys do it again.' Alright, I don't need to be smoking. I just did it because It thought it was an asshole thing to do. Apparently, so did they."
The segment occurred on the October 30, 2019 episode of AEW Dynamite when the Inner Circle broke Dustin Rhodes' arm in the parking lot.
Elsewhere during the interview, Jericho discussed his idea to disband the Inner Circle. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
Jericho is set to team with Jake Hager on Friday's AEW Rampage Grand Slam against Scorpio Sky & Ethan Page. Fightful will have live coverage of AEW Rampage Grand Slam beginning at 10 p.m. ET on Friday.
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