Over 30 years after Chris Jericho debuted, AEW president Tony Khan says he's having the best year of his career.
Jericho has been one of AEW's top stars since the company launched, and he was its first world champion. Three years into AEW's existence, Jericho remains a featured player on TV, and he currently holds the ROH World Championship. Throughout the year, he has had memorable battles with names like Jon Moxley, Bryan Danielson, and Eddie Kingston.
Speaking on My Mom's Basement with Robbie Fox, Khan shared his belief that Jericho his having the best year of his career, and he should be considered in conversations about AEW's MVP.
"In addition to MOX, who's such a great champion, and has been an amazing top guy for us this year, Chris Jericho is having the best year of his career. So I think if Chris Jericho was having the best year of his career, then you have to consider Chris Jericho for the MVP, too, and he's the other world champion in AEW right now. He's the Ring of Honor World Champion — or the Ring of Jericho World Champion. It's the eighth World Championship for Chris Jericho. I've been watching Chris Jericho for over 27 years, going on 28 years now. He's one of my favorite wrestlers of all time and it wasn't me saying this," Khan said.
The AEW president then noted that even cynical fans have been impressed by the run that Jericho has been on. He noted that, once again, the former AEW World Champion has reinvented himself, but he's done it in an unexpected way this time. Khan then credited Moxley with the idea to have Jericho bring The Lionheart persona back.
"It was scrutinizing wrestling fans who are really cynical that I was around recently. They were not just saying it to pacify me, 'Chris Jericho, the run he's on, it's unprecedented.' isn't it amazing how he's coming in this year? I mean, he's lost 31 pounds. So that is, visually, almost jarring to see the Chris Jericho we remember from a decade ago or two decades ago, and the things he's done this year you talk about reinvention, but he's been able to do it in a completely unexpected way. Jon Moxley, the other great MVP name is the person who actually came up with the idea for Chris to bring The Lionheart back this year, which I loved," he said.
Khan continued by highlighting Jericho's remarkable body transformation and stating that he looks the best he has looked in years.
"Because now was the time to do it. I don't think it would have made sense to do it a year or two years ago, or even at the beginning of AEW, and Chris looks like the best he's looked. When you saw the side-by-side of how ripped Chris is and what he looked like as Lionheart, so many people were like, 'Wow, Chris looks better now. He looks awesome. He's ripped. I think it's with all the weight loss and, his diet, he's talked about it. He did an interview in GQ. So he went into detail about what he did with eating eight small meals, and he just did a complete 180 In terms of how he treated his diet because he wasn't eating good at all. I spent a lot of time with Chris and I can tell you, he was not. He eats so great now, and I love what he's doing. So that's why I bring it forward," Khan said.
Khan brought up Jericho's ROH World Championship match with Bandido and called it an awesome bout. He then pointed out that Jericho is drawing large numbers in the ratings and stated that there's a lot of interest in what he's doing right now.
"I think the match he just had with Bandido, there was so much crazy shit in that match, dude it was fucking awesome. I believe now similarly, you know, Bandido isn't going to come in and necessarily do the same kind of viewership as is an established star like Darby Allin, or Bryan Danielson, or even Jungle Boy, people have been on TV a long time and do numbers. I think what we're doing with Bandido was giving a young star a great opportunity. I really like him and had worked with him a little bit and Ring of Honor, previously, and that's where I had gotten to meet him. In particular, with Jericho, that Bandido match, I mean, the amount of crazy stuff, the variety of great moves. You see Chris wrestling at such a high level, but then he came in, and what a vintage Chris Jericho promo segment, 'The Ocho' celebration was. The segment was most was basically the first quarter-hour and that was like 1.2 million and a huge number in the demo. There's a huge amount of interest in what Chris is doing right now. It's awesome," Khan said.
Khan concluded by picking his four favorite matches that Jericho has had this year and emphasized that he's one of the MVP candidates in AEW.
"If I had to pick four singles matches of Chris's that are my favorite this year, I think I would say: versus Eddie Kingston at Revolution, versus Jon Moxley at Quake by the Lake, versus Bryan Danielson in the Tournament of Champions, and I would say versus Bandido last week in Chris' first defense of the Ring of Honor World Championship on Dynamite. So, I would certainly consider Chris up there, too, as one of the MVP candidates in AEW," he said.
Click here to see Jericho's comments aboout why Eddie Kingston reminds him of Randy Orton.
Jericho is set to defend the ROH World Championship against Bryan Danielson on the October 12 episode of AEW Dynamite. More information is available here.
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