Chris Jericho details the difference in working with Tony Khan and working for Vince McMahon.
Chris Jericho was with the WWE for 20 years before joining forces with The Elite and Tony Khan in order to help jump-start All Elite Wrestling. With the new frontier comes new challenges and responsibilities. Chris Jericho has often said he is excited to have this new promotion relying on the star power that he brings to help further along to greater heights, but he does miss some elements of his time in WWE.
When asked during his most recent Q&A session what he misses the most about working for WWE, Chris would say he misses being challenged by WWE CEO Vince McMahon. Jericho would also detail that it took him nearly a decade to earn the trust of the tenured promoter.
"Honestly, my interactions with Vince," said Jericho. "I really, really enjoyed working for Vince McMahon because he challenged me, he challenged me as a professional. He challenged me on my ideas. It wasn't easy and at the end of the day is Vince's ice cream shop, as Pat [Patterson] would say, and you're living in it."
He continued, “I never had a problem with Vince. I mean, obviously, you have problems with your boss when he's twenty-five years older and, you know, whatever it is... I was always a little bit intimidated by Vince, but he always challenged me. I got to a certain point after the Shawn Michaels feud in 2008-2009, he trusted my judgment. Nine times out of ten, he would go with what I wanted to do. One time out of ten, he wouldn't [and] that would piss me off! Like, 'give me the fucking courtesy, at least trying this.'”
Overall, Jericho would say that All Elite Wrestling is much more beneficial to his creative style. You could also say that he enjoys working with Tony Khan, which is a much different relationship than the one Chris shares with Vincent Kennedy McMahon.
“WWE, they work the way they work. [In] my opinion, for what I appreciate, AEW is so much more beneficial and so much more in tune with how I think. I love working with Tony Khan and like I said, I work with Tony Khan, I worked for Vince McMahon. There's a difference.”
In the same Q&A session, Jericho had some very harsh words for the unnamed person that he calls an NXT “reject” after Eric Bischoff’s recent Dynamite appearance leaked on Reddit. Learn more at this link.
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