Over three decades into his globe trotting career, Chris Jericho has received a healthy amount of praise off Tony Khan who sees Jericho as having perhaps the best year of his entire career in 2022.
Since the conception of AEW nearly three years ago, Chris Jericho has always felt like a loadbearing wall for the promotion especially in its first few years. Jericho to this day remains a highly popular figure who graces Dynamite and Rampage with sever frequency, while currently holding his newly won prize, The Ring of Honor World Championship which Chris obtained after defeating Claudio Castagnoli.
Tony Khan appeared on the My Mom’s Basement with Robbie Fox where he spoke his mind on the exciting year that Jericho has been having and the incredibly valuable status he’s earned within the company.
“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,”
Tony Khan
Tony Khan took time to discuss that some wrestling fans that may not be as big a fan of Jericho recently have had to take a step back and admire one of the most exciting times in the rekindled Lionheart’s career.
“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,”
Tony Khan
All Elite Wrestling’s president Tony Khan then went on to discuss Chris Jericho’s recent sensational body transformation in which he seemingly cut back on the bubbly and was revealed to be in the best shape of his career 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,”
Tony Khan
On the September 28th episode of AEW Dynamite, Chris Jericho would take on Bandido in the later mans AEW singles debut. Tony Khan took time to put over the match and give it credit for getting fresh eyes on a hot new star.
“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,”
Tony Khan
It was pop quiz time for Tony Khan as he was asked if he could mention some of what he perceived as Chris Jericho’s best matches of the year, Tony Khan summed it up by saying he believes Chris Jericho has very much earned an “MVP” status withing All Elite Wrestling.
“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,”
Tony Khan
The Ring of Honor World Champion, Chris Jericho is penned to face The American Dragon Bryan Danielson on the Ocober 12th edition of AEW Dynamite.
H/T Fightful for the transcription
