Chris Jericho Reveals He’s An AEW Employee, Not An Independent Contractor

– Chris Jericho recently appeared on Jesse “The Body” Ventura’s The World According to Jesse. During the interview, the topic of wrestlers being independent contractors came up. Here’s why Jericho had to say on the topic (via Fightful).

On His Contract Status With AEW: “I don’t know everybody’s specific deals, but I am an employee of AEW. So there are inroads for that, at least for me. I’m a registered employee of the company. There are options that are opening up to this sort of vibe. When you play for a sports team — The Khan Family owns AEW, Jacksonville Jaguars, Fulham FC -0 there’s a different vibe there. It’s more of a big time sports mentality rather than the old school ‘the way things are done’ wrestling mentality. There is a time when you have to change that. Just because it is that way, doesn’t mean that it’s right.”

On Benefits Compared To WWE: “AEW has health care and dental for the performers. You’re talking about a big sports team mentality instead of the every man for himself mentality the business has had for years. It’s something that appealed to me. I worked for WWE for 18 years. It’s hard to leave the place you’ve been for so long. There are loyalty and sentimental standpoint. From a business standpoint, there was no choice. AEW was better across the board, from the guarantee I was given, the contract I was given, the employee status, the healthcare. There’s a lot more of that going on, and I think that’s going to continue to grow, which will force eventually WWE to follow suit, or else everybody will want to leave to come to AEW, which is already happening anyway.”