Chris Jericho On One Area AEW Needs To Improve, Balancing Comedy & Seriousness, Why WWE Comedy Doesn’t Work

In a recent interview on Keepin It 100 with Konnan, Chris Jericho discussed one area AEW needs to improve, balancing comedy and seriousness in pro wrestling, why WWE comedy doesn’t work, and much more. You can read his comments below.

Chris Jericho on one area AEW needs to improve: “Sometimes details slip through the cracks. We have times where angles will happen one after another. An example of that was a few weeks ago when the big question was will MJF join the Inner Circle? We had this big, long thing about if MJF is gonna join and I think it was the town hall with Bischoff there asking questions. As soon as we were done, we went to a package where Taz is asking Will Hobbs if he’s gonna join Taz’s team. In the production, I was like, ‘Guys, how can that even be? It’s the exact same thing. Did nobody ever notice that?’ I was like maybe we should move that package somewhere else, and in the future, let’s not use the word join for Will and Taz – are you gonna come with us, are you gonna work with us, are you gonna be part of our team? Will MJF join the Inner Circle was the tagline for our pay-per-view match. Therefore, any other joinings should be suspended for this duration. That’s just common sense, and sometimes those things fall through the cracks. I would like to see a little bit more of a detail guy or a little more attention to those sort of details.”

On trying to balance comedy and seriousness and why WWE comedy doesn’t work: “Guilty as charged. This is a lot of comedy going on. But I feel it’s the right type of comedy because, once again, the Dinner Debonair – that’s 100 percent the Blues Brothers. The Blues Brothers are having this intense conversation about how they’re gonna save the orphanage, and suddenly they go to Ray’s Music Exchange to buy new instruments and a huge giant song and dance breaks out. As soon as it ends – the moment it ends – they just go right back to talking again. That’s funny to me……I also came up in wrestling in 80s WWF. Yes, we loved Hogan and Andre. Yes, we loved Steamboat and Savage. Don’t forget Steamboat and Savage was based all around George the Animal Steele – the most ridiculous character of all time. People forget that.

“There was also too, fucking Harley Race and Jim Duggan with a big giant salmon in catering and dumping punch bowls over each other. There’s still Vince McMahon singing “Stand Back” with Hulk Hogan playing bass in the background. I loved that stuff, I always did. Vince loves that stuff. That’s why – let me try some stuff. Song and dance routine, I wouldn’t do that with just anybody – that was MJF’s original idea. The guy is a child prodigy, he’s been singing and dancing since he was five years old. So, I thought if there was ever a time to try it, let’s do it. Are we gonna do it every week? No. Is it something people will always remember? Yes. I’ve never been afraid to take a chance with these things because I’m really confident that if we commit to it and be smart about it – my view of comedy is you always play it straight. WWE comedy is dick and fart jokes. That’s why a lot of that doesn’t work.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Keepin It 100 with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.