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Chris Jericho On Being Asked to Join the nWo, Says He Legitimized AEW, Explains How He Has Managed To Stay On Top For So Long

January 18, 2020 | Posted by Ashish
Chris Jericho AEW Dynamite 10-10-19

In an interview with Jim Varsallone, Chris Jericho discussed how rewarding it has been to have AEW been built on his shoulders, his longevity, and being asked to join the nWo in 1998. Highlights are below.

On how AEW has been built on his shoulders: “The fact that it was basically built on my shoulders out of the gate. I think having Chris Jericho involved really kind of legitimized them as a company. To have a real, not to stroke my own ego, but a real big name that everyone knows, and they go, ‘Wow, Jericho’s there? We’ve heard of Kenny Omega or the Bucks, we kind of know Cody, but Chris Jericho, that’s a WWE cornerstone at this point.’ So to kind of have that pressure and to see it pay off has been really, really rewarding.”

On how he has managed to stay fresh and on top after so many years: “I just think commitment. When I started getting burned out, I left. When I started feeling creatively unfilled, I made changes. Constant reinvention, but not forced. Every kind of aspect of my character through the years is just something that feels right. When you say ‘Le Champion’, you couldn’t say that unless you had total commitment to it to know that you can get it over. If not, it’s just a fake French word that sounds kind of dumb. But if you have conviction and believe it, suddenly everyone is calling you Le Champion, they think it’s fun to say. So if you look from Le Champion to Painmaker to ‘a little bit of the bubbly’ to ‘The List’ to ‘It’ to Y2J and ‘the suit and tie hypocrite guy’ and all those phases of Chris Jericho, were all where I was at the time. I couldn’t go back and play Y2J the same way that Robert Plant doesn’t want to go sing Led Zeppelin songs anymore. Just doesn’t feel it. It’s one of the reasons I went to AEW, because I knew if I go back to WWE, the first thing they’re gonna want me to do is put somebody on The List, and I just don’t feel that anymore, I feel it’s almost a nostalgia thing. So I constantly have to recreate and rediscover and be something new, and I said it in an interview a few weeks ago, if you like what I’m doing, enjoy it, because once I’m finished with it, I’m not gonna come back to it.”

On being asked to join the nWo: “I remember back in ’98, one of the suggestions was for me to be in the nWo and I was like, ‘Absolutely not, there are 15 guys in the nWo, they don’t need me and I don’t need them.'”

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

article topics :

Chris Jericho, Ashish