Rob Van Dam Responds To Chris Jericho’s Recent Comments About TNA, Thinks AEW Is Still No. 2

As previously noted, former AEW World Champion Chris Jericho made some surprising comments about TNA in November, saying that the crowd at TNA Bound for Glory 2025 looked “like a WWE-level crowd. He also added, “TNA looked like the second biggest company in the world.” During a recent interview with Games Hub, WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam was asked about Jericho’s recent comments.

Rob Van Dam also chimed in on rumors regarding Chris Jericho possibly returning to WWE and getting a retirement tour, similar to John Cena. Below are some highlights from Games Hub:

Rob Van Dam on Chris Jericho Saying That TNA Looked Like the Second-Biggest Wrestling Company in the World

“Wow. I mean, what standards are we going to go by? I think that in the bubble that I live in, it seems like the fans talk about AEW a lot more than TNA. I think that TNA has been around so long that if you don’t follow every step of their growth, they may seem stagnant just in the back of your mind, subconsciously, just by thinking that they’ve always been there at this level. They’re probably just always gonna stay at that level. And that’s just something we can count on. But over here, we got WWE and AEW arguing over who’s better. And it seems like it’s more like that, but if TNA surpasses AEW in measurable standards, whether it’s TV viewership or money or crowds, whatever, then I could definitely see that happening. It could be happening right now, and I don’t know. So it’s definitely an interesting perspective.

“But for me, I think when it comes to people talking and unfortunately a lot of my information does come from seeing on the internet, and I know that the internet mark community is a lot more vocal than the other 98% of the fans that would never bother to actually write an email filled with hate and send it to someone over something that has nothing to do with them and so the vocal minority sounds like the majority a lot of the time, so that could be a swerving factor. But to answer that, I would probably think it would be WWE and then AEW and then TNA, in my opinion.”

On If He Thinks Jericho Will Get a Retirement Tour in WWE Similar To John Cena

“It could be. But I feel like what they did with Cena retiring was really special. I don’t remember anybody’s retirement being built up and pushed to mean that much. But then again, it seems all I’m reading is that Brock Lesnar is going to be the next guy to get a retirement tour. Then, as soon as I read that, it feels like it waters down the importance of that being what it was. So I don’t know though. Maybe retirement tours will be a popular thing. Maybe we’ll all do it. But I can’t imagine he’ll get one. And not to take anything away from Jericho’s career, he has done more for the business than anyone and has all of the accomplishments to go with it, but Cena was like an era, he was the number one guy the whole time I was in WWE. They had him come in during 2001 and I think he had just come up from Ohio Valley, if I’m not mistaken, somewhere around that time. And then he’s just always been like the guy to beat. He’s been the top guy. He has been the guy that’s wrestled all the other top guys, keeping things marching forward, so automatically when other wrestlers are talked about doing retirement tours, I have to start comparing the importance, the weight of this guy retiring versus the Cena retirement tour, which was the biggest thing of 2025, right?”

There are many questions surrounding Chris Jericho’s current AEW status, as it was rumored that his latest AEW contract was expiring at the end of the year, and there was talk of him returning to WWE as early as last Monday’s episode of Raw. However, Jericho never appeared during the show.

Later reports indicated that Jericho was never scheduled for this week’s WWE Raw. Also, when he was asked about Jericho’s AEW status, Tony Khan sounded very vague about the matter, stating, “I love Chris very much, and I would say that Chris is always a big part of AEW, and I would say this promotion is here to stay, and Chris Jericho’s a huge part of our history. And we’re really proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish, and Chris is an instrumental part of it.”

At the moment, Chris Jericho is still listed on the AEW roster page.