Chris Jericho is one of the most decorated professional wrestlers of all time. Over the course of his storied career, he’s held championship gold in every major promotion, finding equal success as a beloved babyface or earning jeers as a dastardly heel. For the past three years, the Winnipeg native has been a headliner for upstart wrestling promotion AEW (All Elite Wrestling). The company, which broadcasts on TSN in Canada, has emerged as the first real competition to the WWE in over two decades. The success of the brand has been built on the back of long-term storytelling, performances from established stars like Jericho and Jon Moxley, and a number of hungry young wrestlers eager to make their name in the squared circle.
AEW will make its Canadian debut with television tapings this Wednesday and Thursday at the Coca-Cola Colosseum. For Jericho, bringing the company to his home country has been a long time in the making. While the performer has a history in Toronto – he’s main evented Wrestlemania at the Skydome, played sold out gigs with his band Fozzy at the Opera House, and even filmed a Curb Your Enthusiasm-esque web series with local comedians – getting the opportunity to showcase AEW live in front of a Canadian crowd is another proverbial feather in his cap. NOW had the chance to chat with Jericho ahead of the events.
Canadians, and Torontonians in particular, are known as passionate wrestling fans. Why do you think the city has historically been such a great place for wrestling?
I think it’s one of those things that’s ingrained as part of the culture in Canada. With WWE, where I worked for almost 20 years, we were in Toronto two or three times a year. It seemed like we were there all the time. When you spend a lot of time in a market, and there’s obviously a great fan base, it’s just a no brainer to keep going. Growing up in Winnipeg, it was always about wrestling and hockey. Toronto’s got the same vibe. It’s all about wrestling and hockey.
How does it feel to get to perform here with AEW?
It’s been a long time coming. Right out of the gate we were a big hit in Canada. I know our numbers on TSN are really good. But we had this little thing called the worldwide pandemic that delayed getting here. I was always asking, “When are we hitting Canada? When’s Toronto?” Now that it’s almost time… it’s really exciting. Toronto wrestling fans are off the charts. Whenever someone asks about the best wrestling cities in the world I always say London, Chicago, Tokyo and Toronto. Toronto is loud. You cheer for who you want to cheer for… sometimes that would drive WWE heads of state crazy. They would call it bizzaro land. But that’s the Canadian way. We’ll go nuts for who we like and we’ll boo who we hate. We don’t care what we are “supposed” to do. I’m excited to see the reaction we get.
Speaking of reactions… the latest iteration of your persona is a villainous sports entertainer trying to destroy traditional pro wrestling with the Jericho Appreciation Society. It’s a fun new evolution of the character. Why do you feel the need to keep evolving your presentation rather than resting on what’s been successful in the past?
If you’re resting on your success, you’re resting – period. And I never wanted that for myself. I never feel the need to evolve just to evolve. I follow the story. The stories lead me, and if the stories call for it that means I need to make changes and reinvent myself. I could probably stick around and play one persona a little longer but I just kind of swing from vine to vine. Who would have thought calling myself a Wizard would be anything? Calling myself Le Champion? When I started the Jericho Appreciation Society they thought it was the stupidest name ever. But I’m good at reading the room. They said it’d never work, and I was like, it’ll work. It’ll work well. You can’t teach experience. I’m good at calling the shot before it happens and nine times out of 10, I’m right.
AEW just passed the three-year anniversary of Dynamite. We’ve seen big growth for the company. What do you attribute the success to?
There was a need for competition, and it’s brought a lot of excitement back to the business. It’s one of the reasons why I wanted to go to AEW in the first place. I knew that I could go back to WWE and have a decent spot or I could go to AEW and possibly change the course of wrestling history. We haven’t seen a company as big as ours in decades. Out of the gate the style was different. The attitude was different… right out of the gate it became a big success. The first three months we were on an ad revenue share for television. If they show an ad for Coca-Cola, we get a piece of that. If nobody buys ads, nobody makes any money at all. Three months later we signed a deal for $160 million for four years. We’ve always had that connection with our fans, but I think we’ve surprised a lot of people.
You’re in a title match this Wednesday, coming into Toronto as the bad guy. You’re also Chris Jericho in Canada. Do you expect to be booed?
The great thing about AEW is: it really doesn’t matter. People are going to cheer who they’re going to cheer for. I mean Jericho Appreciation Society are the heels. We’re sports entertainers and we’re going to desecrate the legacy of the championship. I’m facing Bryan Danielson, who is one of the most popular wrestlers in the world. But it’s Chris Jericho in Canada for the first time with AEW. I expect a monstrous reaction for both of us. As long as they’re making noise, it’s all I care about. But if you had to ask me, gun to the head, I think I’m probably going to be pretty popular in Canada. Even though Toronto is thousands of kilometers away from Winnipeg.
Last question. Many people have called you the greatest Canadian wrestler of all time. How do you respond to that?
It’s pretty hard to beat Owen Hart and Bret Hart as the greatest professional wrestlers from Canada. I’ll give it to them. If people want to give it to me, I appreciate that. Most important thing, though, as long as people get their money’s worth when they come see Chris Jericho… that’s all I care about. Mission accomplished.
This interview has been edited for length.
Graham Isador (@presgang) is a writer and photographer.
