Chris Jericho surprisingly breaks character to praise former WWE star after AEW Dynasty

Chris Jericho recently sent out a heartfelt message for a top AEW star after his major win on Dynasty a few days ago. This would be Swerve Strickland.

Last weekend, Swerve did the improbable and dethroned Samoa Joe to become the new AEW World Champion. This was after months of him working his way up the rankings and presenting himself as the promotion's next big thing.

On Twitter, a clip recently surfaced of Chris Jericho's speech for Swerve Strickland during the victory party. He claimed that he'd known about his potential for several months now, and for Jericho, he was worthy of being part of the small list of 'elite' world champions.

“I knew about six months ago that this is our guy, this is the next guy. I would have done it two months earlier, I don’t share booking, but it would have been great. There has only been eight champions in AEW, eight different guys… He’s No. 8 in 5 years, that’s a long time. We don’t change titles, world titles very often until it’s the absolute right guy. He is the right guy for the job, he’s got the X factor."

He continued.

"If I was the big weight in AEW, maybe I am, I would put you on every f**king talk show, I would promote you every single way because you have what we need, the ability to crossover into mainstream and I am super proud of you, man, and you had it since day one, but a lot of guys have it but are not able to make it happen, but you did and now it’s your time and I will push you to the f**king limit till the house comes on and do my best to make sure that happens.” [H/T - RSN]

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Booker T gives his thoughts on Swerve Strickland winning the AEW World Title

In a preview of his interview with Alfred Konuwa of Pro Wrestling Bits, Booker T talked about the history of black world champions across the years, and how there was clear progress. He was a fan of the decision to make Swerve the champion because he had the skills to show for it.

"That just lets you know, the generational gap, like when I won it, then was so... Like from when Ron Simmons won it, then it was so many years before another [black wrestler] won it, then it was so many years before another won it. This shows progress in professional wrestling. So for me, I'm all down with Swerve Strickland being the world champion, not just because of nothing from a showpiece perspective or anything like that; this dude is really that da*n good inside the squared circle. He deserves to be the world champion," Booker T said.

This week begins the Swerve Dynasty and he will be in action as soon as tomorrow night on AEW Dynamite when he faces Kyle Fletcher in a world title eliminator match.