Chris Jericho has been a pro wrestler for a good part of 30 years. He has almost done everything in the business with multiple world titles, entertaining promos, and just being at the top of the mountain. With that said, the AEW run has been his most compelling in years.
If one looks at Jericho's WWE record alone, it would be outstanding. Six-time WWE World Champion, nine-time WWE Intercontinental Champion, as well as a seven-time WWE World Tag Team Champion. And that's only a small sample.
Jericho chalks this up to the freedom he has in the company, and this also includes his role in the company. As the first-ever AEW Champion, he was able to put over young AEW talent and ensure that they 'got over' with the audience at home.
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Darby Allin is a prime example of that. Jungle Boy had also benefited when he lasted 10 minutes in the ring with Jericho on AEW Dynamite, and it went a long way towards establishing Allin as a wrestler to be reckoned with.
Sammy Guevara also falls into this category, being in The Inner Circle, acting as Jericho's cheerleader and surrogate son in AEW. Their interactions have been fun, over-the-top, and Jericho has gone out of his way to ensure Sammy has as much of the spotlight as possible.
In an interview with the Tampa Bay Times, Jericho said that he did have freedom in WWE, but there was too much red tape before anything would ever get approved. Vince McMahon even offered to counter the deal with AEW before he signed with them. But he knows that the WWE doors are closed as long as he works for AEW.
Moreover, he also said that he might not get to go into the WWE Hall of Fame. He said:
“If I continue to work for the Khan family for the rest of my life, I’ll never go into the WWE Hall of Fame,” he says. “Does that bother me? No. I mean, the S** Pistols didn’t show up for theirs. I always kind of liked that."
Jericho also said that he knows that he is a Hall of Famer, and that's all that matters. Few would be hard-pressed to disagree with that.
At the moment, Jericho looks like he will have a feud with Matt Hardy in the weeks to come. Perhaps, a match in the Hardy compound is a possibility.