Chris Jericho talks AEW with Steve Austin on The Broken Skull Sessions

By Matt Black
Modified Apr 12, 2021 03:14 IST
Chris Jericho discussed AEW with Steve Austin on The Broken Skull Sessions.
Chris Jericho discussed AEW with Steve Austin on The Broken Skull Sessions.

Chris Jericho and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin openly talked about AEW today on The Broken Skull Sessions.

To kick off the show, Chris Jericho went in-depth with Austin about how AEW came to be and his conversations with Tony Khan. While some people might already know this story, it might be the first time a casual WWE fan hears about AEW.

"It's really interesting to me because I never thought that I would really work anywhere outside of WWE in the States, for example, you know, after being there for 19 years or so. But, I mean, there's so much to go into and talk about, but I think when the opportunity for AEW came up, you know, there's a lot of dips in dues, I mean there's the reason why I left WWE, there's a reason why I went to Japan that kind of enlightened the whole scene again, but I think when AEW was about to start, and Tony Khan had this idea. Now, you've been around longer than I have, but you hear this all the time. Oh, there's going to be a new promotion. There's a guy who's got money or whatever you hear all the time, right.
"So, when I started talking to him, I sort of realizing that there's something different here about this opportunity to start a new company, and a company that could be a very big national, worldwide company, for example, and what you need for that is you need three things you need finances and passion. That's one, you need a television contract, and you need talent. You need about four to six guys you can build the territory around and talking to Tony, he had the finances, he had the passion. Then, when we started kind of sniffing around, there was a group of guys his contracts were all coming up at the same time. Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega, Young Bucks, Chris Jericho, Hangman Page, guess what, there's just six guys right there you can start a company on that six legit guys you can build around."

Hearing Chris Jericho talk about AEW on the WWE Network is surreal

Chris Jericho also went in-depth about his position in AEW. He touched on leading by example and how excited he's been to work with a talented roster of wrestlers, most of whom have never competed on live national television until now.

Jericho joked that sometimes he feels like the Vince McMahon of AEW.

"I lead by example, but what I did and somebody reminded me about this the other day. What a talented roster AEW but there are guys that have never been on live TV, right, that's a whole different world, where's the hard camera, where's the Jackie Crockett on the side, and finally, what's the crowd reaction, there's a time limit, there's commercials, you got to go off the air and 5-4-3-. So, but also to I want to let the guys know, and the girls know that this was a really big deal. And this doesn't happen every day in.
"Our first show was in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand. We sold it out sold out. And I just had a team meeting with the roster, I said, Listen, I want you guys to remember this moment, because this is a historical moment the business no matter what happens, this is the first time in 20 years, that there's an actual company like you said that could sell out the MGM Grand in Vegas is going to do you know 150,000 buys on pay-per-view with a television deal waiting in the wings.
"Don't take this for granted because it doesn't happen every day, and it'll probably never happen again. Taker doesn't say he's the locker room leader. I never say that either, but if people have questions and ideas or concerns. My door gets knocked on. I feel like Vince. Sometimes there's a lineup of people to talk to me because I have the advice and not only telling you what you want to hear, it sometimes telling you what you don't want to hear. So that's my responsibility there as well."

What did you think of Chris Jericho on The Broken Skull Sessions? Are you surprised they talked so much about AEW? Let us know by sounding off in the comments section below.