Chris Jericho recently sat down with Sports Illustrated to discuss a handful of topics, including his career with All Elite Wrestling, Jake Hager, and how he came up with Darby Allin’s skateboarding entrance.
Check out some of the highlights below:
On Jake Hager:
Jake is a star and I always knew he was a star. I wanted him to be my guy like this 10 years ago. They didn’t. Oh, he’s got a lisp? Who gives a f—? He’s a legitimate bad ass. When we were putting together The Inner Circle, we needed a big guy and I said we have to get Hager. He’s a great wrestler, and I expect him to have a great match with Dustin [Rhodes, at Revolution]. But to rebuild him, I didn’t want him to talk or wrestle. I just wanted him to beat people up. And that’s what he’s been doing for six months, and look at the position he’s in.
On Darby Allin’s entrance:
It’s the first time this has ever been my position, and I’m enjoying it. If you ask Darby who is behind the scenes orchestrating his rise, it’s me. The lights out, the lights on. He didn’t want to skateboard, and I said, ‘You’re riding the f—ing skateboard down every night.’
‘Well, the skateboard people…’ Listen, I don’t give a f— about the skateboard people. The wrestling people are going to love it. And they do.
Everything we do is designed to build stars. Look at The Inner Circle. They’re way more popular than they ever were before.
On what should main event AEW Revolution:
The championship match should always go on last unless of very special circumstances. That’s why we went on last at WrestleMania 18. In retrospect, I wanted to go on before then. Hunter was adamant that the championship go on last. Fine.
Jericho-Moxley should go on last. As good of a story as Cody-MJF is, it doesn’t have stakes as high without the world title. A story we’ve told that’s really stood out is Jericho-Mox. The story is where it needs to be in the fans’ eyes. I would have no problem going on first if I thought that were the case, but this one should be last.
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