Tony Khan and Chris Jericho believe that Anarchy in the Arena is here to stay.
All Elite Wrestling President Tony Khan and Chris Jericho took part in last night’s AEW Double or Nothing media scrum to discuss a wide variety of subjects. When asked about the new Anarchy in the Arena match type, Khan believes that Anarchy in the Arena is much more sustainable compared to Stadium Stampede.
“I think it’s a more sustainable solution than Stadium Stampede,” Tony Khan said. “I think Chris is a master of reinvention, and I think once again, putting heads together and with Chris’s great mind, we like reinvented and did something, and now we have Anarchy in the Arena.”
Chris Jericho chimed in and said that initially, they thought that they should just call it Stadium Stampede but realized that was a product of its time and that it’s maybe something they can revisit later down the line.
“We were very proud of Stadium Stampede,” Chris Jericho said. “We were originally thinking maybe we should call it that, but it’s a new version of it. But then we said that was a product of its time. Maybe we’ll revisit it, but now we can do an Anarchy in the Arena whenever the time is right, no matter what time of the year it is.”
One of the most unique aspects of last night’s match was Jon Moxley’s “Wild Thing” entrance theme playing for the first quarter of the matchup. When asked who came up with that idea, Chris Jericho said it harkened back to New Jack in ECW.
“So I think when we were talking about it originally, we were kind of like harkening back to New Jack when his music would play throughout his matches, which kind of took away the fact that they were just basically plunder and just garbage going on,” Chris Jericho said. “But the music added some excitement to it. So we thought, okay, so if we can play the music for the first like a third of the match, that will kind of sustain it to where people see, it’s just kind of basic. Well, nothing was basic, but just kind of like until we get to some of these bigger moments. I think because no one’s ever done that here in AEW or anywhere since then. It kind of makes it seem different. It makes it different.
“And then I thought, well, this is great. And I’ll be the party pooper who hates this song. And we’ll let’s break the soundboard. So let’s put a soundboard thing up there, and we’ll break it. And that was my favorite part too. Like soon as we hit the ground, it goes off, and I was telling Tony, I love wrestling. I still love wrestling for moments like this. Yes, it’s comic, but it’s like the asshole heel who just hates music. And it’s like I’m gonna smash this soundboard and finally cut it off. And then that kind of enabled us to go to the next stage of the match. So it was kind of half of a cue, half of a really kind of opening kind of salvo of just chaos, and then gives me a cool moment of being like the curmudgeon who just hates rock and roll music. Turn it off.”
READ MORE: AEW Double Or Nothing Results: Anarchy In The Arena
What do you make of Tony Khan and Chris Jericho’s comments? Do you agree that Anarchy in the Arena is a more sustainable match type than Stadium Stampede? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the AEW Double or Nothing Media Scrum with a link back to this article for the transcription.
