Chris Jericho says his storyline with Eddie Kingston was supposed to result in them forming a team.
On a new episode of Swerve City Podcast, Chris Jericho sat down with fellow AEW star Swerve Strickland to discuss a multitude of topics as it pertains to his music and wrestling career. In particular, they discussed the importance of timing.
“I always say, ‘reading the room.’ I think something I’ve become very good at is reading the room, which means, ‘Is it time to change something up a bit?’ You let the story lead you. You don’t try and lead the story, meaning you go in the direction of what—not necessarily what the audience is doing, but what you feel that the audience is feeling. You have instinct after doing this for so many years.”
Jericho elaborated on a recent example of this in AEW. “The perfect example I’ve talked a lot about recently is Eddie Kingston and I—when we first started doing our angle, the idea was we would end up as a team. But as we were going along, I had some medical issues, and then Eddie had a broken orbital bone. Then he had mentioned something to Santana and Ortiz that, ‘Jericho’s the one keeping you back from winning the title,’ and I couldn’t work with Eddie because he was hurt. Well, maybe I could do something with Santana and Ortiz because they’re kind of locked in with Eddie, and there’s a thing there. And I never wanted to end The Inner Circle, but then this idea came of Danielson talking about taking Daniel Garcia with him.”
As the story goes, the overall storyline shifted to allow Chris Jericho and Eddie Kingston to continue their rivalry while representing two different factions.
“I was like, wait a second. What if I just do a shift and start a whole new faction with these three guys [Garcia and 2point0]. And then keep Jake Hager because he’s never turned on me, and then Sammy’s got the title, so he does his thing. Suddenly we’ve got a whole new war. The sh*t wrote itself. Jericho Appreciation Society versus Eddie and Santana and Ortiz and the Blackpool Combat Club. To me, I saw it like months before we did it just because, like I said, the story is taking us there. The story is leading us there. We don’t have to do a damn thing, and that’s how that all worked out.”
Related: Chris Jericho On His Focus For JAS: Let The Story Lead You, Make Sure Everybody Gets A Spotlight
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit Swerve City Podcast with a h/t to WrestleZone for the transcription.
