wrestling / News

Chris Jericho On Speaking With Vince McMahon Before Signing With AEW, First Meeting With Tony Khan

September 29, 2022 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
Chris Jericho All Elite Wrestling Image Credit: AEW

Chris Jericho spoke with Vince McMahon before he signed with AEW, and he recently recalled the conversation and more. Jericho recalled his initial meeting with Tony Khan, talking with McMahon about the offer and more on the AEW Unrestricted podcast, and you can check out the highlights below:

On his initial interest in appearing for NJPW: “I worked for WCW and then I started working for Vince. And it was like, ‘This is the only place I’m going to work ever again.’ Until I leave, and then the New Japan thing starts. Because it’s like, Kenny Omega’s from Winnipeg; nobody’s from Winnipeg. And he guy who’s commentating, who’s facilitating this idea, Don Callis, he’s also from Winnipeg. And that really appealed to me. A Tokyo Dome main event between two Winnipeggers with a Winnipegger on commentary. Like I said, nobody from Winnipeg ever does anything.”

On contacting Vince McMahon about it: “So I remember calling Vince the first time going ‘Vince, I’ve got this New Japan thing at the Tokyo Dome.’ And he’s like, ‘Ah, just go do it. It’s fine, it’s great.’ And I was so relieved I got permission. So my mindset was, never to work anywhere else.”

On his first meeting with Tony Khan: “So I remember talking to him, and the one thing I could vividly recall is he wouldn’t look at me. Like, he’s looking away, he’s talking away. Then I realized like, he’s nervous. He’s nervous to be here right now. What I didn’t realize at the time was that to Tony, he was a huge fan of mine to the point that it’s much documented. But when he was — insert age here, 13, 14, 12 — he did really good in school and his dad said ‘As a reward, you can do anything you want’… And he said, ‘I want to go to Chris Jericho’s last match in ECW at the ECW Arena’… If you can pause [the match], you can see a young Tony Khan in the crowd. So it was a big deal for him to meet me.”

On contacting McMahon about AEW’s offer: “When Tony finally started putting pen to paper and coming back with it, he gave me one offer. I said ‘Eh.’ He gave me another one. I called Vince. And Vince, through his intermediaries, said, ‘Take the deal.’ And I was like, ‘Alright, that’s all I needed to hear.’ So I took the deal, I signed it.”

“Next week he calls me back. We’re talking about something and he goes, ‘Did you sign it?’ I’m like ‘Yeah.’ He goes, ‘What? Can you get out of it?’ I’m like, ‘No, you already said to take it.’

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit AEW Unrestricted with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.