Chris Jericho discusses bidding war between WWE and AEW benefiting talent and companies

[Chris]

Chris Jericho Talks AEW Growth, Wrestling Future, Becky Lynch Rumors!

Chris Jericho's opening up about his five years with All Elite Wrestling, his FTW Championship, how much longer he thinks he'll wrestle, his band, Fozzy, and whether Becky Lynch could sign with AEW!

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We asked Jericho about the rumors ... and whether there was any truth to 'em.

"Five years ago, Becky would have no other options. Not saying that she's coming [to AEW], but there is an option. And who knows what could happen?" Jericho said.

"No one thought that Jericho would come to AEW. No one thought that Moxley would come or Bryan Danielson or Adam Cole or any of these guys that have come over. So it's exciting for the fans. And it's exciting for the wrestlers, the talent, because now suddenly if there's a bidding war, that just benefits [us wrestlers]."

Chris said the current-day rivalry between WWE and AEW reminds him of the old-school battles from the mid-90s.

"Listen, that was one of the things of being in the Attitude Era and the Monday Night Wars with Nitro and Raw. You never knew who was going to show up. And when somebody new would come from whatever side it was to the other, it made things so much more exciting."

"So many more matches that you can have. So many more possibilities of seeing guys go up against each other that you never thought about. So it's a really exciting time in wrestling."

 

[Deezy]

Too bad bidding wars and pissing contests have others just trying to exist catching strays and left laying in the ditch because they can't possibly keep up with the arms race.

 

[Chris]

Like who?

 

[Deezy]

Like who?

I mean New Japans roster was gutted.

 

[Deezy]

NXT hoarding pretty much killed the UK scene also.

 

[Chris]

New Japan's budget was slashed, their talent was going to take WWE contracts regardless of AEW existed or not. NXT UK was nothing to do with a bidding war, that was WWE signing everyone in a new territory they could because they moved into it and had 0 talent. Talent getting paid more doesn't seem like a negative to me, if New Japan can't afford to keep their foreigners and people can make a living in their own country instead then I don't see that as a negative overall either, just an issue Japan has to address and NOAH specifically still has a ton of foreign talent coming over on tours who are working the current indie scene making more money than they ever have without even being signed anywhere.

The only company I can think of that really suffered directly due to AEW existing was Ring of Honor, and like New Japan they were going to lose all of those big names to WWE anyway if AEW didn't exist to take them instead. The company was also slashing budgets before any bidding wars started

 

[Comrade Khan]

imo the pandemic was killing ROH regardless of aew or not

 

[Chris]

imo the pandemic was killing ROH regardless of aew or not

Probably, the Elite were going to WWE if they didn't start AEW bc ROH wasn't willing to do the dual NJPW contracts. They would have still had guys like SCU maybe and those more midcardy AEW names who were more important in 2019

 

[JakeYourBooty]

We can all agree that
video killed the radio star