Chris Jericho made headlines back in January when he announced that, for the first time since 1999 he was signing full-time with a none-WWE company in All Elite Wrestling. The former Undisputed WWE Champion had been used sparingly on WWE television since his feud with Kevin Owens in 2017 and had popped up numerous times at New Japan Pro Wrestling events, but the signing made it official that he was severing all ties to Vince McMahon’s company for the foreseeable future. In a recent interview with Jim Norton and Sam Roberts on their Sirius XM program, Jericho explained that he is essentially “banned” from the company, saying that the WWE was not allowing current Superstars on his Talk is Jericho podcast anymore because of his involvement with AEW.
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Based on his delivery Jericho didn’t seem surprised by WWE’s decision.
“I’ve talked with him [McMahon] a couple of times, but I’m kind of public enemy number one there now,” Jericho said. “I’ve been kind of removed from the annals of history. I asked the other day if I could have a couple of their guys on my podcast to promote Mania and I was told, ‘No, it’s not appropriate because you’re in AEW.’ I am banned from WWE.
“I think my stuff is still on there [WWE Network]. I haven’t been disgraced,” he continued. “But as far as I know, they had to take some videos down from ‘UpUpDownDown’ of me playing. Took that off. They edited some stuff from the Edge and Christian show that had my name on it.”
Jericho is currently booked to face Kenny Omega at AEW’s first official event, Double or Nothing, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25. The bout will be a rematch from their highly-praised classic at Wrestle Kingdom 12.
The nine-time Intercontinental Champion explained why he chose AEW over WWE on an episode of Talk is Jericho shortly after his contract signing.
“It’s a little bit hard because I’ve worked for WWE for 19 years, love the WWE. But I put myself into Chris Jericho’s shoes from back in 1998 when I was contemplating leaving WCW and thinking, ‘How much further can I go in WCW under these rules? Under these conditions?’ And I realized I probably can’t go much farther,” Jericho said.
“After some introspection, the answer was ‘Yes I can do this.’ Because what AEW is doing is they’re showing me respect, and they’re showing me that they have a lot of expectations for me,” he continued. “The cart is on my back, I have to do great work and I have go the extra mile to make this work,” he said. “In WWE, it doesn’t matter what I do, it’s still going to be WWE. In AEW, it does matter what I do and I have to be my best. And I have to really use my 29 years of experience to help build this company. And that was exciting to me.”
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