During an interview with PopCulture, Chris Jericho opened up about his thoughts regarding retirement. He conceded that his career trajectory would have likely seen him hanging up the boots by now if it weren’t for the arrival of All Elite Wrestling.
“You don’t really think about it, I mean, obviously now at 51, there’s more years behind me than are ahead of me. But if you would’ve asked me five years ago where I was going to go, I probably would’ve said, ‘I’ll probably stop in the next few years.’ But then AEW started and it just rejuvenated everything for me.”
With the level of experience Jericho has, he can assist in guiding some of the younger AEW stars backstage as they rise up the ranks. He mentioned how, similar to The Undertaker in WWE, Chris has taken on the role of a locker room leader.
“Not that there’s any comparison, but I think I’m kind of taking on like The Undertaker role in the WWE for his last few years there. Where every time he does something, it’s impactful; it means something. He’s a benefit to have in the locker room. He’s a leader. He’s very experienced. He can tell guys and girls what they’re doing right and what they’re doing wrong. And it’s just a good person to have around your roster.”
Earlier this week, we noted how Jericho is so confident in the work of AEW, that he is considering the company the “top wrestling promotion”.
“Well, in my opinion, what is the top wrestling promotion? To me, I think we already are, as far as in-ring product and entertaining shows, storylines, characters, et cetera,” Jericho answered. “If you’re looking at like will AEW overtake WWE as the wrestling brand in North America? I don’t know. But that’s not something that we ever really think about or worry about. All we’re worried about is continuing to grow our fan base, which we are, grow and continue to improve and create amazing stories, which we do.”
