Chris Jericho and Jake Hager on AEW. (Image Credits: TNT, AEW via Cultaholic)
Former WWE Superstar and current AEW superstar Chris Jericho recently appeared on The Kurt Angle Show and highlighted some of the differences between AEW and WWE.
Jericho mentioned some subtle differences between the two companies, including involvement of blood and how he did about against Kenny Omega, which got a hit. He also compared the intensity of the match to his WWE match against Shawn Michaels, which was a WrestleMania match.
“I think the biggest difference right out of the gate is (that AEW) is our company. That’s what really appealed to me to go there in the first place. I went to New Japan between WWE and AEW, and the first match I had was with Kenny Omega in the Tokyo Dome. I remember when we did the beatdown angle for it, Kenny got colour, and I was like because we can’t do colour in WWE, this needs this type of intensity. (H/t Wrestling Inc)
Jericho was also amazed to know that there were no agents here, and the wrestlers could finish by themselves.
“When you get blood, it’s not a blood bath, it’s the intensity that it adds to the performances of the players in the ring and the people watching. Then when we had the match, very similar to the Shawn [Michaels WrestleMania match], I had the whole ending, Kenny had the beginning. I thought who do we have to tell this to, who do we have to talk to? And Kenny said what are you talking about? I said ‘Well who’s the agent?’ Kenny said ‘There’s no agents here. This is the match, this is what we’re doing. Gedo is the booker, we tell Gedo the finish and then we do it.’
Jericho mentioned on the show that there are no agents here, and they can control and discuss the game among themselves how to build up everything, which in short means creative control. He also mentioned how they trusted him as an artist, and the intensity of his match with Omega made him fall in love with wrestling again.
“I was like, are you kidding me? Really? Creative control. More importantly, they trusted me to be an artist and let the artists be artists. You’ve got Kenny Omega, the top guy in New Japan, you’ve got Chris Jericho, who’s coming in, business went through the roof when the match was announced. So that kind of made me fall in love with wrestling again, the creative element of it. It was like flying live without a net, not everything is connected, you don’t have to tell the cameraman, nobody knows what you’re going to do. No one knows what you’re going to say.”
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