Chris Jericho explained his belief that his 2018 match at Wrestle Kingdom led Tony Khan to decide he could successfully form AEW.
With a career spanning over three decades, Chris Jericho has wrestled a who’s who of stars in multiple promotions. In a new interview with Spencer Mathews, the Demo God was given the difficult task of naming his Mount Rushmore of opponents.
From WWE, Jericho named Shawn Michaels, as well as The Rock. He also picked Jon Moxley, who he had rivalries with in both WWE and AEW.
“If you’re talking about the Mount Rushmore of opponents that I’ve had, I’ll put Shawn Michaels on there. I think Moxley would be in there from our work that we did in AEW and in WWE when he was Dean Ambrose. I loved working with him. Great intensity.
“I had great chemistry with The Rock. It was very short because he left to do movies very early on. But when we worked together for about a year in the early 2000s, we never had a bad match, bad angle, or bad promo segment. We were perfect foils for each other.”
For his final pick, Jericho chose Kenny Omega, who he first wrestled in the Tokyo Dome at Wrestle Kingdom 12 in 2018.
Chris Jericho Believes His NJPW Match With Kenny Omega “Changed The Business”
While most people point to The Young Bucks and Cody Rhodes-hosted All In 2018 as the beginning of All Elite Wrestling, Jericho believes it was the bout with Omega months earlier that actually made Tony Khan think a new promotion was viable.
“Then I think maybe Kenny Omega had put on there. We never had the same thing. We changed the business when we had our match at the Tokyo Dome, which at the time was crazy because nobody ever thought it would happen.
“We’re both from the same small town in Canada called Winnipeg. We packed the Tokyo Dome. The digital streaming was through the roof for New Japan Pro Wrestling, which then led to Tony Khan seeing and deciding that he could form AEW because there was so much demand for wrestling that was not WWE.
So those are my four from an opponent’s standpoint.”
Chris Jericho was AEW’s first big signing in 2019, and he went on to become the promotion’s inaugural World Champion later that same year. However, after being a central part of the company for six years, Jericho disappeared from AEW TV after losing the ROH World Title to Bandido at Dynasty in April 2025.
Since then, rumours have persisted that Y2J is looking to return to WWE once his AEW contract is up. While it was previously thought his deal would expire at the end of 2025, it has been reported that Jericho’s contract was frozen after he took time off earlier in the year. While his status remains unknown, his profile still being active on the AEW website suggests he is still with the company.
H/T to Fightful for the above transcription.
