Indication Chris Jericho Won’t Go To IMPACT

The Ayatollah of Rock’N’Rolla has already claimed 2018 as one of his finest years in professional wrestling. He’s appeared several times now for NJPW, stealing the show at WrestleKingdom 12 with Kenny Omega and defeating Tetsuya Naito at Dominion to become the IWGP Intercontinental Champion. He would later appear back at home for the WWE in the Greatest Royal Rumble show out of Saudi Arabia, and now prepares for his epic Jericho Cruise which looks to be a massive financial success due to the Alpha Club versus Bullet Club main event. Even with all of this success, there is still one looming move left for Y2J: IMPACT.

For months there has been reports and speculation that the “best in the world” would join the promotion formerly known as TNA, especially with good friend and fellow Canadian Don Callis running as the head of talent relations. Jericho has already proven is worth as a successful draw in 2018 and his marquee WrestleKingdom 12 matchup brought a ton of outside viewers to the New Japan product. However, David Scherer from PW Insider believes that not to be the case for IMPACT, and even speculates that Jericho wouldn’t sign on unless he knew he could move the needle. In a question asking if Jericho would help net IMPACT a bigger TV deal Scherer says:

No, I don’t.  Impact had more stars than Jericho a few years ago and couldn’t get a better TV deal.  They have lost most of those talents since then.  I like Jericho and all, but he alone won’t get them on a big network.  And frankly, I don’t see any good reason for him to go to Impact anyway.  I doubt he could move the needle and if he didn’t do that, it would reflect badly on him

Scherer makes a very good point: TNA/IMPACT was overloaded with stars over its tenure but was never able to garner strong enough ratings or a lucrative enough network deal. Would Jericho risk damaging his image just to help IMPACT with ratings? I’m not as sure as I once was.

What do you think RingSide? Should Jericho risk it and hope it pays off?