Chris Jericho is Le Champion of AEW, but All Elite Wrestling wasn’t the only company that was interested in Jericho’s services.
During Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted that Impact Wrestling paid a lot of money for Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows. Then it was mentioned that Impact Wrestling offered Chris Jericho “a ton of money,” but it wasn’t as much as Tony Khan had on the table.
It’s very possible that Chris Jericho would have decided to make a jump to Impact Wrestling if AEW wasn’t in the picture.
“You know Gallows and Anderson didn’t come cheap and they offered a ton of money to Chris Jericho, not Tony Khan money, but they offered him a ton of money to try and get him. If there wasn’t a Tony Khan I don’t know, I mean I think Jericho would have gone to Vince. Maybe he would have gone [to Impact]. Maybe he would have enjoyed that he could call his own shots.”
It was noted that Chris Jericho could have done “whatever he wanted” with Impact Wrestling and “not been in the spotlight.” AEW offered him a lot more money, and plenty more people are paying attention to what he’s doing on a weekly basis.
Chris Jericho is very happy with AEW, but he does have friends in Impact Wrestling like Don Callis. Impact Wrestling threw their hat in the ring, but Le Champion decided to take a different deal.
Transcription by Ringside News