Chris Jericho Says Leaving WWE for AEW Was The Biggest Risk of His Life

Chris Jericho is truly a veteran in the pro wrestling industry, whose career has spanned more than 30 years. He spent the majority of those years in WWE, where Jericho became a household name. He eventually left WWE for AEW over four years ago and now Jericho stated that his move was the biggest risk of his life.

Jericho eventually debuted in AEW three years ago and became the first AEW World Champion, carrying the company through its initial year. There was a lot of uncertainty over this decision as there was no guarantee the company would even last.

While speaking on The Allison Hagendorf Show, Chris Jericho was asked what was the biggest risk of his life. Jericho answered that it was leaving AEW for WWE and explained why he felt so.

”Probably leaving WWE to go with AEW,” Jericho said. “We didn’t even have TV at the time. Just my boss, Tony Khan, had a lot of passion, and he had the money for it, and we had a roster of guys that I felt could do something. When I got involved, we were able to get on TBS and kind of went from there. So I just think it was one of those things where I thought, ‘I’ve done all I can do in WWE, and I can stay here, but I don’t want to just stay here. I don’t want to just be a guy. Let’s try and change history. Let’s make wrestling a better industry.‘

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And we’ve done that because now there’s a viable second company that people can work at and fans can watch. But it was a real risk, man, because WWE had such a monopoly for so many years. For us to come in there and get such a great demo and a great fanbase out of the gate is something I don’t think anybody really expected. They thought we’d be dead and gone in six months.“

Vince McMahon also wanted Chris Jericho to get out of his AEW contract. Jericho is more than happy working in AEW right now and he couldn’t imagine working anywhere else for that matter. We’ll have to see how the company will continue to book Jericho in the coming weeks.

What’s your view on what Chris Jericho said? Are you glad he took the risk of joining AEW? Share your thoughts in the comments below!