Chris Jericho Explains Why He Believes In AEW & Regaining His Love For Wrestling

Those who have followed AEW since its 2019 beginning are well aware that Chris Jericho is a "Day 1" guy with the promotion, from his appearance at the first-ever AEW press event, all the way to "AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam" tonight, where he'll take on longtime protege Sammy Guevara. And even after all this time, Jericho's bond with AEW remains strong. On "Busted Open Radio," Jericho declared that "if there was no AEW, I don't know if I'd still be in the business anymore," then delved deeper into why.

"I think the reason why I love AEW, and the reason why I'm still so excited about wrestling is because [of] the momentum that we have, the creative, not freedom because it's not like I have creative control, but the chance to be creative and collaborate and not have to worry 'What am I doing on Wednesday?'" Jericho said. "I know what I'm doing because we've mapped out, [and] wrote it for the next two or three months, or at least know where we're going, 'Here's the bullet points.'"

"[I'm] creating moments but still being able to have great matches, like with [Will] Ospreay, which I thought went really awesome. A couple of weeks ago, me and Sammy vs. Aussie Open, that was a great match. And the segment that we did last week, with the promo, it's really flowing right now, and it's exciting and it's fun and there's a lot of passion there. I kind of regained my love for wrestling. I think that's the biggest thing about AEW."

With Jericho set to turn 53 years old this November, and over 32 years of experience under his belt, it would be natural to expect the first-ever AEW World Champion to be closer to slowing things down than speeding things up. Instead, Jericho seems eager to keep pushing forward and keep going as long as possible, which he credits to his enthusiasm towards wrestling and AEW, and the belief that he has regarding the promotion's future direction.

"I think a lot of it is just mentally, I'm stimulated, creatively [I'm] stimulated," Jericho said. "I'm excited and I'm really invested in AEW. All the highs and lows ... we've had ... I really believe in what we're doing. And I think that has such a huge bearing on it. If I didn't want to be doing this, it would probably really affect me physically."

"But I'm excited. I'm excited to be here, I'm excited to do a press day. We used to do press days all the time, and this is the first press day I've had in a while. I love this man. This is what I've been doing since I was 19 years old. I'll keep doing this until I feel like I can't have the best match on the show on any given night. Not every night, but on any given night."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription