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Whenever Chris Jericho steps foot in the ring, runs a video package, or posts something online, one phrase will always follow: please retire.
That's right, ever since he formed the Jericho Appreciation Society and even, in some cases, before it, Jericho's pension for putting himself over at the expense of younger talents, soaking up TV time, and ultimately wrestling underwhelming matches at the end of largely one-sided feuds has made hi the most polarizing performer in AEW and maybe in pro wrestling period.
Now granted, Jericho has tried to lean into the fact that a large section of fans dislike him, with his “Learning Tree” gimmick a bit of a middle finger to the fans who trash him along the way, but could their words actually hold any weight? Is there a world where Jericho does start to wind down and prepare for his own exit from in-ring competition like John Cena or Bryan Danielson? Well, in the lead-up to AEW All In, the Daily Star decided to ask the FTW Champion just that and was met with a pretty incredible response.
“To me, when the ‘please retire' chants were going, I was laughing because I have zero intentions of that. I've got a six-pack, and I can do a moonsault, and I know exactly what I'm doing in the ring. I know how to write storylines, I like the company I work for, I like my boss, I like the guys and girls in the company; why would I wanna retire? What's the point? Just because somebody told me to? Like, f**k off. I remember the (Rolling) Stones in '89 when they did the Steel Wheels tour, they were calling it the ‘Steel Wheelchair' tour – ‘The Stones are too old, the Stones should retire'. I just saw the Stones two months ago, and they were amazing. So they didn't care,” Jericho told Daily Star via WrestleTalk.
“You retire when you know it's time when you know it's right, and it's not the right time right now. It's not. I say it all the time – as long as I know I can still have the best match of the night, not every night, but I can still do it, I'm gonna stay, and as long as I can still continue to have good ideas and feel motivated and passionate, I'm gonna stay. God willing, I physically don't have any issues, and I don't, which is amazing after 33 years and I think that's another reason why people are mad because I've never had to take any extended time off for that. So what's the hassle? It's the epitome of age is just a number – if you saw me walk down the street, I don't think many people would go, ‘That guy's 53 years old.' I don't. Some might. But showbusiness is part of it too, you have to look the part, and I still look like Chris Jericho and act like Chris Jericho and work like Chris Jericho. So until that moment where I feel like, ‘Okay, this needs to stop,' I've got no intentions of that. And, like I said, I've got no time limit on it. It could be this week. It could be five years from now. I don't know. I just know that as of this moment at 2:30 pm Eastern Time on Monday, August 19, as I'm talking to you, I'm having a great time; I love going to work, I love contributing, and there's no reason to stop doing that.”
Welp, there you go, folks; Jericho will probably never retire, and AEW fans had better lock in and enjoy the absurdity they are treated to on a weekly basis, as sometimes it's better to laugh through the pain than cry about it.
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Chris Jericho believes his angle with Hook has worked
Elsewhere on his AEW All In media tour, Jericho stopped by TV Insider, where the concept of his feud with Hook, the FTW Championship, and the “Learning Tree” unsurprisingly came up.
Asked about the decision to change up his character once more in the lead-up to All In, Jericho noted that his feud with Hook has provided value to AEW and wrestling as a whole, as over the past six months, they've all created something interesting.
“Every time I switch up characters, it's because I know it's time. There was some weird internet vitriol of angry people yelling at me to retire. I thought, “Why don't I embrace that and lean into it?” For those who know, you know. It made those people mad. Others thought it was clever,” Jericho told TV Insider. “That lasted about two weeks, and it became this new character. People got into the story we were telling. It became another era in Jericho. It has worked quite well. I was very sarcastic in the beginning, with a certain cadence I was speaking. Then I changed it again to be more serious. Characters are the most important thing in wrestling, as are stories. I think the Hook storyline that has been going on for the last six months has been a great one with twists and turns.”
Will the Hook-Jericho feud come to an end at All In, with Taz's son reclaiming his father's belt at Wembley Stadium? Or will this only serve as a chapter in a much bigger storyline, with Jericho continuing to show up with a sunny disposition that hides something increasingly sinister underneath? Well, considering he isn't retiring any time soon, it's safe to say “The Ocho” has something up his sleeve one way or the other.
