AEW made huge headlines in December 2020 with the signing of The Icon, Sting and they have again repeated the trick signing Paul Wight, aka The Big Show in February 2021. The duo followed the likes of Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley in moving to the young promotion.
Wight’s switch after 20 years with the WWE set the internet ablaze as seemingly another WWE star made the jump to their rivals.
Inaugural AEW World Champion Chris Jericho, knows a thing or too about switching between rival promotions, with his move from WCW to WWE in 1999 being the stuff of legend. While Jericho left WWE in 2018 and competed for New Japan before winding up in AEW, it was still a shock to see The Demo God sign with a North American promotion that wasn’t WWE in 2019.
In a new interview with Digital Spy, Jericho has had his say about the big name signings of Sting and Wight, commenting that they had been treated poorly by WWE during their time with the company.
“These are guys that were kind of almost insulted in their WWE runs,” Jericho said. “[Sting and Wight were] definitely not treated with too much respect over the last few years.
Le Champion went on to say that AEW treats their legends with respect, and doesn’t make jokes out of them like WWE does.
“We treat our legends with respect, we don’t make jokes out of them and WWE is notorious for that, whether it’s Sting, Paul Wight, Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson, Jake Roberts, Dustin Rhodes, throw in Chris Jericho.
“We know how to treat our legendary performers with respect and make them all look great and make them all worthy of being in AEW because if they aren’t worthy of being in AEW why would they be there?”
“Everybody’s that’s under contract in AEW is there and designed to be as much of a star as they possibly can be.”
Jericho proceeded to go into detail about the signing of Wight which caught the wrestling world so off guard. He explained how Wight wasn’t being used by WWE, but would be able to be a great mentor to some of the bigger wrestlers on the AEW roster.
“He was considered to be a WWE tentpole, one of the foundations of the company but they weren’t really using him.
“But I know the value of [Wight], he’s got one thing you can’t teach, experience and who he is as a character, understanding comedy, drama and when to be violent.
“I also know that he’s a great mentor for some of our bigger guys that we have, Lance Archer and Luchasaurus, those types of guys and most importantly I know how dangerous a motivated Big Show can be.”
The former WWE Undisputed Champion also revealed that he feels Sting has “got a lot left in the tank,” ahead of The Stinger’s AEW in-ring debut at AEW Revolution.
Meanwhile, Paul Wight promised the arrival of a “hall of fame worthy talent” to the AEW roster at Revolution during his AEW Dynamite debut.
AEW Revolution is set to take place on Sunday March 7th and will also include the Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch between AEW World Champion Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley. You can find all of the details about the event here.