Tony Khan has boldly claimed that Chris Jericho is currently enjoyed the best run of his more than three-decade-long career.
2022 has seen something of a renascence in the career of Chris Jericho. After taking time off earlier in the year, Jericho returned to AEW in the best physical condition he had been in for a number of years, immediately locking horns with Eddie Kingston.
This eventually led to the birth of the Jericho Appreciation Society with the faction waging war against the Blackpool Combat Club and Kingston. The two groups clashed in Anarchy in the Arena and at Blood and Guts, while Jericho earned plaudits for singles outings against Bryan Danielson and Jon Moxley among others.
In recent weeks, Jericho claimed that Ring of Honor World Championship with victory over Claudio Castagnoli. He followed that up with an impressive title defence over Bandido.
Speaking during an appearance on My Mom’s Basement with Robbie Fox, AEW President Tony Khan was full of praise for his first-ever World Champion. Khan said that Jericho is one of his favourite wrestlers of all-time, and has put together the best year of his career.
“In addition to Mox, who’s such a great champion, and has been an amazing top guy for us this year, Chris Jericho is having the best year of his career. So I think if Chris Jericho was having the best year of his career, then you have to consider Chris Jericho for the MVP, too, and he’s the other world champion in AEW right now. He’s the Ring of Honor World Champion — or the Ring of Jericho World Champion. It’s the eighth World Championship for Chris Jericho. I’ve been watching Chris Jericho for over 27 years, going on 28 years now. He’s one of my favourite wrestlers of all time and it wasn’t me saying this,”
Continuing on, Khan said that one of the most impressive things about Jericho’s success is that even the most cynical of fans have praised the star.
“It was scrutinizing wrestling fans who are really cynical that I was around recently. They were not just saying it to pacify me, ‘Chris Jericho, the run he’s on, it’s unprecedented.’ isn’t it amazing how he’s coming in this year? I mean, he’s lost 31 pounds. So that is, visually, almost jarring to see the Chris Jericho we remember from a decade ago or two decades ago, and the things he’s done this year you talk about reinvention, but he’s been able to do it in a completely unexpected way. Jon Moxley, the other great MVP name is the person who actually came up with the idea for Chris to bring The Lionheart back this year, which I loved,”
After successfully defending his newly won ROH World Championship against Bandido Chris Jericho declared war on ROH and everything that it had stood for. In doing so he laid down a challenge to ROH legend and former World Champion, Bryan Danielson.
H/t to Fightful for the transcription.