AEW Star Defends Chris Jericho Against Popular Criticism

Chris Jericho is a “giving guy” according to one AEW star.

During much of 2024, Chris Jericho has come under fire for not doing more to help elevate young talent. The star’s critics contend that while he often works with young talents, they rarely see any tangible benefit.

Jericho hit back at these claims in March, commenting that his goal in AEW is to elevate as many young stars as possible, pointing to his work with Orange Cassidy, Darby Allin, MJF, Hobbs, and others.

In a new interview with Chris Van Vliet, Scorpio Sky has now come to the defence of Jericho, describing him as “giving.” Back in 2019, Sky became the first man to pin Jericho in AEW before challenging him for the World Championship.

“I always tell people Chris Jericho legitimized AEW in the early days. Because people looked at us, and they knew there was talent, and they’re like, Okay, Young Bucks, SCU, Kenny Omega… But when Chris Jericho signs on, that’s when the television networks are like, Oh, okay, they’ve got a guy. I always think it’s similar to when Hulk Hogan went to WCW in the mid-90s. It’s just like, it puts that stamp, okay, we’ve arrived.

For him to come in and take young talent like myself, like Jungle Boy, Darby… I just described myself as a younger talent [laughs]. But also, he’s worked with so many guys, and made us all good in some way, shape, or form, whether he won the match or not. He put us up there with him, and he doesn’t have to do that. But that just shows he’s a giving guy and that helped me a lot in the very early stages of AEW.”

Chris Jericho Dealing With Injury

On the July 24th episode of Dynamite, Jericho took on and defeated Minoru Suzuki in a typically physical bout. In a post on social media, Chris Jericho later claimed Suzuki had broken his finger in the contest.