Chris Jericho Says AEW Locker Room Got Stronger After All Out Fight
Chris Jericho has spoken about his role as an AEW locker room leader and how they dealt with what happened after AEW’s infamous 2022 fight.
One of the biggest news stories in all of pro wrestling in 2022 happened in September after the All Out pay-per-view. CM Punk, who won the AEW World Title for the second time on that night, blasted numerous people in a press conference rant. This would lead to Punk getting into a fight with The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) & Kenny Omega with The Bucks & Omega working as Executive Vice Presidents in AEW as well.
The fallout from CM Punk’s fight with The Young Bucks & Omega saw The Bucks & Omege receive suspensions and they were kept off television for two months. Punk was injured during the match, so he missed about nine months anyway. Punk’s good friend Ace Steel, who was an AEW Producer at the time of the fight, got fired for his actions in the fight due to throwing a chair at Nick Jackson and biting Kenny Omega.
Following the fight, some of AEW’s locker room readers like the first AEW World Champion Chris Jericho, former AEW World Champion Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson took on a leadership role to rally the locker room.
While talking to The Daily Mail, Jericho spoke about what that period was like for AEW.
“We just let people know that everything’s gonna be OK. We are a great locker room with great people and a lot of momentum for our company that’s still very young and things happen sometimes. There was a lot of uncertainty. We’ve got a lot of young guys and girls on our roster who have never been through stuff like this before, but it’s a part of the business, it happens.”
“We were really getting painted with an unfair brush by the media in a lot of ways like ‘it’s a dumpster fire in the locker room’ and that wasn’t the case. And I don’t want people to believe what they’re reading and think that it’s real, because it wasn’t.”
“You go through things like that, fights and that sort of thing, I’ve been in them myself with locker room brawls. You’ve got to continue forward and Mox, Danielson and I just really wanted to grab the horse by the reins before it got out of control and just let people know that if you have concerns let’s discuss them, if you have issues let’s discuss them but let’s get through them together and come through stronger on the back end.”
“I think we really came together well which was great for the locker room and for the fans because the fans too want to know that everything is going to continue moving forward. And I think we did a really good job of righting the ship and most importantly letting people know that it’s going to be OK. It’s not the end of the world. These things happen and we deal with them and we become stronger as a result, which we have.”
Chris Jericho Faces Will Ospreay At AEW All In
At Sunday’s AEW All In event, Chris Jericho will face Will Ospreay for the first time in one of the biggest matches of the show.
* AEW World Championship: MJF vs. Adam Cole
* AEW World Tag Team Championship: FTR vs. The Young Bucks
* Chris Jericho vs. Will Ospreay
* “Real” World Championship: CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe
* AEW Women’s World Championship: Hikaru Shida vs. Toni Storm vs. Saraya vs. Britt Baker
* AEW World Trios Championship: House of Black (Malakai Black, Brody King & Buddy Matthews) vs. The Acclaimed (Max Caster & Anthony Bowens) & Billy Gunn
* Coffin Match: Darby Allin & Sting vs. Swerve Strickland & Christian Cage
* Stadium Stampede 5-on-5 Tag Team Match: Eddie Kingston, Orange Cassidy, Best Friends (Chuck & Trent) & Penta El Zero Miedo vs. Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta), Santana & Ortiz
* The Golden Elite (Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi & Adam Page) vs. Bullet Club Gold (Jay White & Juice Robinson) and Konosuke Takeshita
* ROH World Tag Team Championship Match: Aussie Open vs. Adam Cole & MJF – ZERO HOUR PRE-SHOW
* FTW Championship: Jack Perry vs. Hook – ZERO HOUR PRE-SHOW
You can check out AEW All In on pay-per-view on various outlets.