Chris Jericho Names Unexpected AEW Ratings Draw

Chris Jericho has pointed out that there’s an AEW wrestler that has become a pretty good draw as far as television ratings go.

When it comes to being a big name in the pro wrestling business, Chris Jericho knows a thing or two. After all, Jericho was part of the infamous Monday Night Wars era on both sides from when he was in WCW in the late 1990s leading to his WWE debut in 1999 which would see him become a main event player in the years that followed.

After having a lot of success in WWE for about 20 years as one of the biggest stars in company history, Jericho wanted a new challenge and signed with AEW in 2019.

Since AEW started, Jericho has been positioned as one of the top draws in the company, especially since he was their first World Champion as well.

During a recent appearance on WTF With Marc Maron, Jericho talked about being a draw in pro wrestling while pointing out that Swerve Strickland is doing well in terms of the minute-by-minute TV ratings.

“If you get put in that top position and you don’t draw and people don’t watch your matches…TV ratings are so important.”

“I read the minute-by-minute TV ratings every week to see, how did I do? How did this guy do? Who is drawing every week? You can kind of see this pattern of whenever he’s on, the ratings go up. Swerve Strickland is one of those guys. He’s not a ratings bonanza, but whenever he’s on, the ratings go up.”

When the TBS Champion Jade Cargill was mentioned as well, Jericho continued talking about how important it is to connect with the audience when you’re on TV.

“They [Swerve & Jade] are stars and I want to see what this person is doing. That matters. If you don’t draw…my boss, Tony Khan is a numbers fanatic. If you are put in that position and the ratings go down, you won’t be put in that position anymore. That’s part of it.”

“You have to connect and people have to watch you on screen. If not, you won’t be on screen in that position, or maybe you won’t be on the main show, you’ll be on the next show. There are levels to that too.”

Chris Jericho picked up a tag team victory on the January 25th edition of AEW Dynamite as he teamed with Sammy Guevara to defeat Action Andretti & Ricky Starks. Strickland and Cargill were not on this week’s episode of Dynamite.