Chris Jericho Explains Why He Was ROH World Champion
Chris Jericho has done his best to explain why he was the Ring of Honor World Champion in 2022 despite not being a part of the company in the past.
Since AEW launched in 2019, Chris Jericho has been an All Elite Wrestling guy. Jericho is the first AEW World Champion in history and he has been very loyal to the company since they launched while emerging as a leader in the company.
During his 30+ year career, Jericho spent most of his time in WWE from his 1999 debut until his contract expired nearly 20 years later. There were some breaks in between, but for nearly 20 years, Jericho was considered a WWE guy.
While Chris Jericho was being a WWE guy, Ring of Honor launched in 2002 and was the place where many big name wrestlers became stars. Guys like Bryan Danielson, CM Punk, Samoa Joe, Seth Rollins (Tyler Black in ROH), Kevin Owens (Kevin Steen in ROH), Sami Zayn (El Generico in ROH) and many others became well-known in pro wrestling because of ROH, which led to greater things for all of them elsewhere.
In March 2022, AEW’s Owner Tony Khan bought Ring Of Honor for an undisclosed amount. ROH would run three PPV events in 2022, but no new TV shows. They did launch the ROH weekly show on Honor Club within the last two weeks. After Khan bought ROH, some of ROH’s Championships appeared on AEW TV.
On the AEW Grand Slam episode of Dynamite on September 21, 2022, Chris Jericho got his first shot at the ROH World Title against the champion, Claudio Castagnoli. Jericho won the match and the title thanks to a low-blow kick followed by a Judas Effect elbow.
During an appearance on the “In The Kliq” show, Jericho said that his ROH World Title win came from Tony Khan.
“It was a great idea from Tony Khan. At the time we were using Ring Of Honor guys on ‘Dynamite’ and nobody knew what it was, or nobody knew what the point was, or what Ring Of Honor even was. So let me give this belt a reason to be on the show.”
Jericho would go on to say that he and Jon Moxley “basically had to take control of the show” due to the locker room fight that took place at AEW All Out in September, which led to major stars like CM Punk, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks not being on the shows. In the case of Omega and The Young Bucks, they did come back in November after a suspension while Punk’s AEW future is unknown.
“Mox did a great job, and I think at the time me being ROH Champion, I think I worked eight weeks in a row, I’ve never worked that much recently. I think it really helped AEW get out of this kind of weird situation we were in and grow.”
While holding the ROH World Title, Chris Jericho beat some well-known ROH guys like Dalton Castle, Colt Cabana, Bandido and even Bryan Danielson to keep the ROH World Title. Jericho’s reigns as “The Ocho” (his name as ROH World Champion since it was his eighth World Title) ended at ROH’s Final Battle PPV in December when Claudio Castagnoli regained the title.
Elsewhere in the same interview, Chris Jericho said that people didn’t really know who Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks were before the launch of AEW.