Chris Jericho was known as the WWE guy for the longest time that’s why it was surprising for fans when he first made appearances for NJPW and then joined AEW.
Jericho has since become the face of the upstart promotion as the first ever AEW World Champion and during a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Y2J explained the difference between the two companies.
The AEW star said that there are no bookers or writers in AEW and recalled how he had to make a lot more effort in WWE if he wanted something to be changed:
There’s no bookers, no writers. I’m coming up with these ideas and bouncing them off of a couple guys. These are all our ideas. In WWE, I was in a position where every Sunday night I’d get a call from whichever writer was my guy saying, ‘Here’s what you’re doing on Raw tomorrow.’ If I liked it, I did it. If I didn’t, then I’d have to go sit outside Vince’s office for three hours and explain why it would work better another way. We don’t have that. All that stress is gone. It’s fun, it’s creative freedom.
Though continuing on the topic, the current champion said that he loves WWE and he loved working there but he just didn’t want to do it Vince’s way anymore:
I love WWE, I loved working there. There is a system they use, and if you sign on that dotted line, you understand you’re doing it Vince’s way. I don’t want to do it Vince’s way anymore. I want to do it Chris’s way. So far, over the past six months, it’s been f—ing working. You know why? Because after 30 years of being in this business, I actually have some ideas and I know what I’m doing.