Since his absence from AEW, there's been a lot of buzz on social media about Chris Jericho instead returning to WWE to retire. However, in the past few years of his career in AEW, Jericho has been on the receiving end of a lot of flak toward his character work and his utilization, to which his "Learning Tree" gimmick was a tongue-in-cheek response.Bu,the veteran hasn't simply dismissed the criticisms, and in an interview on "UNTAPPED," he finally addressed them directly."I like long-term stories," Jericho added, explaining that creativity is important to long-term stories and that often times, neither wrestler needs to be on the show to tell that story. "I would rather make things go longer than shorter, and I always love wrestling fans especially modern-day ones who just want to know the answer right now!"Jericho then pointed out how the movie "Saving Private Ryan" is long, and requires patience, likening the payoff to the film to the stories he tries to tell."Shut the f*** up, and let me tell my story! When it's done if it takes a year, tough luck!" he expressed. "We can tell any story we want, and we can make it go as long as we want, or as short as we want."
One of ChrisJericho's most memorable AEW feuds was his lengthy story withMaxwell Jacob Friedman, which laid seeds that only paid off months later, and according to the veteran, took a year and a day to reach it's conclusion."There were people like: 'this feud is too long' why go to something else? Why? What else do you got going on?" he said. "That was the thing with ShawnMichaels and I.They wanted it to be a one month thing and [we were like] 'what do you have coming up?' 'Nothing?' 'Well, what do you have coming up, Shawn?' 'Nothing.' Well, then why are we ending this in a month? Let's keep going!"Jericho pointed out that his storyline with ShawnMichaels ended up becoming one of the greatest rivalries in wrestling, and while the veteran could easily be speaking from bias, the sentiment is often echoed online."That, to me, is the brilliance of wrestling," he mused, explaining that sometimes you need to remove a component of a story for a long time, in order to let other parts play out, before picking it up again. "Until then? Just sit back and enjoy the show! It's a show!It's show business; it's not real, it's like watching your favorite TV series."If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "UNTAPPED" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
