Chris Jericho reacts to WWE's statement.
Ahead of the news that AEW won week one of the ratings war against NXT, WWE put out a statement congratulating AEW on their success but noting that it's a marathon and not a sprint. Shortly after the statement came out, but before the full numbers were reported, Chris Jericho spoke to Complex about WWE's statement.
"They're embarrassed. I know how they work. I haven't seen the actual rating, but I'm assuming they what it is, and I think we probably kicked their ass," said Jericho. "They started this. Everything that they’ve done has been a reactionary move to us. We’re not in a war with anybody besides ourselves. I don’t care if you resurrect John [Lennon] and George [Harrison], and it’s the reunion of The Beatles at the Super Bowl or whatever. All that matters is our show. You can put anything up against us, and we can’t compete with that. We can compete with what we’re doing.”
Jericho continued, “They kinda started this war, and the very first night they got destroyed. Big deal, it’s our first debut, great. But they have to come back and say, ‘It’s a marathon and not a one-night sprint.’ Whoever said it’s a one-night sprint? It’s not a war for us. Now, we’re placed in one, and we’re gonna kick ass because we’re gonna do what we do very, very well. There’s a little bit of an arrogance towards us that’s now gone."
It's very exciting to get that show done and over with because now all the talk -- it's like hockey when you have someone yapping at you. When you score ten goals, you say, 'look at the scoreboard.' That shuts people up. Then they get mad and start getting desperate. I'm not saying anybody is desperate. I'm just saying we put on a great show."
AEW drew 1.4 million viewers compared to NXT's 891,000 viewers. Jericho played a big role on the debut episode of AEW Dynamite, attacking Cody early in the night, winning the main event, and forming a new stable alongside Jake Hager, Sammy Guevara, and Santana & Ortiz to close the show.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit Complex with a h/t to Fightful for the transcription.
