Chris Jericho recent appeared on the Mature Audiences Mayhem podcast and the subject of scripted promos came up. WWE has been coming under fire for years now about that and one chief complaint from wrestlers who leave the company is that they were too busy learning lines rather than being themselves.
Now, Jericho has assured fans that All Elite Wrestling won't make those same mistakes.
"I think people are excited because it’s something different. I know this – there’s no scripted promos."
"There are no writers because that is what wrestling is," Jericho continued. "That is where it came from! ‘Austin 3:16’ was written by Steve Austin, ‘Y2J’ was written by Chris Jericho, ‘Never Ever Againe’ was written by Chris Jericho. All that stuff came from my head because I am the one who has to deliver it."
"I watch WWE – and listen, I love WWE. I worked there for 19 years. But you can see when people are saying s–t that they don’t buy, and you have to say it because it’s what Vince McMahon wants. And if you don’t say what he wants, you are going to hear about it. And if you don’t do it the next time, you probably won’t get promos anymore."
There are some benefits to scripted promos, of course, especially when it comes to building very specific storylines. AEW hasn't really had the opportunity to create storylines beyond what we've seen in Being The Elite and interviews, so it will be interesting seeing how they handle that on a weekly basis.