Chris Jericho Addresses Criticisms Of AEW Angle With Mike Tyson

The video of Chris Jericho's confrontation with Mike Tyson on Wednesday's AEW Dynamite is already the ninth most-watched in the short history of AEW's YouTube channel, and it's expected to keep climbing the ranks.

Though the angle itself was somewhat polarizing to wrestling fans in the immediate aftermath, it has brought attention toward All Elite Wrestling. Chris Jericho noted as such in an interview with ESPN's Marc Raimondi.

"If we hadn't had Mike Tyson on the show last night, you and I wouldn't even be speaking right now. That's the reason why," Jericho said, when asked about criticisms of wrestling promotions using outside athletes as draws.

"We were focusing people to know what AEW is, to grow the audience, to grow our fan base. And that's how you do it. It's the same reason how AEW was able to get wrestling fans by bringing Chris Jericho in as the bridge. 'Well, Jericho is there, we'll check this out. Oh, we really like this.' Now you use Mike Tyson as the bridge. 'If Mike Tyson is there, let's check this out. Wow, it's not just Jericho and Tyson.' You get to see the whole roster of performers we have here and you realize this company kicks ass.

"That's why you do it. You do it smartly. You bring in the right person with the right opponent at the right time. There's nobody hotter in the sports world than Mike Tyson."

Jericho also addressed the criticism of his kayfabe beef with Tyson migrating over to his current promotional home, after originating in a WWE angle from over ten years ago.

"It's a WWE angle? It's a Chris Jericho angle," he said. "I was there. I don't just wash away my entire 19-year history with the WWE. That's ludicrous. Anybody criticizing that this was a WWE angle and we brought it over here -- this is my life. It's my story. Tyson knocked out Chris Jericho. He didn't knock out Chris Jericho and The Rock and Hulk Hogan and Triple H and Kurt Angle. He knocked me out. That's my story. It's like if I write a song and it's a huge hit and I released it on Sony records and then I signed with Warner Bros. and rerecorded the song. It's my song."