Chris Jericho Praises AEW's Tony Khan For Running Arthur Ashe Stadium Instead Of Madison Square Garden

Chris Jericho has praised AEW President Tony Khan's "genius" for opting to run New York City's Arthur Ashe Stadium instead of Madison Square Garden.

The Garden has often been the go-to venue for big wrestling shows in New York City, particularly WWE, but AEW held Grand Slam tapings in front of over 20,000 fans inside Arthur Ashe Stadium on September 22. 

Speaking about the event on the REINVENTED podcast with Jen Eckhart, Jericho praised Khan for not running Madison Square Garden.

"It was unbelievable. There was a little bit of genius on Tony Khan's part because everyone was talking about Madison Square Garden. What people don't understand is, to play the Garden is very expensive, for one. You don't really make money at the Garden, you just do it because it's Madison Square Garden. Everyone was saying, 'AEW has to go to the Garden, that's going to be your coming out party in New York.' Tony was like, 'What if I don't want to do the Garden? There must be somewhere else.' He found this Arthur Ashe Stadium. The moment I went in there, I was like, 'Oh my gosh, this place is amazing. It's better than the Garden.' The seats go straight up in the air, so all the noise comes right down to the ring," Jericho said.

"People are over the top of you and it was really cool to see this place. This atmosphere was off the charts crazy. We don't need to go to the Garden now because we created a new place for us because there's never been a wrestling show at Arthur Ashe. We were the debut for that and what an amazing venue and building. We do things outside of the box. 'Let's do a show in New York.' 'If you want to be big in New York, you have to go to the Garden.' 'I disagree, what if we find our own place in New York, make it the AEW home base in New York, and turn that into the place to be.' I'll bet you there will be other wrestling companies in Arthur Ashe. They're probably already negotiating it now. We did it first and it is ours."

Jericho was in action at the Arthur Ashe tapings on Rampage and he and Jake Hager failed to defeat The Men Of The Year before they suffered a beatdown from American Top Team.

H/T to Fightful