On the latest episode of Chris Jericho’s podcast, Talk Is Jericho, Jericho talks about how he ended up signing with All Elite Wrestling and his journey along the way, including being in negotiations with WWE until the final days.
Interestingly, Jericho also mentioned that Impact was also in the mix and that they made him a big offer and he “really, really thought about going there” until Tony Khan came in with the biggest offer of Jericho’s career.
Then there was Impact. I gotta tell you guys, man, I’ve been really impressed by Impact over the past year. I thought Don Callis and Scott D’Amore have really turned things around in that company. And I really, really enjoy it.
And I thought long and hard about doing some shows. I even had a meeting with Scott and Don in Toronto and Ed Nordholm. The offer they made was a great offer. It’s funny when I hear like, ‘All these companies are vying for the talent, for the free agents. WWE, AEW, Ring of Honor, New Japan’ and someone mentioned MLW. Dude, what about Impact? They’ve got money. They were gonna spend some money on Chris Jericho. We had some great matches planned. Jericho vs. Sami Callihan maybe. Or Johnny Impact, Brian Cage, Rich Swann. I’d love to work with Rich Swann.
So I did honestly talk to Impact and really, really thought about going there. And then Tony Khan came in with this offer that’s you know, the biggest offer that I’ve ever been offered in my career.
You can listen to the podcast below. The part about Impact starts at around 30:38.
On November 30, Chris Jericho posted this picture of himself in Toronto with Don Callis, Scott D’Amore and Ed Nordholm, the three people currently running Impact.