The formation of All Elite Wrestling has been dominating the news cycle ever since the fledgling promotion’s ‘Double or Nothing’ rally this Tuesday in Jacksonville. No story has been quite as big, however, than the official signing of 28-year wrestling veteran Chris Jericho.
Jericho, who has largely remained faithful to Vince McMahon and the WWE since first making the jump from World Championship Wrestling at the turn of the century, has reportedly signed a three-year exclusive contract with AEW.
While this will effectively keep him from working any kind of dates for WWE until January 2022 (at which point he will be 51-years-old), Jericho did negotiate a clause that will allow him to continue working for New Japan Pro-Wrestling going forward. He recently dropped the IWGP Intercontinental Championship back to Tetsuya Naito at Wrestle Kingdom 13, but there has been talk of him potentially working a program with Hiroshi Tanahashi at some point.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter is reporting that Jericho was in talks with WWE on a potential new deal “as late as the end of December”, and that the contract offered by AEW was “significantly better” than anything he had been offered previously.