Talk is Jericho Recap w/ Austin Aries – WWE Departure, Working for New & Improved Impact Wrestling, Collecting Titles, More!

Jericho welcomes Austin Aries to the show.
Jericho laughs while informing that he forgot his recorder for this interview, so he’s working on the fly with someone else’s equipment. Aries says that reminds him of TNA forgetting their steel cage for an All Cage PPV in St. Louis several years ago. He thought that was a terrible idea for a PPV anyway because a full show of cage matches is too much. Jericho agrees, pointing out that WWE watered down their Hell In A Cell matches by putting two or three of them on each year’s PPV as well.

Aries notes that shortly after that embarrassing PPV in St. Louis the company informed him that they’d no longer be paying for his hotels or rental cars, and this angered him. Within a few days he was suspended for having a “poor attitude”.
He points out that working for Impact Wrestling’s new regime has been great. After taking some time to adjust to the new management and approach, the last 6 months have been the most fun he’s ever had in the wrestling business. It’s been great to have ownership of his own life, and having the ability to work for ROH as well and apply his trade around the world has been awesome.

Jericho notes that there’s a WWE way of doing things that he really enjoys, but there’s something special about having more creative control over what your character is doing. He doesn’t mind working with Vince McMahon on ideas, but when there’s a bunch of cooks in the kitchen trying to influence McMahon in a certain direction, Jericho thinks some of the business’ artistry is lost.
Aries points out that the professional wrestling landscape is changing. He’s currently the Impact Wrestling Champion and he’s also working for ROH. There’s going to be Impact vs. ROH matches on the upcoming Jericho Cruise, and Aries thinks all that cross promotion is great. He doesn’t see why these companies wouldn’t work together to carve out a larger piece of the pie right now.

Aries talks about his infamous House of Hardcore promo. He points out that a lot of people expected him to go out to the ring and criticize WWE but he decided to do something different; he blamed himself for his failures. He admits that delivering a 13-minute heartfelt promo to a Philadelphia crowd who were already a 6-pack deep probably wasn’t the greatest idea, but he felt it was necessary.
Aries says he’s currently holding 6 Titles, and it’s a bit of a nuisance trying to travel with them all. He tries to make his security checks as easy as possible by taking the belts out beforehand, but that still doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. He jokes that some of those security agents have an ego trip and think they’re important because they wear a fake badge, when they should just do their job and let people get where they need to go.

Jericho likes what he’s been seeing from Impact Wrestling as of late. He thinks it was good that guys like Bobby Lashley and EC3 left because they’d been there for so long and there’s only so much you can do with people creatively. Now there’s a new wave of young talent eager to rise to the top, and he thinks that’s great for the company. Aries agrees, noting that the Impact locker room is the “funnest place to work right now”.
Aries says he has an agreement with Impact Wrestling, but he doesn’t have a standard contract that prevents him from working for other companies. Theoretically, he could show up to WWE tomorrow and he wouldn’t be voiding his contract. However, he doubts that would happen and WWE has their own reasons for that.

He thinks it’s a great time for the wrestling business and he can sense some excitement from fans. He doesn’t think there’s any need for wrestling fans to choose between different companies or wrestling products; fans should be able to enjoy it all. Jericho agrees, adding that the business is incredibly healthy right now. He also notes that performers can make great money for limited dates outside of WWE.
That sums up today’s episode of Talk is Jericho. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!