Chris Jericho’s career has come full circle, and he keeps asking for some respect.
The wrestling star was part of WCW’s cruiserweight division when the company’s show “Monday Night Nitro” aired on TNT in the mid-to-late ’90s before making the jump to WWE in 1999. Now he will arguably be the main attraction when All Elite Wrestling brings pro wrestling back to the station this fall, after a deal was announced Wednesday.
Jericho stayed in character when he reacted to the news with a video on Twitter. He is in search of a proper “thank you” from AEW for its first pay-per-view selling out, and now the deal with WarnerMedia that will bring an AEW television show to TNT and B/R Live starting this fall. B/R Live also will be the exclusive digital streaming partner in the United State for the “Double or Nothing” pay-per-view on May 25 in Las Vegas.
“Congrats to @allelitewrestling for signing a HUGE television contract w @tntdrama & @warnermediagroup! But don’t forget why this monumental TV deal was signed…” Jericho wrote in the tweet along with the video.
The 48-year-old Jericho, who also will face Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight championship at New Japan Pro Wrestling’s “Dominion” pay-per-view on June 9, wasn’t a part of the AEW contingent that attended the WarnerMedia Upfront at Madison Square Garden’s Theater on Wednesday.
His “Double or Nothing” opponent, Kenny Omega, did join AEW president Tony Khan, Cody and Brandi Rhodes, Matt and Nick Jackson, Hangman Page and Britt Baker at the event. Jericho, however, weighed in on the news in his video at a jiu jitsu gym in Tampa.
“Congratulations to All Elite Wrestling for signing a television deal with TNT, Time Warner,” Jericho said. “That’s huge. But keep this in mind, while Kenny Omega and Cody and all the other suck-ups are swarming around Tony Khan and all the executives, all the Warner executives, at the upfronts in New York City, I’m here in the dungeon in Tampa training for ‘Double or Nothing.’
“I don’t have time to put on a suit and tie [with] Kenny and go act like a hotshot with a bunch of TV executives. All I have time is to continue training so I can beat your a– at ‘Double or Nothing’ and get that thank you on behalf of All Elite Wrestling.”
Leave it to Jericho to use major news to further an angle. He was seen in last week’s episode of “The Road to Double Nothing” on YouTube with his feet up on the desk of Cody Rhodes, one of AEW’s four executive vice presidents, before asking for a “company-sponsored” thank you. Jericho also left Cody an angry voicemail in another episode after Rhodes called him a d–k in an interview with The Post.
“If it wasn’t for me, there would be no AEW and I demand that you and every single employee thank me Chris Jericho for making what it is,” Jericho told Rhodes in the most recent episode.
While it’s unclear if Jericho will again be on the other side of a “Monday Night War” feud with the WWE for television ratings — the day AEW’s show will air has not been announced — he is certainly willing to use any opportunity to continue to wage his on-screen wars.