Jericho eager to ‘embrace’ Canadian homecoming as AEW hits Toronto

On March 29, 1999, World Championship Wrestling brought its flagship show, Monday Nitro, to Canada for the first time in the first ever wrestling event at Toronto’s brand-new Air Canada Centre. The show featured Hulk Hogan’s televised return to Toronto for the first time since WrestleMania VI, as well as an appearance by Bret “The Hitman” Hart and a title change when Rey Mysterio Jr. and Billy Kidman captured the WCW World Tag Team Championships.

History was made a little earlier in the show when Chris Jericho took on Jerry Flynn. Winnipeg’s Jericho would become the first ever Canadian to wrestle in the new arena that only opened two months previously. Jericho received a thunderous response from his countrymen with cheers raining down as he came down to the ring. Before the match started, he grabbed the mic to cut a brief promo to tell the fans just how…terrible it was to be back in Canada and in Toronto. Even though he was back in Canada, he was still a heel.

“Obviously, the mindset was a little bit different back then where I must turn the crowd heel no matter what!” Jericho told TSN.ca with a laugh. “I remember it and it was really cool because it was my first [major] show ever in Canada. I might have done one show in Montreal maybe a year or two earlier, but besides that, this was my first television appearance in Canada and it was really off-the-charts amazing. But I was doing everything at the time I could to get booed and working Jerry Flynn probably wasn’t helping my cause because, ya know, he’s not exactly the biggest of names.”

It’s another first for Jericho this week when All Elite Wrestling leaves the United States for the first time in the company’s history and runs two shows at Toronto’s Coca-Cola Coliseum – a live edition of Dynamite on Wednesday night and a Rampage taping on Thursday. Currently in his eighth reign as a world champion, Jericho will defend the Ring of Honor World Championship against former champion “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson in Wednesday night’s main event.

You can catch AEW Dynamite LIVE at 8pm et/5pm pt on TSN2, streaming on the TSN.App and on TSN.ca.

With AEW just having celebrated Dynamite’s third anniversary, there still remain a number of cities and towns that the company has yet to run shows in, while others have already seen a number of events. Jericho says that performers are well aware of where they’re travelling and the kind of reputations cities have as wrestling crowds.

“You know that when you do a couple of loops around the country, which cities are always hot, reaction-wise, and which cities are a little bit quieter,” Jericho said. “But sometimes you do get surprised. I find that for AEW, some cities like, for example, Pittsburgh, is great for AEW, but they weren’t really great for WWE. Pittsburgh is always one of those cities where it’s like “Eh, it’s gonna be alright.’ But I was really surprised with the reactions we got in Pittsburgh.”

As for Toronto crowds, Jericho says they’re among the best in the world.

“If you had to ask me what are some of the best wrestling cities in the world, I would always say London, I’d always say Chicago, Tokyo and Sydney, Australia, but I would always put Toronto in there, as well,” Jericho said. “And that’s not just because I’m talking to you on the phone. To be honest with you, Toronto, Winnipeg and Edmonton are the best wrestling crowds in Canada, by far. No city even touches them. Toronto’s always been one of the ones where you see it on the list and you’re like ‘Oh, this is going to be a great show, no matter what’ and that’s what we’re looking forward to and expecting on Wednesday and Thursday.”

Jericho is one of a number of talents on the AEW roster who will be experiencing a Canadian homecoming this week. The likes of “All Ego” Ethan Page (Stoney Creek, Ont.), Christian Cage (Orangeville, Ont.), The Bunny (Toronto), “Daddy Magic” Matt Menard and “Cool Hand” Angelo Parker (both from Chateauguay, Que.) are among those who hail from north of the 49th parallel.

When it comes to the presentation of performers in their hometowns or countries over the years in professional wrestling, it has been approached in a number of different ways. For years, any time World Wrestling Entertainment ran a TV show or pay-per-view in Canada and heels (normally Canadian-born ones) were cheered, announcers were quick to cite the abnormality of the crowd reaction and referred to where they were as “Bizarro Land.” Longtime WWE chairman and head of creative Vince McMahon seemed to relish embarrassing performers in their hometowns, either by something as simple as doing a job or something far more obviously mortifying like the time he forced announcer Jim Ross to literally kiss his ass in Oklahoma City in 2001.

For Jericho, he’s of the belief that there is no sense in fighting against a crowd and the way they intend to respond.

“We’re very proud of our own in Canada, so you could be in Victoria, B.C. or Prince Edward Island or in Saint John, New Brunswick and people are going to cheer you because you’re Canadian for the most part. But when you’re first starting, you kinda want to turn the tide [like he did in 1999]. As you get older, you just want people to cheer. You just want people to be involved, right?”

Jericho cites that as the same reason why he still uses Fozzy’s “Judas” as his entrance music even after turning heel.

“Even though I’m a heel, it’s a very organic reaction when people sing along to ‘Judas,’ so why would you want to stop that even when you’re a bad guy because it’s a very unique part of the show? And it’s one of the highlights. I get tweets and people commenting all the time with people saying ‘Ah, I’m so excited to sing ‘Judas’ tonight. I can’t wait!’ To take that away would be kinda stupid. So I think that’s the same when you’re in your home country or hometown. Let people enjoy the moment. How many times do you get to come to Canada? AEW fans have been waiting for us, so why would you want to – proverbially – shit on them and try to get them to boo? So if people want to cheer Chris Jericho or if people want to cheer Bryan Danielson or boo either one of us, it doesn’t really matter as long as they’re making noise or as long as they’re excited and engaged and invested in the match that we’re doing. That’s really all that matters in any way, shape or form.”

Jericho expects that kind of crowd investment this week at Coca-Cola Coliseum.

“I didn’t grow up in Toronto,” Jericho said. “I don’t really have much of a connection at all to Toronto except that I’ve wrestled there and played there a lot with Fozzy. It’s not like it’s Winnipeg, but it’s still Canada and it’s the first time we’ve been there and I fully expect to have a hero’s welcome when I get there. So why would I want to say ‘Oh, Toronto – what a dump!’? Because people aren’t really gonna boo anyway. They might boo a little bit, but then you’re just kinda cutting your fan base in half and not getting a full reaction. Embrace it, go with it and just make sure you’re having a magical moment in a city that wants to cheer for you.”