“Tonight, I said this to Dean Malenko, is the first time in 20 years that I’ve ever done a promo with no script, no approval of what I’m going to say, and really no idea of what I’m going to say. Just knowing I have a point and some directions that I may or may not want to go. When Hangman got busted open that changed the entire design of the promo. And it was very liberating. How good are you, Chris Jericho? Can you go out there live without a net with no pre-prepared memorized script and captivate an audience? And I think it worked out very well, and of course I can do it.”
One of the biggest knocks against WWE right now is how scripted its television shows are, right down to having the wrestlers memorize scripts for promos. The argument is it hurts the performers creatively. AEW, from its inception, has been presented as the place those same performers can go to flourish. Here, Jericho promotes as much, saying he never got the chance to cut an unscripted promo in WWE but his first ever promo in an AEW ring was exactly as advertised: he was given a live mic and allowed to say whatever.
I’ll let you decide if the result was an improvement but I think we can all agree this is something we need more of in major pro wrestling shows.