AEW Dynamite will make its Canadian debut tonight in Toronto, Ontario, with a live event. ROH World Champion Chris Jericho will defend his title against Bryan Danielson in the main event.
Jericho recently spoke with Graham Isador of Toronto Now on why he believes Toronto has always been a terrific place for pro wrestling.
“I think it’s one of those things that’s ingrained as part of the culture in Canada,” he responded. “With WWE, where I worked for almost 20 years, we were in Toronto two or three times a year. It seemed like we were there all the time. When you spend a lot of time in a market, and there’s obviously a great fan base, it’s just a no brainer to keep going. Growing up in Winnipeg, it was always about wrestling and hockey. Toronto’s got the same vibe. It’s all about wrestling and hockey.”
Jericho was also asked how it feels to be performing with AEW in Toronto.
“It’s been a long time coming. Right out of the gate we were a big hit in Canada. I know our numbers on TSN are really good,” Jericho said. “But we had this little thing called the worldwide pandemic that delayed getting here. I was always asking, ‘When are we hitting Canada? When’s Toronto?’ Now that it’s almost time… it’s really exciting. Toronto wrestling fans are off the charts. Whenever someone asks about the best wrestling cities in the world I always say London, Chicago, Tokyo and Toronto. Toronto is loud. You cheer for who you want to cheer for… sometimes that would drive WWE heads of state crazy. They would call it bizzaro land. But that’s the Canadian way. We’ll go nuts for who we like and we’ll boo who we hate. We don’t care what we are ‘supposed’ to do. I’m excited to see the reaction we get.”
Jericho is the antagonist in tonight’s title bout, but he’s one of Canada’s most beloved wrestlers. He was asked if he expected the Toronto fans to boo him tonight.
“The great thing about AEW is: it really doesn’t matter,” Jericho said. “People are going to cheer who they’re going to cheer for. I mean Jericho Appreciation Society are the heels. We’re sports entertainers and we’re going to desecrate the legacy of the championship. I’m facing Bryan Danielson, who is one of the most popular wrestlers in the world. But it’s Chris Jericho in Canada for the first time with AEW. I expect a monstrous reaction for both of us. As long as they’re making noise, it’s all I care about. But if you had to ask me, gun to the head, I think I’m probably going to be pretty popular in Canada. Even though Toronto is thousands of kilometers away from Winnipeg.”
