Chris Jericho was recently interviewed by Adam Wilbourn of WhatCulture Wrestling. During the interview, Jericho discussed AEW’s goal of building stars in their company. He noted that they are trying to build stars in-house as opposed to just signing talent that WWE lets go.

Why Chris Jericho is scouting Roman Reigns

“Our goal is to build new stars. It’s not gonna be long until our guys are major headlining main-event stars. But it was built on the backs of people like me, and Cody and some others.

“Soon Sammy [Guevara] and MJF and Darby Allin and Scorpio Sky and these other guys are major major headlining stars. We need to build stars, this is not a a place where anybody in WWE can just show up. We’re very selective on who we take on.”

“People tune into AEW like ‘Oh, Chris Jericho’s there, Let’s see what’s going on. Well, that was cool, but who’s this Darby Allin guy?’ This is not a place where anybody from WWE can show up. We need to make our own stars,” said Jericho.

Jericho aims to bring new audiences in with the star power he and Cody carry in the AEW. After new fans are roped in, they would then discover all of the new and unseen talents in the AEW.

Roman Reigns vs. Chris Jericho – United States Championship Match: Raw, Jan. 23, 2017

Jericho also stated that Roman Reigns was at the top of his list of WWE Superstars to bring into AEW.

“What’s my wishlist? I’d put Roman Reigns at the top of that wishlist for anybody. Not only is he a great worker but he’s such a cool guy.

“If they just let him be him, he’d be the biggest star in the industry, for real. That’d be a guy I’d love to get my hands on for sure.”

Chris Jericho wants to ‘recruit’ Roman Reigns to the AEW.

In April, WWE announced massive layoffs and talent cuts due to the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic. Jericho admitted that AEW are not interested in any of the released talent.

“Nothing against anybody involved because they’re very talented, but there’s nobody on that list that we’re looking at,” Jericho said. “We’re not doing what WCW did in the 90s or what Impact did. We realize that’s not how you do it and it becomes a retread, we need to make our own stars.

“Look at Moxley now, it’s a different guy, look at Brodie Lee, they wouldn’t even put him on TV for the last eight months and now he’s headlining PPVs and kicking ass doing it.”

Jericho continued to say there’s one star in WWE that he’d love to see in AEW.

“We do have a select handful of WWE recruits, but if everybody got released and the company ended tomorrow, we wouldn’t take a lot,” Jericho said.

“I would put Roman Reigns at the top of my wish list for anybody because not only is he a great worker, he’s such a cool guy. If they just let him be him, he’d be the biggest star in the industry.

That’s a guy I’d love to get my hands on for sure, one of the few I’d love to have from WWE.”

Reigns has been at home quarantining during the current pandemic and hasn’t appeared on television since the March 20th episode of Smackdown