Tony Khan Talks Rejected Idea For Chris Jericho - MJF Dinner, Role He Considered For David Arquette

AEW President Tony Khan was on a recent episode of the AEW Unrestricted podcast where he discussed working with Chris Jericho on ideas. It was reported that it was MJF that came up with the "Le Dinner Debonair" segment, but Khan revealed that Jericho had an idea for the segment to be a dream sequence, but Khan shot that idea down.

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"Chris comes in with a lot of ideas, and and like with all things, I think almost every idea Chris has is great," Khan expressed. "And that idea, I thought was great, and I still think that idea to get buzz on this match and build their story and it's brought in a ton of attention. And then the follow-up, the town hall, which again, I would say is more of a conventional wrestling segment in a lot of ways than this, did incredibly well. Chris' ideas, so many of them are great, and with what you see Chris doing, a lot of it is Chris' own ideas.

"And I love working with Chris and putting together stuff for the show, and Chris has ideas for other people too. He's a phenomenal wrestling genius. The one thing on this little grid of stuff that I really took exception to was he pitched a dream sequence. That it would be a dream sequence where they would start singing, and it would be this dream. And I was like, no, we're not going to do that."

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Khan continued saying he loved the segment. He said that if he could change anything about it, he would have rather film the segment in the ring and possibly have shot it live.

"We can't do that, and I can't cannibalize a show like that, but I do love the idea of Chris and Max singing because Chris is a great singer and Max has a background in theater and singing," Khan pointed out. "Both guys have great voices. I'm a huge huge fan of both guys, and I thought that this could be great. And I love the idea of them singing [and] going out for the steak dinner. I think it's tremendous.

"If I could do something again, in hindsight, and we all agreed on this, I brought this up and everyone thought it was a good point, I would have done it in the ring. I would have rather done in the ring, and it would have been challenging to do it live, but we could have even taped in the ring. And I think it could have come off great, but I think having it between the ropes and in the squared circle would have been the way to go. But hindsight's 20/20. The idea of it was great, [but] we're not going to do it as a dream sequence. But I thought that the idea of Chris and Max singing really appealed to me, and it still does."

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Khan then talked about the town hall segment that set up the Jericho vs. MJF match where if MJF wins, he will join The Inner Circle. The segment saw the return of Eric Bischoff, and Khan noted that it was Jericho's idea to bring Bischoff back. He also spoke on Bischoff's improv during the segment that neither he nor MJF knew about ahead of time.

"Then the town hall segment, which again, I worked really closely with Chris on, it paid off great, and it was Chris' idea to bring in Eric again," Khan revealed. "And I was like, 'that's a great idea,' and then I wrote a lot of this stuff. And Eric, he's said on his show, Eric came in. He did a little bit of rewriting on the fly, which threw me and Max off a little bit because he told Chris, but he didn't tell us. The timing of it was fine, so I was okay with it, and Max didn't miss a beat.

"And I'm okay with people improving a little bit, and I thought when Eric did his 'ask not what your company can do for you.' That was not what was originally in there, but the three-prong question and Eric B. from Cody, Wyoming and all that [was]. I didn't see that coming, but I had worked with this with Chris, and I had the idea of well, you want to bring Eric in, we should have Tony announce, 'Eric B. from Wyoming.'"

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Many other wrestlers showed up during the segment to ask questions including Luchasaurus, Britt Baker and Peter Avalon. Avalon asked if he could join The Inner Circle, which caused him to be laughed off. However, Khan revealed that he had considered former WCW World Heavyweight Champion David Arquette in that role.

"I also had an idea, I wanted to use David Arquette," Khan revealed. "I thought he would have been good too, and David Arquette, actually, was the original person I wanted to use in Peter Avalon's spot of the 'could I join The Inner Circle?' And it would have been a very different reaction. They would have considered it maybe a little more with David Arquette as opposed to Peter Avalon."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit AEW Unrestricted with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

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