Chris Jericho Discusses The Importance Of Having A Personality In Wrestling On "Inside The NBA"

Chris Jericho appeared on Inside The NBA this week with Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith to promote tonight's AEW Full Gear pay-per-view. During the interview, which often erupted into Shaq wrestling with the other hosts, Jericho talked how important it is in pro wrestling to connect with the audience.

"Connecting with the crowd is the most important thing, it's show business right? If not, you're just doing moves, it's two half naked guys with oil on rolling around with each other," Jericho said. "Connecting with the crowd and selling the match by talking the people into the arena is how it works.

"The moves are important, but the most important thing is the connection."

Jericho signed with AEW this past January and is currently the highest paid star on the roster. Despite his big money deal, Jericho said that it was the creative freedom that AEW provided that caused him to join the company.

"What AEW offered that WWE didn't was more creative freedom," Jericho said. "It was a chance to do something new and for the first time in 20 years there was an alternative to WWE which is a good thing because it gives fans more options, it gives the guys bigger deals in and out of the ring.

"It just seemed to me after all these years of doing this, the one thing that I've never done is to basically help start a company and get it up and rolling, which is what we've done."

Jericho will defend his AEW World Heavyweight Championship against Cody Rhodes at AEW Full Gear tonight. Join us this evening for our live, match-by-match coverage as the event, as well as our live coverage on site at the show.

You can watch the full interview in the video above. If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Inside The NBA with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.