Miro Discusses First Meeting Tony Khan Backstage In WWE, What He Likes Better About AEW

On a recent episode of the Talk Is Jericho podcast, “The Best Man” Miro discussed with Chris Jericho the differences between AEW and WWE. Miro noted that he had met AEW President Tony Khan before when Khan was backstage at a WWE live event.

“I was also lucky that I met Mr. Khan a couple of times. He came backstage at a live event one time,” Miro recalled. “He came to WWE backstage maybe five years ago. He brought a whole bunch of swag because we were in Jacksonville. Then, I think Jacksonville came to Nashville to play the Titans, so my father-in-law, he is a pastor but he’s also a huge football fan. So, I contacted Tony and Tony gave us tickets [to the Jaguars game].

“It was me, my father-in-law, and I had an extra ticket, so I took my Uber driver with us. I mean, he was there, why not? So we came, and Tony brought us to the sidelines, and we stayed there. We met people; it was a beautiful experience, and I got to know him better and see he’s a good guy. He’s really inspired, he’s so smart and I think we kind of connected, especially when [he put in a] good word for me. We made everything thing happen. “

While Miro has not been in AEW for that long, he noted that he’s noticed that there is not as much panic backstage as there was in WWE. He also spoke on the promo style in AEW, where he is given bullet points rather than a multiple page script.

“Right out of the gate, nobody’s running backstage, nobody is sweating backstage, nobody’s having a heart attack backstage, nobody’s nervous,” Miro listed off. “There is no pressure. There is pressure but it’s not the pressure that somebody’s putting on you. You’re putting pressure on yourself because you want to be the best, not because you’re afraid that somebody’s gonna yell at you.

“Now, the motivation is completely different. Clearly the the talking segments are something that comes from inside of you. It’s not four pages that you need to memorize, and there are four drafts or six drafts during the day that come in WWE. Here, you have bullet points and you say, ‘hey man, what do you want to say? What do you feel?’ And then go out there and say it. I’m not kissing your ass by any means, but you’re the best when it comes to promos.

“That’s why I always want to come and ask you for your advice, and you can tell me the words, but I need to find that inside me again. So it’s not just the words, and that’s why I feel like, sometimes, people don’t understand. They need to remember the moves and the words, and they’re going to be great, but that’s not how this business works because they can teach a monkey how to freaking do moves. That’s not how the business is.”

Jericho recalled the first time he cut a promo in AEW. He discussed the nervous energy he felt cutting a promo outside of the WWE system.

“I remember, it was actually here last year. We had a PPV, and I was coming up to do a promo to set up the following match or whatever the hell I was doing. It was Fight For The Fallen,” Jericho recalled. “It was the special before we started weekly TV, and I went to the ring for this promo, and it was the first promo that I’d cut on TV – on live TV – in 20 years with no script, no approval. And I remember being a little bit nervous. ‘Alright Jericho, everyone says you’re a great promo. Do you remember how to do a promo just with nothing?’ And I went out there and did it.

“And it was one of those things where I just felt so good afterwards. It was so liberating to not really know what I was going to say, but also to have the confidence. Like, ‘dude, you got it man. You can do this. This is what you do.’ And that was where the real breaking point was for me from the way of the old – and, once again, not burying WWE. It’s just the way they do things, it’s fine. But the way of the old to the way of the now, that was the defining moment for me. The bridge where I was like, okay, this is a whole different world here.”

Jericho said he now takes notes and writes down ideas, but everything goes through his head. He recalled his segment with Private Party where it was the first time Private Party had ever cut a live promo.

“I’ll write some notes down,” Jericho stated. “If I think of some good ideas, I’ll write them down so I don’t forget them and then kind of shape it, put it together, go through it in my head – what I’m going to say. But nobody ever asks; no one ever says a word. Maybe once in a while for a backstage pre-tape, if we do something, Tony might have a suggestion or something like that, but as far as the live promo goes, you can be whoever you want to be.

“And I did that with Private Party… with Isiah [Kassidy] and Marq Quen. It was their first-ever live promo, ever. In WWE, that would have been over-rehearsed/overwritten so they wouldn’t have known what the hell to do. I was just like, ‘take your time. Be cool. Talk to me. Don’t worry about anything else.’ It worked out great. So, they get a feeling of what it’s like to cut a promo too.”

Miro also spoke on the different styles that are welcomed in AEW. He likened it to “Bloodsport”, and he noted that WWE has one particular style that talent adapt to, whereas in AEW, there is no specific style to adopt.

“Professional wrestling is like martial arts,” Miro stated. “When you look at martial arts, they have different divisions of martial arts: Karate, Judo, etc. So, I feel like pro wrestling is the same way. You have strong style, you have Lucha Libre, you have sports entertainment – WWE. You have all these different styles around the world, but the beautiful thing about AEW is, they let you execute your style. If you come to Japan, okay, work our style. WWE style? No, you come from Japan, you work your Japanese style. You work comes from Mexico, you work that. And that’s what the beautiful thing about AEW is you see all these different styles from all over the world.

“It’s like ‘Bloodsport’, coming in, and combining, and creating this huge event on a week-to-week basis with these four, five, six, 10-star matches. While on the other side, and I hate to say that – I’m not burying WWE by any means, they just have one style [and] one formula. That’s it. While here, you have everything.”

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