Matt Menard on the state of the AEW locker room, the impact that Chris Jericho has had on him, the last year of his life since joining AEW, doing color commentary

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

Good Karma Wrestling with guest Matt Menard
Hosts: ESPN Chicago’s Jonathan Hood, ESPN Milwaukee’s Gabe Neitzel, and ESPN West Palm’s Brian Rowitz
Twitter: @gkw_wrestling
Interview available at YouTube.com (interview starts at roughly 48:20)

On the state of the AEW locker room: “I was talking to somebody yesterday and I was like “I look forward to Thursday when I get to go online when I get home and find out what is going on in the locker room.” I don’t see it and I don’t feel it, I don’t know if I am just in my little Jericho bubble and I don’t know what is going on. But I don’t feel any tension or any bad vibes or anything like that and I know it sounds like I am being a big time company guy here and maybe I am. I just don’t know. Everybody gets along. I love it. I love having CM Punk around, we’re always talking and having a good time. We were both in the medical room the other day and we’re just laughing and having a great time, he’s icing his foot, I’m working on my shoulder. Punks a great guy man, I don’t know. I love it. I love our locker room.”

On what the last year of his life has been like: “It’s the time of my life. The last year of my life has been so unbelievable. From being released by WWE in June of last year, to August being picked up with AEW, my son was born, we’re wrestling Sting, fighting CM Punk. I don’t know what is going on. To bring it around and the end of the winter to get into this thing with Jericho has been a dream come true, honestly.”

On the impact that Chris Jericho has had on him personally: “I get to watch Jericho, the way he carries himself in the back, the way he handles his business, the way he presents himself as performer. I’m just constantly learning. I try to model myself after him. The one thing that I learned from being with him is that you can do no wrong.”

On what his few months of free agency were like: “It was tough, it was tough because my wife was seven/eight months pregnant at the time. And you don’t know. We were supposed to leave the country and go back to Canada, so we’re like, “do we stay, do we go?” I don’t know if it’s illegal, I have no idea guys. Luckily, we worked things out with AEW to where we didn’t have to leave. There lawyers got on us and that’s initially how the deal got started, they were going to help us get our visas and then they ended up giving us a match. One thing led to another and then we signed per appearance deals and then we signed real contracts and anyway, things are great.”

On how doing commentary came to be: “Back in June at Blood and Guts, I ended up tearing my rotator cuff and my labrum. So, I’m out for a period of time here. A couple of weeks ago, I was just like “I’m coming to TV every week, I’m not planning any matches, I’m doing much of anything”, so I end up talking to Tony Schiavone and he’s like “yeah, lets put you on commentary, I will run it by TK and see what he says.” TK loved the idea and sure enough I went out there one week and it seemed to be a big hit, people liked it, Twitter loved it. And Tony Schiavone was like “you just stay out there now until somebody tells you not to.” So, I guess its my job and an opportunity to learn another side of the business. Honestly, it’s been an absolute blast, I feel like I can say anything out there and I have Excalibur who is going to cover my ass, it’s just so much fun guys.”