Kevin Smith Says AEW Does Celebrity Crossovers Very Artfully; Would Go Back In A Heartbeat

Kevin Smith has no issues showing up on AEW programming, again. 

The Clerks filmmaker made an appearance, along with Jay Mewes, on the debut episode of Dynamite in October 2019 to promote his then-recently released film, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. Smith, a good friend of Chris Jericho’s, told ET Canada that he could see himself jumping back in the ring around the time Clerks III hits theatres.

“In a heartbeat, I would go back,” Smith says. “I love Jericho. So anything he needs from me, I’ll happily go do. I imagine we’ll kind of jump back out into the ring when it’s around ‘Clerks III’ time. As we saw recently, Rosario [Dawson] got involved which was pretty awesome.”

Rosario Dawson appears on @AEW and goes after Malakai Black — pic.twitter.com/w5VcygVlTC

— B/R Wrestling (@BRWrestling) September 16, 2021

Dawson, who starred in Clerks II, recently appeared on Dynamite, getting into a skirmish with Malakai Black. She is one of the judges on Go Big Show alongside AEW’s Cody Rhodes.

Speaking about the way AEW handles celebrity appearances, Smith said the following:

“AEW does it very artfully. It doesn’t feel like, ‘Oh this guy is doing it to reach a brand new audience.’ It feels like they’re doing it because it’s part of the fun.”

The writer-director ended by commenting on the emergence of cinematic matches in wrestling, stating that it was the next logical avenue for the medium to explore, creatively. 

“Pretty incredible,” he says. “Think about it. The sport has been around long enough that you’ve seen every variation that there is to see in terms of storylines and action. It’s a foregone conclusion that sooner or later they would be like, ‘Let’s make it a movie, for heaven’s sake…’ They can do it every week on the show. They have some of the best writers in the business, some of the most creative and whatnot. Writing dialogue on the fly in many cases.”

“I feel like we’re going to see a lot more cinematic [matches]. Not just cinematic, but multimedia takes on a sport that we’ve seen presented the same way since it became a cable phenomenon. How do you keep them in your seats after all these years? You always have new crops of people coming in, but how do you keep the old f**kers sitting around? You start showing them some new things. You start showing them a version of what they are achingly familiar with that can reinvigorate their interest all over again. Why not make it look good? We’re talking about film and entertainment, take your time and throw up some lights and you’re going to have something that looks as good as something you’d see in a movie theatre.”

Smith is currently working on Clerks III and recently served as the showrunner for Netflix’s new Masters of the Universe series.

Fightful provides live coverage of AEW Dynamite every Wednesday night, with a post-show review immediately following its conclusion.