Chris Jericho on Wrestlemania 32 plans, Vince McMahon's threat, CM Punk and more
– Chris Jericho, who recently celebrated his 25th anniversary in the wrestling business spoke in-depth with FOX Sports. Y2J who has won various accolades in WWE and the pro wrestling business was talking about the current state of WWE, his small tiff with Vince McMahon and more. These are some of the excerpts.
On his argument with Vince McMahon
Jericho and Vince Mcmahon have had some arguments in the past. He spoke about one such specific argument where he hid the fact from the company about hosting a show called Downfall. He said that Vince McMahon flipped out when he saw him on the front cover of a magazine and got very angry about the situation.
“The worst argument is when I got the job to host “Downfall,” the game show that I had to audition for quite a few times. I didn’t tell him because I didn’t want him getting involved because sometimes the company will get involved and screw things up for you. (laughs) And when I finally got the gig, I didn’t tell him and it was on the front cover of the Hollywood Reporter, which he flipped out at,” says Y2J.
He had a phone conversation with Vince where he was asked to quit the show and Y2J refused. McMahon threatened to fire him and punch him in the face, to which Jericho cockily challenged him to do so.
But as alls well that ends well, Y2J and Mr. McMahon spoke about it and the issue was sorted out. He also added that he was supposed to face Ryback at Wrestlemania 29, but instead the match was booked with Fandango which was not the deal.
He says, “I wasn’t supposed to be working with Fandango at WrestleMania 29. It was supposed to be Ryback and that was kind of the deal we had made. That was the promise that was made and it was changed very quickly for no real reason. I wasn’t happy about that either. We had about three weeks to come up with an angle and if you go and watch that match and watch the night after, the most over guy on that show was Fandango. And I’m taking a huge chunk of the credit for that, thank you very much.”
On being a part of Wrestlemania 32 at Dallas.
Jericho when asked about his future plans and Wrestlemania, said that when he comes back, it's not just a one off. He spoke about Night of Champions appearance and said that the next Mania is going to be the biggest show of all time.
dropping a hint on the possible plans, he says, “Yes, no, maybe. It all depends. I came back a couple of weeks ago to do the Night of Champions thing and I don’t come back just for one-offs. There’s always a reason why I do everything that I do. That could give you some clues. It’s going to be the biggest show of all-time,”
He adds, “I haven’t done the last couple of Manias and, to me, it wasn’t that the opportunity wasn’t there or the offer but what am I going to be doing? Who am I working with? What’s the storyline because I know that for Wrestlemania, everyone comes back.”
He also talked about how he main evented Wrestlemania 18 and that how it is important to be always present on the product and how vital it is.
“I was the main event of WrestleMania 18. It might be the only Wrestlemania main event I might have; it might not be the only Wrestlemania show-stealer. But I also know that if you’re not in the main event, your real estate on TV is less and less. I’m smart enough to know that if you get the right person and just given my own little world, give me my own little ten minute segment every week like me and [CM] Punk had three years ago when we had an amazing angle that was never the main event of anything,” says the ‘Iota of Rock and Rolla’.
He adds, “Punk and I were smart enough to know that’s all we need. We don’t need 20 minutes of talking. We don’t need electrocutions or going through tables or whatever the hell they do to build up their angles. All we need is just 10 minutes of talking time, 10 minutes of TV time and we’ll do the rest.”