Chris Jericho believes learning how to work with the person in charge is one of the keys to longevity in the wrestling business.
During a new interview with TMZ Inside The Ring, Jericho discussed his philosophy when dealing with promoters and explained why he generally avoids simply telling his boss “no” when presented with an idea he doesn’t like.
“To get longevity in this business, you learn that you don’t say no to your boss,” Jericho said. “You say, ‘Well, how about we try it this way?’, give an alternative answer. Nothing will infuriate your boss more than just saying no.”
Jericho pointed out that ultimately the promoter is paying wrestlers to execute his vision, even when the talent may not initially agree with it.
“I mean, I work for somebody that’s paying me money, a lot of money, to do what he wants,” Jericho continued. “Vince used to say, ‘I just book the shit, you make it good.’ Sometimes it’s not easy, but that’s the boss.”
After mentioning several promoters he has worked for throughout his career, Jericho said he views it as his responsibility to make the person running the company happy while still collaborating whenever possible.
“Whoever was the boss, it’s my job to make him happy with the work that I’m doing,” he said. “There’s no boss that’s easy to say no to, but every good boss you collaborate with. That’s the secret of being a good general and it’s the secret to being a good boss.”
Jericho specifically cited Tony Khan and Vince McMahon as promoters he was able to collaborate with, while noting that he wasn’t high enough on the WCW hierarchy to have that type of relationship with Eric Bischoff.
“Tony’s great to collaborate with, Vince was great to collaborate with,” Jericho said. “I didn’t really have the opportunity to collaborate with Bischoff much because I was too far down the food chain and by the time that I felt that I was worthy of that, I was pretty much out the door. So yeah, you work together to create the best possible match you can.”
Jericho then recalled one occasion in AEW when he and Samoa Joe were presented with an idea from Khan that neither wrestler particularly liked.
“I remember I was working with Samoa Joe once in AEW,” Jericho recalled. “Tony wanted something and neither one of us felt it. We basically said, ‘Maybe we should think about it or whatever.’ Tony, you could tell, he was very — not disappointed, but he very much wanted us to do this.”
Once Khan left the room, however, Jericho said he and Joe immediately began figuring out how they could make the idea work rather than rejecting it.
“The moment he left the room, Joe and I looked at each other like, ‘Alright, how are we going to make it work?’ We had a conversation, we had to reshuffle the deck and move this there and get rid of this and add this, then went back and told Tony and he’s like, ‘That’s so great, thank you so much.’”
According to Jericho, that’s simply part of being a professional wrestler working for someone else’s company.
“He’s happy and we’re going to make it great,” Jericho continued. “It’s completely different from what we originally wanted to do, but he’s the fucking boss. He’s the one who tells us what he wants and if you don’t like it, you go make eight billion dollars and start your own wrestling company.”
Jericho added, “That’s what a pro does, that’s what you do. It’s not always the way you want it, but I’m not the boss.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Jericho discussed his ongoing storyline with Nick Wayne and explained why Wayne’s necklace became an important part of the program.
Jericho said they wanted to avoid presenting the feud as simply an older wrestler against a younger wrestler, instead focusing on the difference in experience between them.
“The reason why we started that, we sat down before we did that initial promo and it’s like, what is our angle going to be?” Jericho said. “I mean, once again, 2005, he’s 21 years old. I’m 55. You don’t want to make it old guy versus young guy because that doesn’t translate and I don’t feel like an old guy, I don’t work like an old guy.”
The two eventually settled on experience as the foundation of the story.
“Is it going to be legacy versus not? Then we just, it’s experience,” Jericho continued. “He’s got 10 years of experience at 21, 10 years from now he’s going to be unbelievable but right now, you don’t know what you don’t know. You’re Chris Jericho and I’m Nick Bockwinkel.”
Wayne had already been considering getting rid of his puka shell necklace, which gave Jericho the idea of incorporating it into their storyline as a symbol of Wayne leaving behind an earlier version of himself.
“He was saying that he wants to get rid of the puka necklace and I thought, well, let’s try and make that part of the story where it’s not about the necklace, it’s about the representation of the old Nick Wayne,” Jericho explained. “The old Nick Wayne that could lose to Chris Jericho, well, that’s not going to happen ever again.”
Jericho said the idea was to use the necklace to represent Wayne’s transition into the next phase of his career.
“This necklace is gone, the old Nick Wayne is out, the new Nick Wayne is in,” he said. “The new Nick Wayne that wears a suit, the Nick Wayne that can hold his own in a promo against Chris Jericho. The Nick Wayne that might have a chance to beat Chris Jericho, well don’t know yet.”
Jericho concluded by making it clear that the necklace itself wasn’t important — what it represented was.
“The point being it wasn’t about the necklace itself, it was like a totem of where that was signifying the end of this version and now we’re going into the next version, next phase of Nick Wayne, who has potential to be a world champion.”
Chris Jericho is scheduled to wrestle Nick Wayne at the upcoming AEW Grand Slam: France show in Paris.
