AEW superstar Chris Jericho recently appeared on the Rich Eisen show where the former world champion and the famed sports announcer talked all things pro wrestling. Highlights from the interview are below.
How he and Triple H always had great matches:
I think there were guys, in the past, that I had issues with. I mean Triple H is one of them. He’ll tell you the same. In the early 2000’s, we didn’t have much [likeness] for each other, but we always had great matches, and I think that’s one of the reasons why. We just had this professional rivalry, maybe a bit of a personal dislike [for each other]. But fast forward five, six, seven years, you get to be older and wiser and think back. Why did we have so many problems? Why did we hate each other? Why didn’t we like each other? And now we’re friends. I think there’s a lot of professional rivalry when you’re young full of vim and vigor as they say. It happens in rock and roll bands all the time. Bands will break up, and 10 years later, they’ll get back together like why did we waste 10 years of our lives not playing together?
Vince McMahon encouraging animosity to better their feud:
I think there’s that animosity that drives you to become better, and if you have a case like say Jericho and Triple H, our matches were always great because there was a little bit of real-life animosity between us.I’m gonna show him. Well, I’m gonna show him. Well, I’m gonna show him,’ and I think that’s good in a certain way. And I can almost suggest back in those certain days, Vince McMahon would subtly encourage that because you knew you were going to get better results inside of the ring.
What a documentary on Chris Jericho would cover:
I think the best career that I ever had, like in the first eight years, it was good, I think when I turned into the suit-and-tie, big-word using Jericho in 2008 up until now. There’s your 12-year span with a couple of years on the back-end, but that’s kind of the highlight of my career and probably the most interesting part of my career with all the longevity and the chances that I took, the changes that I made, basically changing the business when I signed with AEW. The whole business changed at that point in time, so I think that would make a good story: a section of a guy’s career who always gave his all but wasn’t afraid to take a few chances and ruffle a few feathers along the way.
Full interview below. (H/T and transcribed by Wrestling Inc.)
