Chris Jericho was on the Opie and Anthony show today on Sirius satellite radio.
Jericho talked about his first appearance on O&A form 14 years ago. They joked that Jericho would not break character back then when he was on to promote Fozzy. He said he was doing an Andy Kaufman routine back then. Jericho said that Fozzy has been his main gig over the last 4 years.
Jericho said that it’s been almost a year since he’s done anything in WWE. He said that it doesn’t matter what he does, when he posts something online most of the fans ask him when he’s going back to WWE. He joked that some fans would rather have the lowest level independent wrestler as a guest on his podcast rather than William Shatner. Jericho didn’t say that he wouldn’t go back but right now he’s got a lot going on and he’s touring with Buck Cherry. He said that WWE’s schedule never ends.
Jericho talked about being suspended for a month because he kicked a flag in Brazil. They played the clip as he told the story. He said that halfway through the match between Jericho and CM Punk in Brazil another ref comes in and tells him that he has to apologize for kicking the flag because the Brazilian authorities were going to take him to jail. Jericho said that after the match he walked to the back and he gets ostracized and he sees soldiers with their guns. He said that there was a Colonel backstage that had flipped out earlier and flipped over a coffee table over the flag kicking incident. Jericho said that he texted Vince McMahon about it and Vince texted him back: “You will not be coming back to Brazil. what the f— is wrong with you, why would you do something like that? I’m so angry at you.” Jericho was confused because what he did is just typical heel stuff. Jericho called Vince and Vince said, “I don’t wanna talk to you right now…i’m so furious at you. You’re suspended. Get on the next plane and fly home. This is bushleague bullsh**.” Then Vince hung up on him. Jericho said that there was a police escort taking him out of the country. Jericho said he found about about how long he was suspended by reading it on the WWE website.
Jericho also talked about being fined a couple times when they banned bleeding.
He told a story about a cage match he had with Batista. Batista cut himself in the match and when they got to the back Vince was furious. The next week they were in Manchester, England and he and Batista get escorted into a room. Dean Malenko (the producer of the match) and Vince were in the room. Jericho said that Vince turned on the DVD player and when the video plays there’s a white circle over Batista’s head showing the cut. Then a video is showed from a secret camera hanging over the ring that no one knows about and it shows Batista clearly cutting himself. Jericho wondered how much time they spent putting the videos together and joked that they could have just asked Batista and he would have admitted to it. Jericho said that they showed the video over and over. Vince fined Batista $100,000. Jericho said that everyone in the room was quiet. Jericho was fined $5,000. Jericho laughed a little bit and noted that Batista did indeed pay the 100K fine and he paid everyone else’s (Jericho and Malenko) fine.
Jericho also talked about how the company’s changed over the years after they became publicly traded.
Author link: Backstage turmoil at TNA tapings
