During a recent appearance on Busted Open Radio, Chris Jericho commented on wrestling talents taking dangerous bumps, “Strong Style” wrestling and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On dangerous moves in wrestling: “I was having a conversation with [Will] Ospreay; people were saying he’s going to be the next Dynamite Kid. I’m like ‘dude, you don’t want to be the next Dynamite Kid.’ These dangerous moves that you do—that don’t matter—stop it! You need to be working at 47 like I am. Now, I did my share of crazy bumps, I took my share of bad bumps, but as you get older it’s the proverbial thing. I remember Nick Bockwinkel told me in 1992 at a TV taping in Winnipeg—he was there as a color commentator—he said ‘you do too much’. I remember thinking what an asshole thing to think, and I’m like ‘oh he’s just jealous because he can’t do these moves.’ That’s what you think when you’re a young guy, and now as I get older, Nick Bockwinkel is one of the greatest—I’ve modeled my characters after him. He’s right.”
On Strong Style wrestling: “There’s nothing wrong with Strong Style. If you like beating the shit out of someone and getting the crap kicked out of you—the match I had with [Tetsuya] Naito, I was hurting for days after, in a good way. Nothing was broken, no injuries, my mouth hurt, I had cuts all over, my back was sore—you know the feeling, Mark, when you’ve had a great match— but it’s not a dangerous feeling. You get out of bed and you’re like ‘oh that hurt’, but that’s what wrestling should be. It should be stiff, it should be strong style, but not dangerous. And that’s what I want to try and tell some of these guys in New Japan that have this great style—these guys can have an amazing match—but don’t be dangerous. We’re still human beings, we’re not action figures that you can just dump on your head and just get up and go ‘hey, what’s next, guys?’ You have to be careful and cognizant of it, and I think some of the guys are starting to understand it more. If they get more guys in there to work with guys like myself, they will learn. I won’t do those bumps because it’s not going to make me anymore money if I do it or not.”
