Former WWE Champion Chris Jericho was recently a guest on Hall Of Famer Jim Ross’ podcast, The Ross Report. Here are some of the highlights:
Being the Brock Lesnar of NJPW: “I’m kind of like the Brock Lesnar of New Japan,” Jericho boasted. “I won the title and then disappear for three months or whatever it is. But I mean, I had a lot of Fozzy tours booked. Fozzy is very successful right now.
“We have two top 10 hits in The [United] States and so they knew that and they wanted to kind of book this match for me to sort of win the title, which I think was a good idea because it shows that Jericho is not just hear for a one-and-done. And, of course, there’s going to be another match if not two or three more matches and we have all of that figured out and that was all figured out from the moment that I signed this deal with them.
“So [Ross] know[s] how I like to work, Jim. I like the element of surprise and I don’t really like to let anyone know what I’m doing, so I signed a deal with New Japan for 2018, so there [are] matches included in that. We kind of have that all figured out and worked out, so yeah, I didn’t just win the title and disappear. I will be back and I will be back a few more times, for sure.”
Admiring Lesnar’s WWE deal: “I think a lot of people have animosity towards [Lesnar] because of that [favorable deal], but I don’t.” Jericho admitted, “I admire the guy. I would like that deal and I’m not so sure that I won’t get a deal like that at some point.
“At least in New Japan I did, so I remember years ago someone said, ‘you can’t blame,’ I think they were talking about [Hulk] Hogan when Hogan had that huge deal with WCW and he got a percentage of the pay-per-views and he was making this money, they’re like, ‘you can’t blame Hogan for getting the deal.’
“You can’t blame freakin’ LeBron James for going to [NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers] for $40 million for two years. Blame the company! Blame the owners! Blame the team! Blame the company! Blame Vince [McMahon]! Don’t blame the guy [who received the favorable deal]. Yeah, I’m always happy for the [performers], whoever they are, whether you like them or you don’t like them when they make good money because I still think for years, if you’re liking at the NFL, NBA, NHL, WWE salary caps, who’s making the least amount of money percentage-wise?
“It’s always the WWE [performers], so anybody to can make really, really good money in the [pro] wrestling business, I never hold any animosity towards them because it just means if they can make more money, I can make more money too at some point.”
Brock Lesnar possibly retaining his title at SummerSlam: “Well, he [has] been doing it with, I was going to say, ‘poor’ Roman [Reigns], but he [has] been doing it with Roman for the last two or three matches that they’ve had now, I believe.” Jericho continued, “they thought [Reigns] was going to win [The Universal Championship] at WrestleMania [34], he didn’t.
“They thought he was going to win it at The Greatest Royal Rumble, he didn’t. I think there might have been another time or something, but who knows? What I know, once again, is that this is all Vince [McMahon]’s plan, and he’s orchestrating it, and he knows exactly what’s going on, exactly what he wants to do. And I would never bet against Vince McMahon because once in a while it doesn’t work, but 99 other times, it does and I’ve seen it myself.”
You can listen to Jericho on The Ross Report by clicking this link here.
H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions
