In a recent appearance on the Wrestling Perspective Podcast, Sami Callihan stated that Chris Jericho’s career should be the blueprint for younger wrestlers navigating their way through the industry.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On not getting credit when he reinvents himself: “It’s kind of funny because I do have moments like that. I remember I like to compare it to this moment. So Rob Zombie put out The Munsters movie, and it was super campy, super cheesy, and everything The Munsters was from the original release of the fifties and sixties. So I saw people being, oh, this movie would have been really great if Rob Zombie tried to make it like this; I think he just absolutely made it like this. So it’s a sucky movie. It’s like he did, he made it like that for a reason, but people still don’t want to give people credit for something they created. Obviously, he made it cheesy and campy for a reason. You don’t just get to say; I don’t think he meant to do that. So, I’m not going to give him the credit, no f**k you; he did that for a reason.”
On Chris Jericho’s career: “It’s the same thing in professional wrestling. I use a guy like Chris Jericho as a blueprint. I always tell young wrestlers to look at Chris Jericho’s career. Every couple of years, he’s done something to reinvent himself and become relevant, and I followed that my entire wrestling career. I’ve gotten to the point where people love me, love me, and I have a lot of people that hate me and will always hate me, but they’re always talking about me. I’m never a guy that just disappears, and no one hears about it. I’m always a guy, no matter where I am. If I’m on television. If I wasn’t on television, I’m always somebody that the wrestling world is talking about, and that’s called being a professional wrestler, being successful at what you do.”
On telling younger wrestlers to look at Jericho’s career: “I did his podcast a couple of years ago, and I’ve said that exact same thing. I based everything on it, and I’ve seen him on many podcasts before. He is, without a doubt one of the greatest of all time. The dude still does it at a high level, and the dude has always reinvented himself while still continuously being Chris Jericho, and that’s the art of professional wrestling.”
