Chris Jericho appeared as a guest on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet for an interview talking all things pro wrestling.
Featured below are some highlights.
On the Jericho Vortex: “It’s funny how I’ve become kind of public enemy number one, as a heel by the way. Isn’t that kind of the idea? Aren’t you supposed to be public enemy number one as a heel? Aren’t you supposed to not like somebody’s character when that character is a heel? Maybe I’m actually smarter than everyone and I’m manipulating people to what I want them to do. ‘Well, f*ck off, just retire already.’ It’s like, okay, doesn’t that make you mad? Because what I look at is the ratings, and 9 times out of 10 my segments always go up, and they are still some of the biggest ones on the show. So that tells me that whatever it is that I’m doing is working. But I do have a target on my back for that, and that’s once again kind of the idea, I am a bad guy on the show. So, yeah it’s public opinion, and it goes in cycles. When you’ve been in the business as long as I have, especially at the top level, that makes people mad.”
“I always love the concept of The Jericho Vortex and how anybody that works with me gets dragged down. Name one. Name one person that got dragged down from working with me. Maybe afterwards they didn’t go higher, but that’s not up to me. I’m not in charge of booking the entire company. All I can do is influence the storylines that I work on. But everybody that I can think of who worked with me certainly went to a higher level. I did a year with MJF and look where he’s at, Danny Garcia, Sammy Guevara, Daddy Magic last week comes off of commentary and gets a big pop. Who do you think put him in that position? I think Big Bill and Bryan Keith have grown by leaps and bounds from working here with me. I’m not going to go through the entire cast of characters, but I definitely know what my intentions are, and it’s not to bury anybody. It’s to build as many people as I can and give them experience so they can learn how to start shouldering things on their own.”
On if he chooses his opponents: “I don’t choose anything. I might have a suggestion, but most of the time it’s Tony coming up with who he wants me to work with. I know for example with Mark Briscoe, both of us wanted to work with each other, and knew we could have some great matches. I loved working with Mark and what a great kind of mini-feud, or I guess it was a feud. It was a couple of months long. So that was something that we both wanted to do and suggested to Tony. But most of the time, this whole thing that started working with Rated FTR, that was Tony’s idea. So yeah, I still work for my boss, and I have never once as far as I can remember in the six years I’ve been in AEW ever said no to something. I might not like something, but I got to try and do my best to make it work or maybe come up with something that maybe is a better idea as long as the boss likes it. If the boss wants to do what he wants to do then that’s my job. So that’s what we do.”
