Chris Jericho Talks Pitching Big WWE PPV Matches Against Shinsuke Nakamura And Finn Balor
Professional Wrestling legend Chris Jericho recently caught up with Inside The Ropes for an exclusive interview. During the interview, Jericho talked about pitching matches against Shinsuke Nakamura and Finn Bálor as well as the success of his most recent WWE run.
Jericho revealed that he previously pitched to WWE Chairman Vince McMahon the idea of working a debuting Shinsuke Nakamura at WrestleMania. Jericho would later change course and suggest a WrestleMania feud with Kevin Owens instead.
"We went to Japan in June," Jericho recalled, "and I came back in July and I came back and I remember talking to Vince, 'you've got to bring this Nakamura guy up to the main roster. I want to work with him. Let's debut him at WrestleMania.' And Vince was like, 'oh, that could work.' And that was why I stayed till WrestleMania, if I could work with Nakamura. Done. And then, about a month later, I said, 'that Nakamura thing, I think Kevin Owens and I could be WrestleMania.' And he goes, 'do you think?' And I go, 'I think.' He goes, 'yeah? Well, maybe.'"
As for pitching a match against Balor, Jericho said the match was set for SummerSlam till McMahon changed his mind.
"And then, another funny thing," Jericho said, "I was supposed to work with Finn Bálor at SummerSlam. I pitched that when I worked with Finn the previous year in Japan. Anytime I go to Japan, I come back and tell Vince, 'why do you have these guys wasting their time in NXT? Bring them to the main league.' So it was going to be me and [Finn] at SummerSlam and then Vince changed his mind. Then, put me and Kevin together as a team against Enzo and Cass."
With so many memorable moments and over catchphrases, Jericho compared his most recent WWE run to a band putting out a new album with several hits on it after a decade of futility.
"The List Of Jericho was the biggest thing," Jericho reflected, "along with the 'drink it in, man' and different versions of that, those two things, 'stupid idiot', 'it', 'quiet, quiet, quiet'. It's like if I was in a rock band, like I'm in a late era of my career, and then, I put out this album and it has, like, five of my biggest hits ever when I haven't had a hit in 10 years. And that's what this is like."
Jericho added, "I was in such a great place and so confident in my abilities that I could get anything over and that's a good place to be."?
Watch The Interview Of Jericho. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit Inside The Ropes with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: Inside The Ropes