Chris Jericho Explains Why He Was Disappointed With His WrestleMania 18 Main Event With Triple H
As seen in the video above, Chris Jericho recently sat down with Inside The Ropes to discuss his past main event bout against Triple H at WrestleMania X8 in 2002.
For Jericho, although he was defending the WWE Undisputed Championship against Triple H in the final match of WrestleMania X8, he believed that nothing could top the showstopping match that Hulk Hogan and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson had put on just before them. Jericho has forced himself to never look back at the match that gave him such a bad taste in his mouth almost two decades ago.
"Let's be honest, [it was] a main event in the fact that it was on last, but the main event of the show was Hogan and Rock and I knew it," Jericho admitted. "And it was actually most of the people pitching to have their match on last. I was pitching [for Triple H and I] not to go on last because I said, 'How do you follow Hogan and Rock?' And Triple H, and probably rightfully so, was fighting for the title match to be last but we couldn't follow it. We just couldn't and you could just see the air go out of the room. That's a match, I've never watched it back I remember being kind of disappointed in it. Main event at WrestleMania?"
Jericho believes that having unforgettable matches with people like The Undertaker are truly what constitutes a "main event" match. Along with his unfulfilling main event at WrestleMania, Jericho also took some time to think back to his initial undisputed title reign.
"Just because you're on last does not make you the main event, but still, we were on last and I can say that I still have the card that they gave out with the programs. It was an old school card that had all the matches: WrestleMania main event – Jericho vs. Triple H. And with my legacy established and some people saying that Jericho is the G.O.A.T and all this other sh–, at the time, I was the first undisputed champion but that was the end of the line. It took me seven years to win the title back again, and that run with the undisputed championship – to win it was great. But the whole run with it was terrible for me, in my opinion."
Regardless of the outcome, Jericho will always be able to say that he closed the show in a one-on-one title match at WrestleMania.
"It was more of a forgotten thing, so, the buildup for the [WrestleMania]match wasn't great, the positioning of the match wasn't great, and in my opinion, the match wasn't great, but, I can say I was in the main event of WrestleMania, so, there you go."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Inside The Ropes with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.