Chris Jericho

I had AEW's Chris Jericho in-studio before AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam in Queens Wednesday Night September 20th. We talked about so many different topics including:

• The importance of someone like EDGE in the AEW locker room.
• Bray Wyatt's legacy in Wrestling.
• Who DISAPPROVED of the "Festival of Friendship" in WWE.
• Creating their "own" Wrestling Stadium by running shows at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
• Letting the story lead YOU as a performer rather than leading the story where you want it to go.
• Details nuances in performing before his match at ALL IN: London.
• Bubba Ray Dudley suggesting he perform his own song to the ring.
• Greatest non World Champions of all-time.
• Who he believes could be a Future World Champion.
• The importance of holding a Championship in wrestling for an extended period of time.
• "Taboo Tuesday" and "Cyber Sunday" being a "shoot".
• His favorite Tag Team partner of all-time?
• Being a girl-dad and more!

Thank you for checking out the SUPERSTAR CROSSOVER Podcast.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, Yeah, what's going on? It's a superstar crossover on iHeartRadio.
I am Josh Martinez with my guestChris Jericho. What's going on? Man,
I'm here, Matt. I likeyou went into radio voice there,
I did. You know what itis when you're born and raised in New
York City, you get an accent, and then you get really lazy as
you speak. And then on radioI did radio in Iowa and Ohio,

(00:20):
and I'm naturally syndicated. You gottaswitch it up just a little bit,
just enough so that you force yourselfto enunciate a little bit. You do.
Yeah, So when you get stuckin kind of the accent that people
don't understand, sometimes you get likewhen I go back to Canada, you
get really Canadian accent, like aman's so excited to be here on the
show today. Man's awesome. It'shard not to swear too. I was
gonna say how long? And I'mthe worst, by the way, this

(00:42):
is all pup record is a fuckit. How long do you pick up
other people's accents when you're with them? Like? How long does it take
you? So that's one thing Ivividly remember starting to learn what accents were
like after I started going on theroad, Like I just thought everyone talked
like I did. You know whatI mean? Obviously, you know a
New York accent, but then thedifference between a Boston accent, or how

(01:03):
about this on a Philly accent.Philly, there's a there's a there's a
legit Philly accent that a lot ofpeople never would pick up on unless you
spend a lot of time in Philly, or the verbiage us, the way
they pronounced certain things. There's aCalifornia accent. Dude, there's a southern
California and in northern California, youknow what I mean. So you get
kind of those types of vibes fromyou know, and obviously there's a Wisconsin,

(01:23):
there's a Chicago. Those are different. So as you travel around you
start to figure out all these aredifferent accents in Canada too. There's Western
Canadian, there's Eastern Canadian, there'sthere there's a Maritimes Canadian, there's French
Canadian. So you get to youget a chance to sample all of these
amazing accents from around the world.So I uh doing radio in Iowa.
I was out I did time outthere for like three and a half years

(01:44):
because that's what I felt like like, so I, you know, refer
to it as that I would comehome and then all of like my my
vernacular, everything would just change withinme immediately the moment I get home,
because it's just like I'm back withmy pud rat friends. Basically you slipped
back into your original you know,mindset exactly. But you're in New York
City, a familiar, familiar place. Yes, I was born in New

(02:07):
York City. What hospital? Idon't know what hospital is? Manhasset so
South Long Island, So the Manhassetthe General Hospital. H. So you're
gonna be at auta Ash Stadium,yes tonight, Yes, yes, yes,
Auta Ash Stadium going up against SammyGavara. What do you think is
Sammy Gavara ceiling in this industry?His ceiling? Yeah? Like his maximum

(02:30):
potential? Like what is what doyou think is his maximum potential? I
mean, I think I think hehas potential to be a world champion.
You know that. That's the bestthing about what we've done in a W
over the last four years is buildso many names, uh that came from
basically nowhere into legit main eventors,and you talked about Sammy Gavar and Darby
Allen and Orange Cassie and MGF andall these types of guys. That's something

(02:51):
we knew we had to do rightout of the gate because AW became popular
very quickly. But in order tosustain the popularity, you have to create
as many stars as you possibly can. Britt Baker's another one, of course,
so many others to Chris stat Lander, et cetera. New York Zone.
So I think, you know,and that's another thing, even with
Arthurrash Stadium, and we created ourown wrestling arena, Like we didn't try

(03:13):
and go into MSG or try andgo into a BARK there. Maybe Tony
did, But I think Arthur Ashis kind of a little genius move on
his part because when you think ofAW in New York City, it's synonymous
with Arthur Ash. It's such agreat wrestling building. I remember the first
time I walked in there, Icouldn't believe, like no one's ever had
wrestling shows here before. Like theseats go up, the crowds on top

(03:35):
of you. It's just metal ceiling, so it's louder, it's louder.
Yeah, it's it's a great vibe, you know, and it's exciting to
know that, you know, wheneverwe come to La or sorry, it's
kind of like that's the forum.Wherever we come to New York City,
it's gonna be Arthurrash Stadium, andit's for the third time we hit there
tonight. So going into a showlike this, this question came from Rob
d Police, so I gotta showthem love. Do you have multiple opponents

(03:58):
in mind, like obviously you knowthat you're gonna be coming to New York
City, ought to ash a bigstadium. Do you have people in mind
that you want to work with specificallyfor that show, or do you kind
of let the story? No,do you go or the story dictates you?
You always you let the story leadyou. You don't try and lead
the story, because if you're tryingto do that, you're almost like stuffing
the story into a round whole ifit's a square peg of a story.

(04:19):
So wherever wherever the story takes you, and sometimes you know, you always
want to do a big match atArthur Ash. But if we were at
a different part in this tale thatwe're telling, maybe it's just a promo
or maybe it's just a backstage bit. You know. Obviously it's a bigger
venue. It's New York City,so yes, it's perfect for Sammy and

(04:40):
Jericho. I mean that was almostdiscussed to do that after Wembley at the
Paper View in Chicago, so obviously, you know, maybe we'll wait a
couple of weeks and do it inNew York City. So we kind of
recreate the story and kind of addto it or subtract from it to land
on this date. But once again, once you're finished the show tonight,

(05:00):
then you've got another show next Wednesday, and you've got another paper after that,
So the story has to be overreachingarc and obviously you want to hit
certain moments. Okay, Wembley needsto have something big, and Arthur Ashley's
have something big, but you don'twant to you know, disclaim the Denver
next week or whatever it may be. So it all depends on where you're
at. And then we have sucha huge roster two so even if like

(05:23):
Chris Jericho only had a promo tonight, well then maybe you know, Adam
Cole has a has a match,or Samoa Joe and MAMJF have a match
or whatever, it may be yeah, when it comes to all in London,
right, were you nervous going outthere in front of eighty plus thousand
people? Nervous energy? Like Ithink I'm always nervous in a good way.
I think when you stop being nervous, it's probably when you should maybe

(05:46):
not do this anymore. For me, I don't know if nervous was the
word. I just knew that Ihad a lot to do because not only
did I have a huge match againstWillow Spray, I also had to sing
myself to the ring with Fozzy Andwe started on top of a riser and
I did like the Freddie Mercury calland response Hao's and then Judas starts and

(06:10):
then I got a run down aflight of stairs, run across alley way
and then get to a ladder,climb down a ladder from from the top
of the of the platform down tothe bottom of the tunnel, holding a
microphone in ears in and get therein time to say you are a beautiful
And so it's like that was pressure, you know, not nervousness. But

(06:33):
it's like I hope I don't likefall off this ladder. I hope my
mic doesn't drop or I hope theinterviews don't fall out, and then once
I finally get all that done,oh yeah, now I got a fifteen
minute match that I got to worryabout as well, and it has to
be good because all eyes are onus under the microscope. So I think
it was one of those things wherenervous wasn't a word. It was just
like, sometimes I wonder, whatthe hell did I get myself into,

(06:55):
Like it seemed like a good ideaat the time, but it worked out
amazing. It was. It wasawesome and one of the highlights of my
career for sure. You did areally good job, by the way,
on your most recent episode of Talkto Jericho, kind of talking about that
entire Wembley Thank you so people couldfind out Talking Jericho's the name of the
podcast, so definitely check it outone of the more recent episodes and going

(07:15):
into details, it's it's it's Ilove when when performers are able to peel
back the curtain for little things liketalking about the anywears. It's like no
one ever knows, like, yeah, they're molding into your ear, but
if it falls out, that's onething you gotta worry about. Getting it
back in and there's those little things, or you know, maybe you're rehearsing
it this way and then all ofa sudden, some couple stage hands decide
to move chairs to an area.Or here's another one that you don't even

(07:39):
really think of, is like,yeah, the inner ears are important,
and also to have it over thetop of this big, bulky jacket.
But another thing is when you're singingin a stadium that big. I mean,
it's cavernous right now. The bandis also one hundred feet behind me
and fifty feet higher than me,so there's a delay. Right So when

(08:01):
I first came down, like ifyou watch I'm I'm a slight half second
off the beat for a bit untilPGA R bass players starts singing the back
and I will drag you down.It's like, oh, I'm a little
bit behind, a better speed up. So that was another thing that you
never think about, Like this isI'm not even close to where the band

(08:22):
is, so I'm hearing them inmy ears, but there's also people singing
it in real time. So thatwas weird, you know what I mean.
And it maybe rose like you know, if a band is playing like
in a stadium, you know,and you're running down like I mentioned the
Stones if if you're running down thecatwalk and mix down there, like what
is Keith and Ronnie hearing? Andit's like that's a whole other level of

(08:46):
musicianship to where you have to compassingfor that too. So that was a
really cool learning experience. Now thisis a legitimate text message I got on
August twenty seventh at five forty sevenpm from my cousin Willie. Oh really
yeah, Okay, that Jericho introto the ring may have been the great
does intro to a ring of alltime, if not top three. So
that was right after Wembley. Thatwas That was Willie's reaction. I mean,

(09:07):
once again like I just do thestuff and let people decide. But
uh, it was definitely one ofmy top three entrances. You know,
They're the only one I could thinkof that might have even been close.
Was we did it was Jericho versusMocksley and right before the pandemic, I
think when he when he beat mefor the title, which is interesting,

(09:30):
I lose the a W World titleand then the world shuts down a month
later. Coincidence, I don't know, I think not but there was like
a choir, Yes, a choirsang sang me to the ring, like
an old school gospel choir. Thatwas really cool. Obviously, this one,
I'm not gonna say beat it,but it's Those were probably the two

(09:52):
entrances that I could think of thatreally stand out. Is just the two
best that I can that I canremember, but be Wembley can't. No
one had ever done that before,signing themselves to the ring, you know,
with their with their band, youknow, playing behind them. It's
so fascinating because when that I readthat on a tweet, it might have
been like maybe a tweet that youput out at aw leading into the show,
and it was when it was announcedthat you were going to perform.
It's like this is the first timeever. And then you take a step

(10:13):
back and you realize there's been somany performances in wrestling, but no one
Sean Michael's it isn't doing it orsensational. Yeah, I mean, and
I'm seeing them might have wrapped himselfto the ring. I don't even know,
but he does. He does likewhat Max Castard does. So it's
like a different thing every night.Right, This is with the actual rock
and roll band with the song thateverybody sings anyways, you know, so

(10:35):
I think that was a first,which is another reason why it appealed to
me so much. Actually was suggestedby by by Bully Ray By Bybo Dudley.
He's like, you know, yougotta do that. I was like,
you think it's like wow? Andthen the Freddie Mercury haos was suggested
by Ortisse. He was like,you know what, we came because we
played a gig on Friday and Wembleywas Sunday, and he came to the
show on Friday's like, it's sucha great show. And he goes so

(10:56):
awesome because you gotta do the FreddieMercury call and response at Wembley, and
I was like, that's an interestingidea. So yeah, you gotta listen
to your friends advice sometimes, especiallywhen it's good ideas. Let me sorry,
there's something about Puerto Ricans from NewYork City that God damn it,
you hear me, absolutely no doubt. Going back to Will, he actually
had a really good question. You'vebeen in the game for a while.

(11:16):
He wants to know who comes tomind when I ask this question, which
performer had World championship potential, butfor whatever reason, never got there.
First one that comes to my life, well, if you want to go
old school, I mean, RoddyPiper was one, and that's just because
he refused to do the job forHogan, so Hogan could never lose to
him because he would never lose itback. But Roddy could have been world

(11:37):
champion. I think, I think, you know, Raizor Ramon Scott Hall
is another one that should have beenworld champ modern times. I mean,
you can't say because people haven't.Their careers aren't over yet, you know,
I mean I think, I mean, I think Orange Cassidy could be
world champion. I think Darby Allencould be World champion. I think.
I mean, gosh, there's somany names you could say. We've mentioned.

(11:58):
Sammy Gavar could be world champion.You know, a guy like Danny
Garcia in five or ten years couldbe World champions sports entertainer, those types
of names. But yeah, ifyou talk about the classic guys, those
are the ones that kind of popinto my head. Is because they know
back then too, like now,championships changed quite frequently, not so much

(12:20):
in AW but in w B theydo. Back in those days early eighties,
you you'd be the champion for fouryears, so you know, if
you missed your window, you mightnever see it again. I actually tweeted
last night and posted on my Instagramthat, for some reason, because I'm
a diehard fan, I could nameevery heavyweight champion from like nineteen eighty four
in nineteen ninety nine the event theywon, and in most cases this wow,
in most cases sound like Tony Kahn. But that's why we were able

(12:43):
to hang last night for a while. But but I think after ninety nine
and to go back to your pointwhere like titles change hands so much constantly,
Yeah, because it's so easy becauseyou just think, okay, you
know, especially in the eighties,you go it was more or less wrestleman
need to WrestleMania. Yeah, it'skind of how things went. How important
is the length of time to holdthe title nowadays compared to let's say twenty

(13:05):
years ago. I mean, Ithink I think it's important to hold it
for for a while. I rememberbeing the champion losing it to Batista in
some like taboo Tuesday where the fansvoted for the stipulation or whatever. Yeah,
it was a shoot it was juststupid. But whatever. It's like
like everyone thinks it's it's a gimmick, except for the guy's actually in the
ring. The first one I didwash it was Internal Championship where there was

(13:30):
twenty choices and legit, I said, I said to the director, Kevin
Dundon's give me the top three.It's like, no, we're not telling
anything. So I'm the only onewho's getting worked. So I had to
go to twenty guys and go,what's your finish and what's a movie you
like to do? Like you Iremember watching that. It was actually Department
and it would like Shaman was abit of a surprise. He he was

(13:50):
like I thought he would. Hewas one of my top five choices.
Okay, so when he gets announcedand comes to the ring, so I
don't know who I'm wrestling, andI don't know what the fines They're gonna
tell me that when I'm in thering. Now, everybody else on that
show, yeah, yeah, everybodyelse on that show has Okay, it's
Jericho versus so and so you knowwhatever, Kane versus Undertaker in a street

(14:11):
fight, false scout anywhere or norules match like those three all pretty much
the same. You can come upwith a match like me Jericho versus the
winner of these twenty guys, andwe don't know what the finishes do we
get in there? So Shelton's wegot in there. And then and then
you can see it when you watchit, Shelton comes to the ring and

(14:31):
then the referee says, Vince says, Shelton's going over. I'm like,
okay, what's his finish? Andhe says something like a like a like
a TV T bar he said,but he said T T bar soup plex
and you can see me like itlooks like a matt I'm like, what,
what's a T bar souplex? He'slike, T bones? What's a
T bone? Sup? What areyou talking about? It looks like I'm
arguing with him about that. Icould care less about that. I just

(14:52):
want to know what the hell?What the hell a T bone? Sup?
Because so we're we have the match. I call the whole thing on
the fly. It actually turned outreally awesome and at the end is like,
Okay, throwing in the corner andI'm gonna jump on the second rope
and give me your finish. SoI didn't know what a T bone bar
suplex was so when I jumped inthe second I turned around and I just
jumped out on like a starfish becauseI figured, whatever a T bar suplex

(15:13):
is, you can hook it aslong as I give you my arms and
legs. So I landed, hecooked me and gave me the T bone
bar suplex and that was it.But but going back to your question,
we did that with Batista where Austinwas the guest referee and so so I
lost it to Dave and then wonit back the next week in a cage
masks. Vince just wanted the tabooTuesday to have some validity, like,

(15:35):
well, the fans picked this,it's gonna work. Like I don't.
It's kind of dumb. But bethinking about like being a champion for a
week doesn't really help anybody, youknow, So I think it's better to
have it, you know, forat least some length of time, you
know, a couple of months atleast. So on this on the topic
of longevity, your career has beenincredible as far as I know as a
as a regular fan, you haven'thad any major injuries. Now, last

(15:58):
night on Monday Night Football, Nickchub I don't know if you saw it
or not. I didn't horrific.I'll show it to you all. No
horrific leg injury similar to Willis mcgaheyand like the two thousand and one or
something or similar. Yeah, sidvicious not as bad that. Yeah,
that that just gave me chills.And I hate to bringing that one up,
but uh but that kind of gotme thinking, like this guy plays

(16:21):
football all the time, taking handoff, he's a running back, and
it just happened. And wrestling injuriesjust happened. I mean, you had
a situation where Nevil years ago onRaw where you have to call things on
the fly with the referee to geta fight with the referee, I pushed
him so he would disqualify me becauseNeville was screaming in the ring. So,

(16:41):
uh, is it is it luck? Is it technique? Is it
talent to avoid these injuries for you? I mean, I think it's just
fate, you know. I mean, you can you can try to,
you know, limit any type ofcrazy, super crazy bumps that you're gonna
take. But you know, somethinglike a leg injury or whatever, you
know, can you just happen atany time? You know what I mean?

(17:02):
So I think it's one of thosethings like we're we're controlled, it's
controlled chaos, but it's still chaos, you know, so it can happen.
It does happen. You know,it happened to Darius Martin a few
months ago and we had a prettybad injury. Yeah, so once again,
you try and protect each other thebest you can, and you know,

(17:25):
we're all pros, so we knowwhat we're doing, but there's still
that chance that something could could happenand you just never know. Well,
then, Nevil One, I thinkit was like a very typical baseball slide,
dude. Baseball slides are the worst. Like I've seen guys tear their
achilles on baseball slides. I've seenguys break their ankles on baseball slides.
Is what happened to Neville Pack.Yeah, so you just have to,

(17:47):
you know, just have to gowith it and hopefully everybody is good and
you never want to see anybody gethurt. It's the worst thing that could
possibly happen. So we do worktogether and try and protect each other as
much as possible. Do you haveYou've had numerous tag team title reigns with
numerous people, do you have anyparticular favorite TAC team partners. Yeah,
Big Shows my favorite tag team prob. Yeah, he was the best Yeah

(18:08):
Jaras Show Yeah, which we neveractually called ourselves that. The announcers called
us that. I wouldn't allow themto call us that because the Big Show
wanted to make T shirts and Iwas like, we're not making T shirts.
We're not having any merch. He'slike, what do you mean when
I have any merch? Said Ididn't. I didn't think he'lls should have
merch. I was like, we'llmake our money main inventing pay per views
against the baby faces that sell merch. He always wanted to make Jara Show

(18:29):
shirts, so maybe somebody will haveto do that. But he was great,
great, great chemistry. At thetime, he was kind of floundering,
and I said, we're gonna makethis guy. Told Vince, we're
gonna make him like a giant destroyer, like just he kills everybody and get
rid of that Andre the giant singletlike put him in you know, like
a real singlet or whatever it was, and kind of reinvented him and we

(18:51):
had a we had a great,great run there was It was a blast
with one of the best breakups inhistory. We treated like a rom com
at the end, where it's like, you know, I'm still always gonna
think about you, and it's like, you know, I just don't know
what I'm gonna do without you.We'll always have December or whatever. It
was. Well. Listen when whentalking about iconic breakups to Kevin Owens,
one obviously comes to mind. Igot that feeling seeing that you and Don

(19:14):
callis situation to say the Osprey matchwas that kind of not your motivation?
But was that kind of on yourmind too? Of like this worked so
well? What little nuances can wetake to make it work a little bit?
On this side, he had theKevin Owens Festival friendship was the thing
one of the greatest moments in rawhistory. And I say that completely unegotistically.
I think it was I wanted thatsegment to start off like an eighties

(19:37):
David Lee Roth video and end likethe Red Wedding from Game of Thrones,
where you just was like, no, don't do it, don't do it,
And I had to fight for that. I had to fight for you.
I had to fight for it.A lot is some people did not
want to do it, like tripolation. I want to do it. Vince's
actually up there that day, soI was like I called Vince when he
was on a plane and or TexVince and who's on the plane. And

(19:59):
he's like, what's the problem.We're doing it, just like we said
we're gonna do it. I'm like, okay, there's show the phone.
Everyone shut your ass, shut thefuck up. And I wanted it to
be like where where the list ofKAO and why's my name on this?
Like what is going on here?Because I wanted I wanted it to look
up and see him and be like, there's no way, don't do it.

(20:21):
Don't do it. Like if you'reif you're watching a horror movie and
you know the killer comes behind somebodyand kills them, well you're scared,
but the person never knows what happens. If you're watching a horror movie and
the person sees the killer comes throughthe door, and you know like,
oh, I'm so dead, Likethis is the worst ever. That's what
I wanted. I wanted to seehim and know that he's going to kill

(20:42):
me, but there's no way.You can't believe it. And then he
does, and I think that's whyit worked so well. It was it
was such a great just betrayal moment, you know, and we we kind
of mirrored that with the Don Calliswith the painting and all that sort of
stuff, and I thought that workedreally well too. Like a lot of
people said, well the Asprey buildmatching of a good build. Well,

(21:03):
Will was in Japan up until twoweeks prior, but I think that match
had a great build because it wasall based around Don Callis and Chris Jericho,
and we knew that, so webacked it out six weeks and started
with Don and Chris. So whenWill's available now he comes in attacks and
that's the big reveal, you know, and that story is not over yet
either. There's so much more tocome with that too. So I think

(21:25):
a lot of times fans get madwhen they're like, don't know everything at
once. And that makes me laughbecause if I go see a movie,
I don't want to know the finishof the movie before it's even started watching
it. But I think a lotof wrestling fans feel entitled, like that
was stupid. It's like that didn'tmake any sense. Well, can you
watch the whole thing? And ifit's a three month story, then tell
me what you think about it whenit's done. But in week eight out

(21:45):
of sixteen weeks, don't tell me. That doesn't make any sense, because
pulp fiction makes no sense either unlessyou watch the whole thing, if you
leave pulp fiction halfway through. Thisis stupid. This is so dumb.
Why did John Travolta get shot inthe bathroom and he's not even now he's
back alive again. This is stupid. Watch the movie, see the whole
story the way that the directors andthe writers and the actors want you to
see it, and then you makeyour make your judgment thing. It's like

(22:07):
he starts from ending to beginning,but he does. Maybe sometimes we might
do some of that, you knowin a W as well, just kind
of throw some monkey wrenches in thereand some red herrings to throw you off
the case. So now one ofthe big things to kind of touch upon
rumors and fans. One of thebig rumors, no need to to get
into it, really edge Adam Copelandrumors that he might sign with a W.

(22:29):
Hypothetically speaking, what would someone likehim the value be to the AW
locker room three? Well, Imean, you know who's to say for
sure. But if you look atyou know, Chris Jericho, for example,
where I was in w B,that there really wasn't much more that
I could do there. You know, you're there for for many years and

(22:52):
you've wrestled everybody, and it's great, but it's always good to shock people
and to show up with the newkind of mission. So I think somebody
like like Edge, you know,there's a lot of guys over there like
this. They've kind of done everythingthey can do there, and for him
to come to a WO, he'dbe a whole fresh new code of paint,

(23:14):
a whole new roster of matches thathe could have, you know,
obviously a new name, which wouldwhich would which would then knowing him knowing
me, what I would do asa whole new look, a whole new
mindset. So you know, Imean, that's the best thing about having
a W and about us being assuccessful as we are, is that there's
now a viable, you know,alternative. I don't want to say competitor

(23:38):
because it's not that, but youcan now go to either company. And
that's what was so great about WCWin the nineties was that you could switch
and jump and remember Rick Rude beingin two companies at the same time because
he had jumped to WCW, butthey had taped draw in advance, and
it's like, that's exciting he did. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, So
I think it's exciting and whether itcomes or not, or anybody that comes

(24:02):
from there to hear anybody comes fromhere to let me look at Cody when
he left a go to w bM. It was a whole whole new
world for him. So I thinkthat that's one of the most exciting things.
When you can have the the guysgoing back and forth, it really
does make it more exciting for thefans and it makes it better for the
business. You recently worked with Stingfor the first time. If I remember

(24:22):
how fun was that? It wasreally fun. Yeah, it was good.
I just couldn't believe that, afterthese careers that both of us had
had, you know, over thirtyyears, a piece that we had never
touched, never even been in thesame ring ever. We had our director
Keith Mitchell retired a year or twoyears ago, and Sting and I were
in the ring to like wish himwell. It was the only time we

(24:44):
were ever in the ring together ever. So I always knew that before,
before he was done or I wasdone, that we needed to do something.
And it was a short story,but it was It was a good
story. It was fun. Ilove the way it ended with the No
DQ match or whatever we did Tornadomatch Hamilton, Ontario of all places.
That was a great way to endthat little chapter. And you know,

(25:04):
it's like, we don't do liveevents in a W. If we did
live events, thing and I inDarby and Sammy probably could work, you
know, around the horn for months. It was that easy of a match,
you know, when you get tothat point of a guy who's been
around that long, people are justexcited by the by the possibility of us
touching. And it was it wasIt was a lot of fun, very
cool. Who do you think rightnow is one of the more underrated performers

(25:27):
in the game. It doesn't evenhave to be a W if someone happens
to catch your eye. I mean, it's it's interesting because what exactly does
underrated mean? You know, likesomebody that hasn't reached their full potential yet,
or something has the potential but hasn'treally started. I think Danny Garcia
is not underrated. But I thinkI think he's a guy that, like
when I first started working with him, I thought, okay, well let's

(25:48):
let's the story dictates that I'm ina group with Dan Garcia and then wants
to started working with him. Irealize that this guy's really good. The
subtleties that he has, he getsit, so I wouldn't say underrated.
I think he's a guy that's gota huge, huge future for us,
you know, like that that thatsort of a name hits me right now.

(26:08):
You know. So there's other guystoo, but I think I think
at this point, guys are reallystarting to branch out, like a guy
like Orange Cassidy for example, whenI when I first came to a devis
like, this guy sucks, Likethis whole thing is stupid. I think
it's mocking the business. And butthen I realized, like, like,
you know, get your head outof your ass. He's super popular.

(26:30):
Why let me analyze this for abit. And then I rose, he's
doing something completely different, no one'sever done it before, and it's really
cool. You can dress up likehim, you know, and he's really
good. And then I started thinking, well, let's maybe do something together.
We worked a fourteen week program inthe middle of the pandemic in front
of nobody. That was amazing.The only thing that sucked was there's no
fans to watch it. But youknow that that's kind of something where you

(26:51):
you you look at somebody and geta little kernel of what they're doing great,
and then you can expand upon that. I mean, Pack is one
of those guys. I mean,pack Is is a tremendous performer. He's
also a really good promo you know, and much like Will Osprey, his
voice doesn't sound like anybody else fromEngland. He sounds like like a bastard,
like he sounds like somebody from Gameof Thrones, like Will. Will

(27:11):
sounds like a street thug from EastLondon, and Pack sounds like like a
bastard from from from northern England,you know, which is exactly where he's
from. And that translates because youknow, people like uniqueness in wrestling,
you know, and those guys havesomething that no one else brings to the
table, which is just their presentation, the way they talk. And I

(27:32):
think there's a lot of potential forfor Pack as well. He's he's he's
currently injured, but when he comesback. I think there's a lot we
could do with him. There's alots of others. Those guys popped in
my head first. So we havea few more minutes. But you talk
about uniqueness, what do you thinkis uh bray Wyatt's legacy to the wrestling
world. So bray was like alike a like a like a faucet of

(27:56):
creativity, Like he had so manyideas that were just pouring out of him
at all times. Story be like, let's do this, I've gotta do
this, Let's go back to thesecond one? Was the second one?
Again, I don't think anybody reallyever very unique, you know's And that's
why he did so good, wasso successful because no one really thought thought

(28:17):
about wrestling the way that he did, with the characters that he created and
the things that he committed to thatno one else could really make work.
Like like obviously bray Wyatt might havebeen the best of them, but when
that started getting a little bit stale, then he goes to like the Fiend,
but the like the fire House,Firefly fun House, Like if you
pitch that to me, I'd belike, what are you talking about?

(28:38):
Like how is this gonna work?But then once you see him do it,
it's like, this is so greatand it's so wrestling. It's like
dinner debonair that that MJF and Ihad. You couldn't get away with that
unless you committed to it a thousandpercent, because wrestling is is that wrestling
is the firefly fun house. Butto be able to think about that and
create it and make it a thing, and there's all these different characters and

(29:00):
it's like mister Rogers on crack butit's cool, and it's like that to
me was the best of Bray Wyatt. Like it's hard to translate that into
a match, but like I said, earlier matches are almost secondary. It's
characters and connecting with people and makingthem want to see you perform. And
that's what Bray Whaitt could do betterthan almost anybody in the modern era,

(29:22):
you know. And that's another reasonwhy it's such a shame that that he's
gone, because I'm sure he hadso many other ideas, some good,
some bad than a faucet of creativity, you know. And and the thing
for me is like you don't seeguys when you know, when you leave
companies or when they leave or youleave, but then you think back,
like man, I spent a lotof time with him. I think we
worked gosh at least two dozen timesall over the world, you know,

(29:45):
and probably more than that. Butjust you know, you work somebody ten
nights in a row, and you'rein you know, Belgium tonight, and
you were in Portugal tomorrow, andthen we're back to England, then we're
over to Germany, and it's likeyou don't even know where you are,
and you have great matches during theduring the evening, and and you're drinking
at night, and then you wakeup and you don't know what the fuck's
going on. It's like it makesyou friends for life, you know.

(30:07):
So a little that was a bitof a personal question, and your thoughts
on his legacy. Another personal question, maybe a little more fun. Do
you have any go to spots whenyou come to New York's a place that
you have to go to, whetherit's a bar or maybe a type of
food, something that you would foeto every time you come back. I
really just like like Manhattan, youknow, I just like the vibe of
downtown New York. It's not likeI have to go anywhere because it's interesting

(30:29):
like now we're Arthur asked, Sothat would basically we're based usually out Queen
by LaGuardia like Queen's area, right, So that's why this press day is
great because now I can like Ialways used to stay downtown because we'd always
work the garden or if you're working, you know, Meadowlands, you still
stay downtown because you don' want tostay in Jersey who defense you know,
and and and same within then ifyou're at like you know, Nassa call
seem you still gotta fly out,you know. So I would always stay

(30:52):
down here always, and I remembersome nights just walking around, you know.
I remember early on and when ChrisAngel was just like a local music
magician doing like card tricks at wW New York if you remember w New
York. So I used to heused to work there. Lynda McMahon hired
him to do to do like Isaid, like you know, parlor tricks,

(31:12):
and he's like, hey, dude, like I'm gonna be in this
this tank of water for twenty fourhours, like and I'm stuck, like
it's in the lobby of w WNew York, like come visit me.
So I was like, yeah,showcome visit he So we do the show
of the Garden and I come downand I walked to w New York and
Chris is in this big giant tankof water for like I said, for
twenty four hours, and he wasin there for about, I don't know,

(31:34):
fifteen hours. At that point,he looked like Luke Skywalker and I'm
pressures back. He's all white.He's just kind of like in a tank
of freaking water. So I'm like, hey, dude, like I don't
even know if he can see meor whatever. And it's after the show.
So I had a piece of pizzathat I bought from from a downtown
vendor I had. I was reallyin a yogurt at the time, So
id a yogurt and I'm looking atChris and I'm like eating my pizza and

(31:56):
I'm like, yo, good.And I remember I opened the yogurt,
and you know, sometimes you opento a yogurt, a little little blue,
A little blue went onto the Thisguy comes over, He's like,
dude, what are you doing.I said, I'm just saying, my
He's been in the tank for eighteenhours, he hasn't eaten, and you're
eating pizza and spraying yogurt over hisfrecking tank, like you're you're mean,
You're the worst friend ever. AndI was like, I'm so sort of

(32:17):
sorry. And then when I talkedto him after us, I said,
I'm so seriously, dude, Ididn't see. I listened such a daze,
like it was the worst idea ofevery mind. They pulled him out
of this damn thing. He lookedlike the like the limpest, wettest Coney
Island whitefish if you know, youknow that you could ever see? And
uh but yeah, that's that's that'sjust that's what I would do in New
York, just go walk around andjust experienced stuff. So before we wrap

(32:43):
things up, I'm gonna be afather for the first time. Oh a
girl, dad, that's right,congratulations, thank you, thank you.
She's due in about a week anda half. Nice. Yeah, I
believe you have daughters or I do? Yeah, what sport do you think
I should get her into? Start? See, that's the thing when when
you have kids, like you cantry and point them in directions like swimming
is always important. You gotta teachthe kids to swim. Oh yeah,

(33:05):
yeah, I don't know. Howto swim. Well, that's the see,
that's why you gotta take her swimming. And dude, you stand in
the shallow end and they flutter aroundand you'll be fine. But yeah,
you gotta teach the kids to swim. That's a great that's that's a great
one. I remember my kids,especially my son, used to just let
you just go to the bottom ofthe pool and just like hang out there,
pull his breath and be like,there's a kid. And then he's
fine, he's fine, there's akid in the on the pool. Trust

(33:28):
me. It's a cool. Whatis the you're the worst? Trust me?
And that he comes to the tip, asked, you don't stay on
there so long? Okay, downhe goes again. Swimming is important.
So the other thing is like,you know what, you try and put
them in sports that you like.You know, like I remember my girls,
for example, like we tried baseball, softball. One of them liked
because I have twins, one ofthem like that, one of a dozen.
And then one of them came homeone day and she said she wants

(33:49):
to be a floor hockey goalie.So she's a floor hockey goalie now and
they're taking these shots and you know, she's saving them and so that was
kind of cool. But I neverexpected her to be a floor hockey oh
yeah. And then there's you know, some track and field and something.
Sometimes they just don't want to dosports, you know what I mean.
So it's kind of like you justhave to let them do whatever they want
to do, but give them asmany options as possible. I remember my

(34:10):
daughter Sierra, she was playing acardboard box once and she has some real
rhythm. I was like, fun, I'm gonna buy her a drum set
and you want to drum set?Yeah, yeah about this like little kid
drum set, And like I playedit more than she did. She never
touched it again, and I waslike, it could have been a drummer.
I was gonna say, it couldhave also been one of those ideas
that are good on paper at thetime. Yeah. That's the thing with
kids that they let them try asmany things as they want, and you

(34:35):
never know, right. I rememberwhen I was a kid, I tried
all these different things. I rememberlike I wanted to be in this acting
class so bad, and I thinkit's because I knew they had a really
cool Christmas party and I really wantto say, if you sign up now
for the rest of the year,you get to go to the Christmas party.
I was like, yes, please, please, please, I sign
up. I went to the Christmasparty and then never went again, and
my mom was so mad at me, like you just want to go to
the Christmas party. It's like,well, I guess, but it was

(34:59):
a really fun party. But youknow, like you let kids just do
as much as they so, somy child's gonna live basically outside of Dayton,
Ohio, and I'm gonna stay here. So obviously you've been on the
road a lot of your time.What would you say is the best bit
of advice for someone who is maybegonna miss a good chunk of kind of
the early years. For me,like when I when I was home.
When I am home, all thoughone of my kids has gone the other

(35:21):
two are about to leave, Ijust spend as much time with my kids
as possible, Like I would givethem a ride to school every morning,
no matter what time I got home. At this you have to get up
at like six and make them lunchand make them breakfast like all that stuff.
Because if you're gone for you know, ten days and you're home for
five, but you're sleeping till twoand not really doing anything. To me.
The balance was like, you know, I'll sleep later, but when

(35:44):
I'm home, I want to bethere and do as much as I can
for kids. And I coached thefloor hockey team and that sort of stuff.
You know. I remember my son'sfootball team. I was the chain
guy. Yeah, but I didn'tknow what to do. They're like,
you gotta move the chain because that'swhere the ball is. And it's like,
do I move forward or backwards orwhatever? Like you know, Chris
Jericho doesn't know to work a chainon a football field. But you know

(36:05):
I tried, right, But thatsort of stuff. Just be there as
much as you can when you're whenyou're around them, Like if you're seeing
her and Dayton and you're there forfive days, then just hang out as
much as you can for those fivedays, as early in the morning and
as lady as you can. That'sthe plan. One more time a w
Grand Slam Dynamite Sammy Govara, ChrisJericho. By the way, just to
get into the building, it's onlytwenty bucks to get into the building.

(36:28):
One of the biggest events of theyear right here in Queen's Easy, Breezy,
Beautiful one more time, Chris Jerickappreciate you stopping by bro. Yeah,
man, we're excited. It's alwaysgreat to be in New York City
and like I said, Arthur Ashis our home and it's a great it's
gonna be a great show. It'salways a great show with AW, but
it's always an extra extra special whenwe're in New York City.