411’s WWE Broken Skull Sessions Report: Chris Jericho on Joining AEW, Working in New Japan, His WWE Career, and More!

411’s WWE Broken Skull Sessions Report: Chris Jericho

-Real quick, Reigns/Edge/Bryan was amazing and my choice for Match of the Year at this point. With that out of the way it’s time to get to this most highly anticipated episode of The Broken Skull Sessions as AEW’s own Chris Jericho is the guest. Let’s get to it!

-Original Air Date: 04.11.21
-Run Time: 2:07:57

-Stone Cold Steve Austin welcomes us to the show and welcomes Chris Jericho to the show. Jericho jokes that he doesn’t even believe he is allowed on set and asks if snipers are here to pick him off.

-They start with how this show happened. Jericho says Austin is one of the last guys that likes to talk on the phone. Jericho owed him a phone call for months and finally called him at 1 AM after some cocktails and they had an hour long conversation. Austin mentions that Jericho left out the detail of Jericho sending Austin a text about how great the interview with Taker was. Austin is the first to mention the letters A E W as he mentions Jericho is in that company now and didn’t know if he would be allowed on the show. Jericho wasn’t sure if he was allowed on the WWE Network again. Austin says he had to clear it with Vince who told to go ahead. Austin wanted to make sure and Vince told him he thought it was a great idea.

-Austin talks about the relationship they have had and how the two of them plus Bully Ray would shoot the bull about Rock and Roll bands before the shows. They discuss how you became better friends with some guys after their in ring career is over and Austin attributes some of that to being competitive against each other.

-Austin brings up that Jericho has had one the greatest runs of all time and asks Jericho if he can feel that. Jericho brings up Tony Khan and how it was his idea to do the 30 year anniversary show for Jericho in AEW and he doesn’t want to pat himself on the back (Barry Horowitz reference), but when you think about it he doesn’t think anyone will ever have a career like his again. He started in 1990 and had one foot in the territory days and he has worked everywhere and seen all of it. He can remember so much that the current generation will never have to see. He puts over his longevity and being able to reinvent himself and keep himself relevant to this day. He brings up that they have changed the business with AEW.

-Austin goes back to AEW and wants to know how all that came to be. Jericho mentions he never thought he would work for anyone other than the WWE after being there for 19 years. He had a small run in Japan that helped ignite things. He talks about hearing about Tony Khan and you hear all the time about guys having money wanting to get into the wrestling game. To make it work you need finances and passion, a TV contract and a group of 5-6 guys to build a company around. He puts over Khan for having the finances obviously, but also the passion. Also around the same time the contracts of Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, Chris Jericho, and Hangman Page were all up at the same time and you can build a company around those guys. He says that he had the name value and Cody did to an extent but nobody in the mainstream knew Omega, Bucks, or Page, but they were all good. What was huge was the contract with TNT because at first they thought it may have to be Showtime, HBO, or even NetFlix. TNT provided a way for them to get off the ground.

-Austin talks about WCW and NWA being around, but since 2001 there wasn’t much left. Jericho says that he felt when Vince bought WCW there would never be another national company again (TNA getting no love). He doesn’t want to say they compete with WWE but that has kind of happened because of the situation they were thrown in. They worry about their own stuff to draw a fan base to give fans another choice.

-Austin wants to know Jericho’s mindset going into the company. Jericho brings up his match in NJPW with Omega and how it did great numbers for New Japan World. Khan saw that and realized Jericho was still a name and the idea was to get him and even Jim Ross on the show to gets eyes on the new talent. He mentions it was a big risk because to him it could be huge but it could also be something that didn’t work. He knew if he went back to WWE he would have to go back to doing the list which was 4 years old at that point. The big sticking point was his feud with Owens and how it went from them being in the proposed Main Event at Mania to the second match on the card. He felt second match on the card was his spot and he felt he could be more than that. He loves being the guy in AEW until they got more big names in and all the pressure was on his back. He mentions he never got to be the top guy carrying everything before this.

-Austin asks Jericho about offering advice to the roster and Jericho jumps on the idea of helping them wrestle for live TV as it is so much different. They have to know where the hard camera is and working with commercials and having a time limit. His main thing was he wanted to let the guys and girls know how big of a deal this company was. He had a team meeting before their first show at MGM Grand and how big it was to have a company other than WWE sell out an arena like that for the first time in 20 years. He didn’t want them to take it for granted and he tells them his door is always open. He mentions he sometimes feels like Vince because of the line of the people that will come to speak to him because of the experience he has.

-Austin says he will come back to AEW and New Japan later, but goes back to the beginning. He wants to know how Jericho got into the business. Jericho mentions it was his Grandma who was a huge wrestling fan that hated Jesse Ventura. He loved Jesse, but would never tell his Grandma that. He wanted to be a rock star or pro-wrestler because he loved the individuality. In teams sports you all wear the same jersey. He grew up in AWA territory so he loved Ventura and Bockwinkel and mentions Hogan being huge at the time. If you wanted to be a wrestler back in 1987 in Northern Canada you may as well say you want to be a sword swallower. He got into Stampede Wrestling because they had the smaller guys though mentions the WWE had Steamboat and Savage, who weren’t all that small but were the high fliers. He saw an ad for Hart Family Wrestling school and figured that was the way to go.

-Austin asks who much training did he get before heading to Mexico. Jericho says it was just over two years before he made the trip to Mexico. The first real culture shock was a run in Japan with Onita before he went to Mexico. He mentions that being a foreigner meant guys wanted to beat you up in both places. Once they got that out of the way then it was became let’s work together. He felt if he went to Mexico and did well, he could meet up with Ultimo Dragon and get back into Japan.

-They discuss being a student in High School and College. Jericho says he was a terrible student as all he wanted to do in high school was play in his band and watch wrestling. He mentions he was terrible at math, but realized you have to do it and get through it.

-Austin brings up Jericho’s new book and how Chris has written down every match he has ever had. He asked Keith Hart once how many matches he had and Keith told him nobody keeps track of that. He decided he was going to keep track of it and still has the first piece of paper from 30 years ago that he wrote down that first match. He mentions he has a database of who he wrestled, where, the dates, how much money was made, and even the star ratings. Wow!

-Back to Mexico where Chris was Corazon De Leon (Lion Hart) and he was seen as a heart throb. He mentions this was a time in the US where big guys like Hogan were the attraction. In 1993 the peso crashed in Mexico and his earnings went down 60% and that meant it was time to go.

-Jericho remembers in high school using gym mats with his friend and they would have matches. They each played 10 character so by the time he was in wrestling school he had a character and some of the basics.

-Austin asks about ECW and Paul Heyman. Jericho says he went to Japan and wrestled in WAR against Ultimo Dragon. It was one of his favorite early year Jericho matches. The tape was traded around and Mick Foley was at the show and put in a word with Heyman. He was in Calgary and was asked if he could get to Philly that night and he couldn’t. He tried to get booked for a year after that in ECW and Heyman always blew off his calls. Then Heyman called him and said he had been trying to get hold of him for months which Jericho knew was bull. People think of him as an ECW guy but he was only there for 11 weekends which was 22 matches. For him it was a step to get to the next place on his journey.

-That leads to talk about WCW and Steve mentions he was hired by Dusty. Jericho says he has never had a problem hustling as he got that from his dad who taught him nobody is going to pick up the phone for you. Jericho would fly from Calgary to LA to Japan and sometimes would do shows in LA. He did a show with Inoki that brought a bunch of companies together and mentions it being a forbidden door. Oh boy! He knew he had to be on that show and ended up in a 3 way match with Konan and Bam Bam Bigelow. Jericho was blown away when Bigelow said he would put over Jericho. Bischoff was at the show and told Chris to come to Atlanta for a meeting, but left before Jericho’s match. That is how he got into WCW.

-Austin throws to a video from WCW and YES! It’s the list of 1004 holds. This is amazing as Jericho goes through all the various holds he knows including reading “armbar” about 6 times. “Shooting Star Staple Super Press,” killed me. They went to a commercial and come back with Jericho still reading from his list. Austin wants to know how he got that cleared, and before betting there they take their first shot together. Jericho mentions everything at the time was about nWo which was fine, but he also puts over how great the Cruiserweight Division was and it helped in the war with WWE. He would always ask Bischoff if he could say something before his matches and Bischoff told him as long as it was quick. He then credits the list of holds to Disco Inferno who got it passed through Terry Taylor. The idea was Dean Malenko was the Man of 1000 holds so he would be Man of 1004 but would repeat holds. The “three handled family gradunza” was Raven’s idea as it was from Dr Seuss. Jericho says during the break he was talking crap of Chicago sports teams and when they came back live he was back in the middle of the list. Awesome! He mentions he would never change anything about his run in WCW as he learned when you have TV time that is your time no matter if it is just one minute or 10 minutes and you need to stand out in that time. He took every chance he had in WCW to be on TV seriously no matter what the creative was.

-Austin asks if Jericho felt he was going to stuck in WCW in that cruiserweight box. He mentions that Bischoff told him that he was going to make him their Shawn Michaels. He thought this meant he was going to be paired with Sting, but Bischoff told him Brad Armstrong. He gives all praise to Brad, but Brad was positioned as an opening match guy. He felt how hot some of the CW guys got they cold have done better things and mentions Eddie being so over as a heel that a match with babyface Sting would have been great, or him as a heel against Luger or whoever from the top of the card. That is what they are doing now with older guys working with younger guys.

-Fall Brawl 1998: Jericho making his Goldberg entrance with Ralphus and his other security guard who ended up not being as popular. They rip-off Spinal Tap which Austin and Jericho mention. Just great stuff as they walk around the building and nearly walk outside. “Where’s the ring?” He mentions Bischoff was great in letting him do things like this. He finally gets to the ring and the lack of pyro is great. You can make your own AEW joke about the pyro. Jericho says Ralphus was a truck driver that had a funny look and just asked if he wanted to walk him to the ring.

-The WCW run came to an end because Jericho’s goal was to always work for Vince. His goal as a kid was to work MSG and become WWF Intercontinental Champion. WCW was calling so he figured going there would help him get to the WWE. Austin thought it was the Goldberg issues that lead to him leaving. Jericho says they got an angle out of nowhere with that feud and he just wanted to do the greatest squash match of all time. He had the idea of Goldberg spearing him out of his shoes, but the match never happened due to politics. He created an angle out of nothing and he had no grand illusions he was going to beat Goldberg. He realized that he needed to get out of there after that.

-Once the Goldberg thing happened he knew there was nothing better he could do there. He mentions he had no contract in WCW for his first 17 months there just to see how long he could go without signing it. He thought they would just forget his contract was coming up, but Bischoff remembered and wanted him to sign a new deal. They had a verbal agreement, but Bischoff kept putting off the actual written contract and Jericho knew if it was Hogan the contract would be signed that day. So now Jericho is avoiding Bischoff and was told if he didn’t sign he would have to give up the United States Title. So Jericho dropped the title that night and decided to run out the string. The last two months he only did house shows. He loved that as he felt he would be jobbed out on TV and had ideas of ways to get himself over even in the losses. “I don’t care if you say lose to Ice Train in 30 seconds, I will make sure you remember Jericho.”

-Austin brings up his first meeting with Vince and asks Jericho about recruitment. Jericho says it is a great story as he is good friend with Don Callis who was in the WWE. Callis told Jericho to call Vince Russo and Russo asked Jericho about his contract. Jericho told him he could leaved if he wanted but he gave his word on a 3 year contract and he wanted to ride that out. So they kept in contact and in Jan of 99 he told WCW he had some travel to do and made a trip to Stamford. His contract with WCW was set to expire in August of 99, so he was still a contracted WCW guy and was meeting Vince McMahon in his house. He was terrified about the prospects and made sure he wore thick boots and tight clothes to look bigger. Nice! Jericho says that was the only time he went to the house and Shane McMahon greeted him. He walked inside and they were having a booking meeting for RAW. He took a seat next to Vince and wondered what he was doing as he was a kid from Canada. They asked Chris for his opinion on a finish to one of the matches and then break for lunch. Vince’s maid made brownies and Jericho didn’t know if it was a test, so waited until Vince grabbed one. He puts over the brownies and Vince told him to have a second brownie. They went downstairs to another room and on the wall is a giant painting of Vince sporting Zubaz. Jericho gave this giant spiel of what he wanted to do and all Vince told him was to let them know when his contract was done. Years later he asked Vince why he brought him there and Vince said it was to see if he could trust him. Jericho assumes it was to see if the meeting would leak, but Jericho didn’t let it.

-Austin asks if Jericho was promised he could be in a top spot. Jericho says that he had outgrown WCW and he doesn’t meant that in any disrespectful way. He compares WCW to the black and white Kansas in The Wizard of Oz and WWE as the full colored Oz. He felt he would at least have a shot in the WWE.

-Austin talks about The Countdown to The Millennium Clock. Jericho says if it was a song it would have been co-written by Jericho and McMahon. He saw a clock in a post office counting down to the millennium and thought that would be a great way for someone to debut in the WWE. Then he realized it would be a great way for him to debut in the WWE. He pitched the idea to Russo and he loved it and so did Vince. The genius behind Vince is he changed it so the clock ran out in the middle of a Rock promo instead of at the start of the show. Jericho and Austin put over Rock’s greatness and Jericho mentions how you have greats like Bruno, Cena, and Hogan, but they were lucky to have two guys at the same time like that in Rock and Austin. He puts over Vince for his genius at the small details that nobody else sees.

-They show a photo of Jericho from that debut and Austin mentions Jericho immediately looked a star and Main Event act. Jericho remembers writing the promo he did 2 weeks before the show and the only guys that knew were Rock and Russo as they rehearsed it. Vince didn’t even know what was going to be said.

-Video of Jericho’s debut and it’s still amazing. Jericho puts over Kevin Dunn and Adam for creating the sounds for the countdown clock. Just awesome, awesome and one of the greatest debuts you will ever see. The pop from the crowd is just incredible and Jericho questions how the fans with the Jericho signs knew. Jericho he got some much heat from some of the boys in the back for tearing the entire roster apart. Jericho says it is cool and still stands up as one the greatest debuts ever. It comes from being a student of the game and a fan. He wanted a great vignette and people knew the countdown meant something. He knew had hit a home run but goes back to getting heat as the Monday Night Wars were real. He puts The Rock over for being giving to his opponents. He got the idea for standing with his back to the crowd from watching Michael Jackson do a concert in Mexico.

-Jericho brings up that dirt sheets had reports that the back felt he was too comical. He says that he was still in his over acting WCW phase and would give it an 8 of 10. He mentions people were angry that he was there and didn’t realize it until 3-4 months into the run. For that time though both he and The Rock did the best they could so that was a 10/10, but look back he gives himself an 8/10 because he would do a few things a little differently.

-Chris Jericho vs HHH from April 2000 with the phantom title change. Jericho says he was just trying to find his way at this point. Jericho gets the win and the WWF Title to a massive reaction from the crowd in State College. Jericho talks about how he was floundering and the week before he lost a match to Viscera. He remembers he was to the point he was going to tell Vince to do something with him or he wanted out. He showed up to the arena and was told to hold on as he was going to win the WWE Title. They told him the story as he would win thanks to an Earl Hebner fast count and then it would be over turned. He puts over his chemistry with Stephanie. Jericho believes it was a test and he passed it. HHH told him to slow down and listen during the match and he blows Austin’s mind when he tells him he never heard “bump and feed,” until he got to the WWE. Jericho didn’t like HHH, but he believed in him in the ring and credits HHH for orchestrating him to a good match. After the night he went to the makeup mirror and realized if the world ended he was cool with it. Vince told him not to worry as he would be holding the Championship again.

-The next night he got a win over The Rock as a stamp of approval in Philly. It was a SmackDown and Jericho got the thank the crowd for being there after the show and dropped the F bomb. They include the footage in a nice touch. Jericho couldn’t believe he said it and Lawler told him he did. He went back where Vince was waiting with a hug and Jericho asked if he heard what he said. Vince: “What did you say?” He was about to get the hug and Vince walked out when he told him he dropped the F bomb. Great story!

-Vengeance 2001: Jericho defeats The Rock and Steve Austin in the same night to become Undisputed WWF World Champion. We get video from the first match with The Rock where Jericho beats Rock for the World Title with his own move. Next is the Austin match and they laugh over the fact that so many people got involved in the match: Vince, Flair, and Booker T. Austin watching wrestling with anyone is just great. Jericho says he didn’t have any family there because he didn’t know he was winning the Title until that day. He’s told this story before but he found out in catering as Vince was talking to Taker, but saying it loud enough for Jericho to hear: “Hey Taker, you know how you can tell when the business is going down the toilet. We’re putting the Title on Jericho. Ha Ha.”

-Jericho says the finish was so convoluted that Austin walked out and told Jericho to just call it to him in the ring. Austin respected Jericho and was willing to do it for him, but admits he was fried at that time. He brings up the philosophy WWE does where they beat a guy over and over again and then give him the Title so it’s not expected.

-They discuss the reaction backstage and Jericho says there weren’t many people backstage. Jericho just remembers sitting on the carpet and tried to drink it in. He remembers Piper told him that being Main Event was loneliest guy as everyone uses your match to get out of the arena as soon possible. Jericho then took the drive to Anaheim and wanted to get some good, but guy told him they were closed. Jericho ends up ordering from Domino’s and when he picks up his pizza downstairs he realized he locked himself out of the room. The guy working the counter wanted ID to give him another key and Jericho told him his ID was in the room. The guy told Jericho he had to go with him and check the room to make sure he wasn’t lying. Jericho told him he would find two World Titles on the bed and the guy realized he wasn’t lying. Jericho then went to eat his pizza and accidentally knocked it off the bed and onto the floor. So there is who he celebrated becoming Undisputed WWE Champion.

-We jump to WrestleMania XIX and Austin mentions that was his last match. Neither can believe it has been that long since Austin’s last match. Austin puts over how great the match was between Jericho and Shawn. They show the finish where Shawn gets the win and then Jericho kicks him square in the balls. Total dick move and amazing! They discuss how Shawn got the win and Jericho still left with the heat. Jericho says that is a Pat Patterson deal as Jericho was questioning why he was losing the match as he was 32 at the time. He mentions Pat came up with the idea of Jericho kicking Shawn in the balls after the match. He then talks about being the first time they ever met in a ring. Shawn had the idea for the finish as he saw Owen Hart do it once. Jericho was buying tights in a Dick’s Sporting Goods and the ideas for the finish of the match hit him and he wrote it on the back of the receipt. He got to Mania and Shawn told him he had written down the finish and between the two they had the entire match without ever discussing it. They were done at rehearsal in 10 minutes as they loved what each other had planned. Austin plugs Peacock as he tells everyone to go and watch the match.

-They started the feud in late 2002 as Shawn hit Jericho with a superkick and when they went back through Gorilla, Vince told them he smelled money. Jericho was stoked and couldn’t believe he might get a Mania match with Shawn. He mentions Shawn is one of his three favorites of all time: Shawn, Steamboat, and Owen. He just hoped that things weren’t going to change and it didn’t. His idea was student vs teacher as he did model himself after Shawn. He calls the match his favorite WrestleMania match times a million.

-We jump to 2005 when Jericho’s contract with WWE expired. Jericho says he was back to being in the middle of the card and he doesn’t mind, but he needs to know he is in the mix. In 2005 he was at the point that he was just there and not really doing anything. He had been doing it for 15 years at that point and he thought he might be done with it. He was burned out and just done with wrestling.

-Austin mentions he has been there with burnout and that Vince hates to hear that. Jericho brings up that Vince once told him he wished he could take a break at times. He tells us some breaking news that Vince is just a human being. His last match was to be SummerSlam 2005 against Cena and then Vince had Howard call to see what he wanted to do after SummerSlam. Jericho told Howard he was done at SummerSlam. Vince sent an angry text asking Jericho what his problem was and if he had some kayfabe deals in Japan. He then had a meeting with Vince and agreed to do a Loser Leaves Town match and Jericho lost and was dragged kicking and screaming out of the arena. He admits that is the way he wanted to leave as he doesn’t want the big retirement match.

-They discuss Jericho working with The Groundlings and Jericho says that is where he learned to commit to a character. He also took acting lessons to learn how to get inside a character. That is what helped him become unstoppable in 2008 when he was rocking the suit and tie.

-Austin wants to jump to the ladder match with Shawn at No Mercy 2008. Jericho jumps back as he mentions he didn’t watch wrestling for nearly 2 years, but heard it was Shawn/Cena at Mania 23. He watched and became jealous and it got him wanting to be out there again. He came back as basically a nostalgia act and realized it wasn’t working. He got rid of everything that everyone knew about Y2J and started over from scratch.

-No Mercy 2008: They play bits from the match and Jericho points out the spot where he lost a piece of his tooth. Again, Austin watching wrestling with his guests is always great. On the finish Jericho mentions they would be smart enough to put a table on the floor to break his fall, They do battle over the belt and have a tug of war as the crowd is losing it. Jericho lands a headbutt and that lets him retrieve the title to successfully retain. Jericho says that match is one of his favorite ever and it was because the angle started with the thought it was just going to be a one off match. They decided to create their own storyline and it lasted nearly 7 months culminating in a World Title match.

-Jericho wasn’t worried about killing the Golden Goose with the previous character. He knew he had to start new and got the influence from Nick Bockwinkel in the AWA. He wore suits, and used big words because people always hate that. He also took bits from ‘No Country for Old Men.’ Speaking softly also helped him get rid of the WHAT chants.

-We jump all the way forward to 2016 as Chris Jericho debuts The List of Jericho on RAW. Jericho picks up on the WHAT chants and tells Austin they are still chanting that and he hasn’t been in the ring in 10 years. Jericho yells at a fan “you just made the list” and calls him brace face.

-April 2017 and Jericho picks on Mike who he calls Tom and then Elias wanders in when he was still just a Drifter. That means Elias just made the list! “Daffy Drifter Dandy.” Jericho calls it stupid as he laughs and Austin says it’s great though. Apparently Jimmy Jacobs was the creative behind the list. He mentions what got it over was putting New Day on The List as they sold in tremendously. He got into a groove of confidence that he could get anything over and that included “The List,” “It,” and even clicking a pen. Vince told him that he would never let anyone say “stupid idiot” other than Jericho because only he could make it work.

-Festival of Friendship: Austin asks if they are friends and Jericho says yes. They were paired for a TV in London and they show this great moment where Owens calls Jericho “the goat” and Jericho responds “you’re the donkey.” Owens: “yeah, fine, I don’t care. Canada!” That is hilarious! Now we get to Festival of Friendship and Jericho wanted it to start as a David Lee Roth video and end like The Red Wedding from ‘Game of Thrones.’ The Creation of Kevin is still amazing and this whole segment is just spectacular. KO then gives Jericho a gift and it’s just heartbreaking when Jericho wonders why his name is on the list. The crowd was heated as Owens beat the piss out of Jericho. He had the idea for it 3 months prior to it happening and Owens came up with the idea of having his own list. Jericho pitched having his name on the list. He wanted a moment where it was revealed and the crowd freaked out before it happens. Everything was approved by Vince and then the day of the show, Vince wasn’t there and the powers to be that were there wanted it all changed as they felt it was too comedy. Jericho explained it wasn’t and told them it was all in the delivery. Jericho fought for it and told them he would call Vince himself. Vince told him to do it as they had planned and they went with it. Jericho mentions he won’t reveal names, but other interviews he has stated it was HHH that wanted to change it. He does mention that after the segment the powers to be (HHH) admitted he was wrong and the way they did it was right.

-That leads to a match at WrestleMania. The original plan was Jericho vs Owens for The Universal Title where Jericho wins the Title as a babyface for the first time. Jericho was going to be finished the following month so the idea was for him to drop the title to Lesnar as Lesnar vs Jericho had some draw and Chris thinks it would still draw. The following weeks things changed as Goldberg vs Brock was for The Universal Title and he was fine with that. What annoyed him was getting stuck as the second match on the card. He felt their match was more important than second match on the show. To show what second means this year they put both women’s tag matches in the 2nd spot.

-Jericho says he loved working for WWE and for Vince. They had a great relationship with a lot of laughs and drinks. We learn that The Stones and AC/DC are Vince’s two favorite bands. They were drinking all night on a plane and Vince asked Jericho what he was doing when they landed and Jericho told him going to bed. Vince told him he was heading to the gym and Jericho thought he was full of it. Sure enough he got a text from Vince that read “Vince 1 Jericho 0” with a photo of a posing Vince at a gym at 5:30 AM. Are we sure Vince is human? He loved WWE, but knew he needed more.

-The NJPW stuff happened due to Don Callis. He had heard of Kenny Omega and Don told him it would be a big deal. All three of them were from Winnipeg and Chris didn’t want to work for anyone other than Vince, but talked to Gedo (who was a former tag partner of his) and they cut a great deal. Now he had to call Vince to let him know what was happening and Vince gave him his blessing as everyone knew he was a WWE guy and would be flying the WWE flag in Japan. “If you go by star ratings it was the best match I ever had.” Wow, we get a still image of Jericho in New Japan making his entrance and they even mention Pain Maker was a riff on Okada’s Rain Maker.

-Wrestling became fun for Jericho again because it was a whole new world. Speaking of whole new world Austin just mentioned All In PPV and now Jericho is talking about attacking Naito which had Vince questioning what was happening as he thought it was just one match. This was also the time the WWE was heading back to Saudi Arabia and originally it was to be Taker/Jericho in a casket match. Jericho lets Vince know he is doing the match with Naito and then it comes Taker/Rusev casket match. Jericho questioned the change and Vince told him the Prince of Saudi Arabia wanted it changed, which Jericho wasn’t buying.

-Back to AEW as Steve talks about the pandemic and if AEW will ever get back to working house shows. Jericho talks about how horrible it is to work in front of no fans. He puts over how all the different companies were putting on shows to entertain even with no fans. He mentions since they have an outdoor arena they have been able to have fans since September. He credits the ThunderDome for giving some kind of normalcy. He drops Orange Cassidy’s name and how he couldn’t tell him if he was selling something too long because there was no crowd to react. He has so much respect for anyone who has worked during this pandemic with no fans. He can’t wait to have fans back and hopes will be soon thanks to vaccines and herd immunity. He credits the loyal fans for sticking with both companies.

-And then we get the craziness of them showing a photo of Chris Jericho holding the AEW World Title on WWE programming. What is this world? Austin puts over Jericho as we close and congratulates him on one of the greatest careers ever. Jericho thanks Austin and thanks him for this chance as everyone is going to go crazy over AEW and WWE, but to him it is not about that and Austin agrees. To him it is about wrestling and they all respect and love it no matter what the brand is. Jericho thanks the WWE, Vince, and Tony for allowing this to happen. No matter loves wrestling more than Steve Austin and Chris Jericho and he is proud to be here.

-They take one final shot as Austin asks Jericho how much longer does he plan on doing this. He felt he was done in 2005, 2018, but he still feels good. As long as he is not a parody of himself he will stay. He says it could be a year or two years, but for now it is fun. What’s after wrestling is his podcast, Fozzy as he hopes they can go back on the road. He has a radio show, a cruise, and book writing. As a kid he had a dream to wrestle and if it ends tomorrow he can’t complain about anything. One more shot as Steve calls Jericho a good brother to make this even more surreal.

-That was fantastic and credit to everyone involved for letting it happen. The crazy thing is at 2 hours they barely even scratched the surfaced of covering Jericho’s career. The stories shared were great as Jericho is made for something like this. The two hours flew by and while everyone is rightfully going to go crazy over all the AEW and New Japan name drops, don’t forget all the great stuff from his WWE run that was touched on here. Again though, seeing the AEW World Title on a WWE show is just crazy. Plus props to Jericho for all the name dropping as anyone who only watches WWE is probably wondering who these people are that he mentioned. I mean we had Barry Horowitz, Scott Armstrong, Raven, Disco Inferno, Ice Train all the way up to Omega, Okada, Naito, Gedo. Just mind blowing stuff! Definitely check this one out out and who knows if this has opened anything for someone else from outside the WWE to stop by and talk with Austin. Thanks for reading!