Chris Jericho Discusses Not Ruining His Relationship With Vince McMahon, Not Watching Kenny Omega Matches

Chris Jericho recently appeared on The Ross Report (via wrestlinginc.com), here are the highlights…

On Not Ruining His Relationship With Vince McMahon: “Yeah, I mean, not to get into specifics, but [Ross] know[s] how smart I have been throughout my career and [Ross] know[s] the relationship I have with Vince that I would never jeopardize that or give him any nasty surprises, so I’ll just leave it at that. And like [Ross] said, I think in the back of his mind, no matter how much [pro] wrestling fans sometimes like to lionize Vince, or whatever the word is, kind of think that he’s this big evil, manipulative guy, I think he appreciates the fact that when the business is healthy, I think that he knows that it’s better for his business as well, so for Chris Jericho to go to New Japan, I mean, everybody knows that I’m a WWE guy. That’s just the way it is. I have been for 17 years, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime dream match, per se, with a lot of money at stake. And, for me to not pursue that I thought would have been a crime. And I think Vince felt the same way. As I said, the timing of this is perfect.” Jericho added, “he was cool with me doing this match and he’s cool with [Ross] doing New Japan shows because I think deep down inside, Vince loves [pro] wrestling and he loves WWE wrestling, but he knows, guess what, it doesn’t matter what you do, J.R., or what I do, we’re WWE guys. It’s what we are. The more they can see us outside of that, the more it promotes his brand.”

On His match With Kenny Omega: “I don’t think New Japan quite understood how big this was on an international level. Maybe in Japan it’s a big deal, but here and everywhere worldwide, and maybe everywhere but Japan, it’s the main event of the show. It’s a double main event, is what New Japan is calling it, but to me, I think the majority of fans in this country who are interested in outside wrestling besides WWE feel like it is the main event and a damn big one at that. I think that to not put it on pay-per-view would be to leave a lot of money on the table and that’s definitely not going to happen under my watch.”

On Never Watching Kenny Omega Matches: “I have never watched a Kenny Omega match before. I’m going to start watching them now and get into the groove and start to figure out how I want to run this match and what the ideas are. I didn’t watch because I wanted to wait until I could really focus because I’m the type of guy that can’t just make ideas happen. It’s like writing a song. The muse has to come and then when the muse comes, I’ll come up with the whole match in 10 minutes. So I want to start really focusing in on some of Kenny’s work when I get off this tour. I just heard about Kenny. I talked about Kenny. I listened to a lot of people that are experts in the business tell me about him, and I’m really excited to start delving into some of his stuff, and really focusing in on it and seeing how Chris Jericho can start putting together a match on Kenny Omega’s strengths. And also from him as well, I’m really excited to hear what his ideas are. And Kenny’s not a spot monkey, but New Japan is a different style and WWE is a different style. I think if we can merge the two, the New Japan fans and the fans worldwide are going to lose their f–king minds.”