Chris Jericho Says TNA Helped Him Secure A Better WWE Contract In 2007

Chris Jericho has revealed that interest from TNA played a key role in helping him negotiate a better contract with WWE before his return to the company in 2007.

Speaking about the negotiations, during a Dark Side of the Ring Q&A session, Jericho said he never planned to sign with TNA. Instead, he used the promotion’s interest as leverage while working out a new deal with WWE after spending a couple of years away from the company. At the time, TNA had been trying to recruit Jericho for a while.

Jericho recalled meeting TNA executives, including Jeff Jarrett and Dixie Carter, for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory in Tampa, Florida, while discussions with WWE were ongoing. Although he attended the meeting, Jericho said his goal was always to return to WWE.

He explained that he saw no downside to hearing TNA’s offer if it helped strengthen his negotiating position. Chris Jericho also shared how the meeting eventually became public (H/T Fightful).

“We met at the Cheesecake Cafe in Tampa, Florida. Sorry, Cheesecake Factory. Now let me give you a little wrestling lesson. So I was talking about going back to WWE had been off for a couple of years. I think this was like 2007, and this was at a time when Vince had the magic number of a salary. He had the magic number. I won’t say what that is. But it’s the highest that you could get no matter who you were. It didn’t matter. Because with Vince at the time, if you headlined, if you were a main event, you would get paid more money, et cetera, et cetera. But the base minimum was this certain number, and he wasn’t coming close to it. I was like, well… Let me see if I can arrange a meeting with Double J and have a conversation with TNA and see what happens. Now, what happened was… So this is a real behind-the-scenes storyline thing. So my cousin was in town at the time, and I said, ‘just go sit over there and just comment on what you see,’ and here’s an email address of someone in the wrestling dirt sheet area that might be interested in Chris Jericho. So I’m not saying I wasn’t entertaining the idea, but two days later, guess who came back with the magic number?”

A few days later, rumors surfaced online claiming Jericho could be headed to TNA. He said an email asking whether he was signing with the promotion was sent to several wrestling websites.

The message claimed someone had spotted Jericho having lunch with Jarrett and Carter in Tampa. Jericho revealed the email was signed with the name of Ralph Molina, drummer for Neil Young’s band Crazy Horse, as part of the plan.

Before the TNA rumors surfaced, Jericho said WWE had not come close to that figure. After the speculation spread, however, the company agreed to the number he wanted.

Jericho said reaching that salary meant more than the money itself.

To him, it was confirmation that WWE viewed him as a top-level performer after a period where he no longer felt that way.

He signed his new contract roughly two weeks later and returned to WWE in late 2007, immediately entering a program with then-WWE Champion Randy Orton.