Lee Moriarty & Chris Jericho On Why Pro Wrestling Is a Sport, Jericho Wants It In the Olympics

Lee Moriarty and Chris Jericho believe that professional wrestling is a sport, and Jericho has pitching it to the Olympics as a life goal. Moriarty was a guest on Talk is Jericho this week and talked about how he did a paper in high school on whether pro wrestling should qualify as a sport, comparing it to gymnastics. You can see highlights from the discussion below:

Moriarty on if pro wrestling is a sport: “So I see it as a sport because people think whatever they want, it’s predetermined and all this stuff, or its a routine. But gymnastics is a routine, and that’s a sport. And even if you don’t wanna say that, we are competing as a team together in that ring against the other matches or whatever show might be running against us. It’s a sport, we’re athletes.”

Jericho on wanting pro wrestling to be an Olympic sport: “This is one of my all-time goals, and I’ve set a few goals in my life that I’ve achieved. I literally want to go in front of the IOC — the International Olympic Community — and pitch pro wrestling as an Olympic sport. Now, you might go, ‘How can you do that? It’s all–‘ Now hold on, stop right there. Gymnastics, pairs gymnastics, figure skating, pairs figure skating; what is that? It’s two people working together to put on the best performance possible. Then the judges give you a score, and if you’re a doubles figure skater — which is one of the top-rated sports in the Winter Olympics — America finished first, Russia second, Japan is third. There is no way we could not do the same with pro wrestling.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.