Brian Fritz of Sportingnews.com passed along a new interview with Chris Jericho.
On celebrating his 25-year anniversary in wrestling last weekend in MSG:
“You do so many matches over the years and it’s kind of one week into another. Something like this it doesn’t happen very often. There are not a lot of guys in the history of the business that can even claim that. And then it’s funny because it seems like, for years, very timely shows happen in big stars’ hometowns. For example, I remember one time John Cena and I worked — I think it was at Survivor Series — for the world title in Boston and he wins. Or I remember Shawn Michaels in San Antonio for the tag team titles. Anytime we’ve seen these shows with hometown guys that would win titles, I would always be how coincidental is that? I never had that because we don’t really go to Winnipeg.
“So, for me, to be in the exact 25th anniversary of my first match in Madison Square Garden, it couldn’t have been more timely. It’s just completely a great, great coincidence. As soon as I noticed that, I just jumped on it. I work live events now rather than doing TVs — for now — and I go through the schedules and I pick the shows I want to do. I remember just looking at it and seeing Madison Square Garden. OK, I’ll do that. It’s always fun. And then it’s like, wait a second, October 3rd? You gotta be kidding me. And once that happened, I jumped all over it. I wasn’t sure if WWE would want to do anything with it. I kind of figured that they wouldn’t, but I was going to do something with it. That’s where it all started.”
On possibly appearing at WrestleMania 32:
“Yes, no, maybe. It all depends. I came back a couple of weeks ago to do the Night of Champions thing and I don’t come back just for one-offs. There’s always a reason why I do everything that I do. That could give you some clues. It’s going to be the biggest show of all-time. I haven’t done the last couple of Manias and, to me, it wasn’t that the opportunity wasn’t there or the offer but what am I going to be doing? Who am I working with? What’s the storyline because I know that for WrestleMania, everyone comes back.
“I was the main event of WrestleMania 18. It might be the only WrestleMania main event I might have; it might not be the only WrestleMania show-stealer. But I also know that if you’re not in the main event, your real estate on TV is less and less. I’m smart enough to know that if you get the right person and just given my own little world, give me my own little ten minute segment every week like me and [CM] Punk had three years ago when we had an amazing angle that was never the main event of anything. It was just like well, here’s the crossover segment. Here’s the open segment. All right, that’s cool. Punk and I were smart enough to know that’s all we need. We don’t need 20 minutes of talking. We don’t need electrocutions or going through tables or whatever the hell they do to build up their angles. All we need is just 10 minutes of talking time, 10 minutes of TV time and we’ll do the rest. So that’s always been my mindset. What can I figure out to do on the biggest show that’s going to kind of back door my way into becoming one of the more intriguing storylines of the entire night? If I can figure that out, then I’m always open for it.”
Sportingnews.com: Chris Jericho on 25 years in wrestling, Vince McMahon, state of WWE, more