– Below are highlights from Chris Jericho’s recent interview with Maxim Magazine…
Who is the best opponent you’ve ever worked with? “Probably Shawn Michaels. I think he’s probably the best total package wrestler of all time – he could do it all, and was a big influence of mine when I was first starting. That storyline, the feud I had with him in 2008, that was one of the best programs not just in my career, but in the entire history in of the WWE. It’s always cool when you start out as a fan and then become an ally where you’re working together. It’s the same with music – Fozzy toured with Metallica, and it was like, ‘Here I am with the band that influenced me to get into music.'”
Some WWE fans have complained in recent years that the company seems to really push huge guys that can’t actually wrestle all that well, at the expense of experienced all-rounders, like yourself. What’s your take on that? “I don’t see it that way. Wrestling is all about new talent and new turnaround of the stars. I could be the main event guy there for 20 years, but there’s going to have to be other guys that come into that picture or else it’s pretty boring and business will go really bad. There’s only so much Jericho or so much HHH or so much Rock people can take.
“So you try different guys – some of them are bigger and don’t really have the talent, they have more of the look. Some guys are small and go against the traditional WWE superstar, but yet are so damn good they make it to the top – I’m talking about guys like Eddie Guerrero, or even Shawn Michaels or Daniel Bryan right now. You have guys who would never be the typical WWE superstar, but because they were so damn good, they would rise to the top of the mountain. You have to realize that if you have 60 guys on the roster, the WWE is going to try and get every one of those 60 guys to world championship level. Some of them will make it, the majority won’t, but until you try, you just never know. Everyone’s got to get a full chance, if not, why are they even there on the payroll?”
What’s the worst hangover you’ve ever had? “I remember one time, it was before the very first Thunder, which was a WCW show, I had to go do promos for it and got really blitzed – there were flames involved, you know, taking alcohol and lighting it on fire and drinking it, which is never a good idea. I had the worst hangover and I had my first match on Thunder, and it was the very first time I had ever wrestled Rick (sic) Flair. So here I am wrestling a legendary guy with the worst hangover. I remember the first fall that I took, I felt like my head was going to explode. I didn’t even want to get up off the mat, it was so bad. I just remember trying to peel myself off the mat, just like, ‘It’s Flair! Get up, get up, get up! It’s live TV, get up, get up, get up!’ And of course that show went fine, but I definitely paid the price for it.”
