Chris Jericho recently appeared on “Conversations with Maria Menounos” and during that interview, Jericho commented on WWE giving talents more freedom and wrestlers not wanting to be true heels. Here are some of the highlights.
On WWE giving talents more freedom:
“You don’t have that freedom to try as much anymore because it [has] really gotten into, ‘here’s your script’ like a TV show, but it’s not a TV show.” Jericho continued, “no other entertainment entity is like it, so you have to have that element of giving girls and guys a chance to fail. If it doesn’t work, at least you tried. At least you went outside the box. And I think there is a little bit of that missing where it can still come back, but the opportunities to try stuff [are] becoming less and less. It’s more of, ‘this has been approved. Read this. Memorize these lines and say it.’ I can memorize a Shakespearean play, [but] it doesn’t mean I can say it with any conviction whatsoever. You have to believe in it and you have to commit.”
On wrestlers not wanting to be true heels:
“Everybody wants to have the merch. Everyone wants to have the t-shirts. I would always say, like Big Show was my [tag team] partner for a long time. We had a great, great partnership. And we were up against DX. And he was like, ‘we [have] got to do these Jeri-Show shirts.’ I’m like, ‘no, we’re not making shirts.’ [He replied] ‘what do you mean? We’re losing money.’ I said, ‘no, we’ll make more money as hated heels against DX in main events at pay-per-views and live events than we ever would selling t-shirts.'” Jericho added, “if you’re going to be a heel, don’t be afraid to get booed and don’t be afraid of having people legitimately not like you. If you can do that, you can accomplish your goal.”
You can listen to the interview here:
The show airs Monday–Friday at 1:00pm ET on SiriusXM’s Stars channel 109.
