Chris Jericho and Rey Mysterio had a great feud which culminated at 2009’s The Bash PPV in an IC Title vs mask match. But it turns out this amazing rivalry almost never took place.
Jericho recently spoke with Wrestling Observer Radio where he said that Vince McMahon didn’t like the idea at first. Chris said Vince thought nobody would be interested in an angle built around a mask. But thankfully, Jericho knew how to talk to the boss and get things done.
“And you know I’d explain it to him why the mask means something to Lucha Libre history and his family lineage and everything and all of that but [Vince] just didn’t see what the big deal was. And the way I pitched it to him was: ‘here’s why it’s a big deal. Because I’m a bully and for the first time in my career I’m bigger than somebody and I’m a bully that’s gonna walk into the class and steal the kid’s milk money and then I’m gonna take that milk money and throw it in the garbage. I don’t care about the milk money, I just don’t want him to have it. So I’m gonna take it from him cause that’s what bullies do.”
“And once I explained to Vince that concept of the mask, ‘why does anybody care about the mask?’ — ‘I’m just gonna take it from him. I don’t care about showing his face I just wanna take that mask away from you because I’m a bully and I don’t want you to have it.’ And when I explained it to him that way he really understood and we really went full-steam into this classic storyline with Jericho and Mysterio based around his mask.”
Credit for the quotes in this article goes to Wrestling Observer Radio and Still Real To Us for the transcription.
