Chris Jericho on Role in His WWE Angles, the Business Changing

Six-time World Champion Chris Jericho was recently interviewed by Randy Zellea of Back Sports Page in order to promote his third and latest book, titled “The Best in the World: At What I Have No Idea.” Within the interview, Jericho discussed the process of writing the book, in addition to some pro wrestling and WWE related topics.

“Y2J” was asked about the creative input he had during his past angles in WWE:

“You could read about that in “Best in the World”. When you read it you could see how much involvement and input I had with my programs with Shawn Michaels, Rey Mysterio and CM Punk. I was involved with the creative aspect as they used my ideas, not all of them but I was very involved with them. When I came in to the WWE in 1999 I helped write my own stuff, but over time we bought in more writers. I work with the writers in collaboration. Nobody ever gives me a piece of paper and tell me to say things on the air. For other guys they do that and it works for them. They have to gain a trust on what they do between them and the company.”

“You are able to work out and gain the experience to know what you are doing and know who you are. It takes experience on what you can get across as a performer in your promo and the storyline. Sometimes the boss will go with your suggestions and sometimes he won’t and if he doesn’t want to do it then there is not thing you could do. The more I could interject more of my ideas into my character and add my own personality into my storyline and in my promo the better it’s gonna be. Everybody is in their own case by case basis but in my case everything is in collaboration and it has to be. I cannot do any other way.”

Jericho also discussed some of his favorite matches over the course of time:

“I really liked the ladder match with Shawn Michaels back at No Mercy 2008 for the world title. I felt like that was one of the best matches ever due to the circumstances that lead up to it. The fact that we were supposed to do have a one time match. Eight months later, we working for the world title in the main event of a pay per view and that is a testament to how good that storyline was. I love the cage match I had with Bray a few months back. I think it’s a testament after being in the business for 24 years that I could still go out and have great match like that it. I feel better than I have and still feel I could accomplish these types of matches. I also loved my matches with Rey Mystero that we had in 2009. If you watch any of those matches you could see we had amazing chemistry together. There are so many of them but those are some of the recent ones.”

Jericho, who may very well be done as a full-time WWE wrestler, hit on how the wrestling industry has changed through the years:

“Back during that time period we took the attitude of you work with who you work with and you do your best to make it good. I had nine years experience before I came to the WWE and that’s something a lot of people seem to forget about. No matter what obstacles are thrown at me, I have been through it before so I know how to make it good. So even though it took a while in my mind I had nowhere to go but up. Things were going to be good because that was the way I was trained. I was never given anything in the wrestling business from the day I started. When you don’t have things handed to you, you have to work harder to get the spot. I just did my thing and sometimes it went my way and sometimes it didn’t but I knew in the long run it was going to be good because that is how I was trained.”

The interview in its entirety can be read here. Jericho also talked about his transition from WCW to WWE, the inclusion of Chris Benoit in his book, and much more.