Chris Jericho: “I Come And Go When I Feel It’s Right”

Chris Jericho was recently interviewed by The Mirror in preparation for his “Words of Jericho” events in Glasgow, Manchester and London. He discussed a  number of topics, making sporadic appearances with WWE and NJPW, his attack on Tetsuya Naito, the Greatest Royal Rumble and more.

Below are some questions along with Y2J’s answers:

Making sporadic appearances and people not knowing when you may turn up or what shows you might be on, gives you a ‘marquee attraction’ feel as a performer, similar to what Brock Lesnar has in WWE. It keeps an appearance by you a special event, in of itself.

Well, Brock Lesnar has what Chris Jericho has in WWE, you know what I mean? I come and go when I feel it’s right. I’m there more than Brock is when I’m there, but as far as being there/not being there, I’m not under contract to WWE. Everyone always thinks that, they’re always like ‘oh is WWE cool with you working in New Japan?’ It doesn’t matter if they’re cool or not because I’m not under contract. My contract with them ended in May of last year. So I have the right to do whatever I want to do, I don’t have to ask permission from anybody. I tell them what I’m doing out of courtesy because I respect the company and respect Vince McMahon, but I don’t have a contract with anybody, other than the match I have with Tetsuya Naito coming up.

You made a dramatic return to NJPW on May 4, ambushing NJPW icon Tetsuya Naito. The seeds had been sown for that back in January, when you first attacked him the day after Wrestle Kingdom. You have long been the master of keeping people guessing, spreading misinformation, and down the years you have kept a lot of big surprises secret, such as your appearance at the Royal Rumble in 2013. This time there were a few rumours and the cat got out the bag – why do you think that was?

I don’t know man. It’s one of those things, the cat got out of the bag, but everyone was convinced I was going to be in Long Beach too [NJPW held a show titled Strong Style Evolved in California on March 25]. You can’t tell me that you really knew for sure because no one knew for sure. I have found out that fans have a way to track your flight patterns now… which really makes me feel safe. Maybe that’s how, they found out that Chris Jericho was flying into Tokyo or whatever it was, but once again, I don’t feel bad because we were very specific, very secret about it. I flew into Haneda Airport, stayed a night there, then secretly flew into Fukuoka and stayed at a different hotel, so if people say they knew I was there that’s wrong, because there might have been some rumours, but it’s not like I was busted or caught red-handed or anything along those lines. If I hadn’t have been there, people would have just said ‘oh that’s Jericho, we thought he was going to be at Long Beach too’.

Jericho sheds blood in Fukuoka again! His brutal assault on Naito!!

It came hot on the heels of you being part of WWE’s Greatest Royal Rumble Show in Saudi Arabia on April 27. What were your thoughts on that event?

It was cool man. It was a long trip for a short period of time – I think I was in the rumble match for four minutes or something like that. I know they must have been paid a whole lot of money, just by proxy of what I was paid ha ha. I was like ‘oh my gosh, really, you’re going to pay me that to do this? How much are you guys making?’ I always say I don’t do things for money but once in a while opportunities come up where you’re crazy if you don’t do it. It was a quick trip, I don’t remember much about it, because we arrived there, three in the afternoon one day and the next day we’re at the stadium at nine in the morning and we get back to the hotel at one in the morning and we’re gone at 5am. So you’re really quickly in and out. Did I get a chance to do much other than sit in my room and try and get as much sleep as I could and sit in the backstage of a dusty old stadium? No I didn’t. Ha ha. That’s about all I saw.

They also discuss his previous spoken word tours, managing his busy schedule and more.

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