Chris Jericho Talks Feuding With CM Punk, How He Got Vince McMahon To Do Rey Mysterio Mask Angle
Chris Jericho returned to Busted Open to talk with Doug and Dave about his new book, The Best In The World At What I Have No Idea, being part of the End Of An Era in WWE with Shawn Michaels, his last run in WWE, his feud with Bray Wyatt and original plans, a possible return and more!
You can listen to SiriusXM's Award Winning Wrestling Show Busted Open every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 2-4 PM EST on SiriusXM Channel 92 and on the SiriusXM App. Highlights from the interview are as follows:
His program with Shawn Michaels and contributions by Brian Gewirtz:
"Brian Gewirtz is very much responsible for some of the greatest things we've seen over the years. That guy is as close to being a genius on coming up with ideas as Vince (McMahon). Then you had Shawn Michaels, who is one of the best in the business, and Chris Jericho, who is a Shawn Michaels disciple who is at the peak of his game after 17 years in the business. It is a perfect storm of trust and creatively. You had the fans buy into it. When I punched Rebecca in the face, it was supposed to happen, but obviously I wasn't supposed to hit her for real. She zigged when she was supposed to zag and I zigged when she was supposed to zag and I actually hit her. We felt so devastated and I thought for sure Shawn was going to kick my ass and I gladly would have let him. All she got was a fat lip and after she got up she was like "Is that all you got Chris?" people that were watching because people say then after a week we realized this was the best thing that could have happened. It made it real and the people are saying if anyone hit my wife, my husband, grandmother, and grandfather I am going to kill them. That is when the feud went into overdrive because it got real."
Today's pro wrestling presentation compared to the past:
"Well, it is different; after Michaels there was the (Rey) Mysterio angle. That is what I pitched to Vince to work around Rey's mask. Vince said, "They don't care about the mask." And I said, "Of course they do. That is why they buy it." We had this guy wear a mask and never explained what it means to him. I want his mask. Vince said, "Why do you want his mask?" I said, "Because I am a bully. I want his milk money. I don't want any milk. I am going to take it and throw it into the lake." Then Vince loved it."
The CM Punk storyline and pushing the limits:
"Then with the CM Punk feud in 2012. My thing is I wanted to take it to this next level. I wanted to tattoo him. Vince loved it and then was kind of talked out of it. I think someone got in his ear that there is going to be blood. Plus Vince said he has a million tattoos. Well, it doesn't matter if he has a million tattoos. What if I tattoo my initials on him FOR REAL? Punk was saying, "Let's do this for real" and that is like being violated. That is why we switched over to the alcoholic thing and I got a lot of hate for that. People saying, "Oh, my father is an alcoholic" and "how dare you say and use that as a crutch for a pro wrestling storyline." Guess what? That is why I did it. I was begging Vince for us to do the tattoo angle; someone had told Vince that tattoos will create blood and Vince got scared. Plus... (Vince) doesn't have tattoos so he doesn't get it. He came up with the idea that Punk's dad has problems with alcohol and you think he wouldn't go for it and to Punk's credit and he went for it. I don't know if he had issues with his family and he wanted to take it out with them and I don't think he even told his dad about it. Punk gave us full 100 percent with it as he should have and then his sister got involved, then it got real. Can we do that now? I don't know because you got to go into a deep place? When I came back with the Bray Wyatt thing and I was on fire and I was pitching so many ideas, I went in to pitch some ideas to Vince for Summerslam and the PPV after that, and his response was – and this is great I should save it for my next book – he was eating steak and I went through this entire ten minute pitch about this and that and this guy will come back and this retired gunslinger will come in and help his old rival and this whole thing and his response while eating his steak and he says "Bad cow" I said what? "Bad cow, this steak is tough, bad cow" I am like" is that all you have to say?" And he is like, "What else you got?" And I am like, "Okay, he doesn't like this idea." We didn't do much with the story, but like I said, all I can do is make suggestions and he is the boss, so he makes the suggestions, but I am a big fan for long storylines."