Konnan Talks Chris Jericho Standing Up To Eric Bischoff, WCW Road Wild Crowds Being Racist, Raven
Recently on Talk Is Jericho, Konnan sat down with 'Y2J' to discuss a number of topics including the former's heat with Vampiro, his respect for Chris Jericho, and hating WCW Road Wild. Also, Konnan shared some funny stories about Raven.
According to Jericho, Konnan and Vampiro were like the Rock and 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin in Mexico in terms of popularity. Konnan said his heat with Vampiro stemmed from their professional animosity, which turned personal.
"I got into the game, bro, and, immediately, I went straight to the top. Vampiro went straight to the top when he got to Mexico. And our professional animosity turned personal and we were just the two biggest stars of our promotions and we didn't like each other. And, in a way, that was good because it kind of bred competition and I was never going to let him outdo me and vice versa, so it was actually pretty good at the end. But, yeah, man, those Mexico years were great."
Konnan said that he repeatedly tried to entice Jericho to leave CMLL in favor of AAA when they were both in Mexico. Jericho gained a tremendous amount of respect for, and knowledge of, lucha libre culture from his time in Mexico and Konnan said that he respected Jericho for backing Juventud Guerrera when Eric Bischoff wanted him to lose his mask in WCW.
"One thing that I had so much respect for [Jericho about was] I remember when Eric Bischoff was going to have [Jericho] do a match with Juventud Guerrera for his mask, but [Jericho] understood what that meant in Mexico and how disrespectful [it] was to be taken the way they were going to do it."
Konnan admitted that he hated working WCW Road Wild shows and suggested that the Sturgis, South Dakota crowds were racist.
"I hated, bro, and I do mean hated, going to that motorcycle s–t. What was that called? Sturgis?" Konnan added, "I always thought it was hilarious how racial they got when Booker T and Stevie Ray went out there. Oh, that was brutal!"
Konnan claimed that the Road Wild shows made no money and were really an excuse for Bischoff to ride his motorcycle.
"The thing sucked because it was far away from the hotel, you couldn't go on your own because everyone is used to getting there on their car, so you had to get on a bus like you were in school." Konnan continued, "it was almost to me like they didn't even sell tickets. They were making no money just so this guy can ride around with his Harley [Davidson] friends from wherever they were riding from to Sturgis."
On the podcast, Konnan shared some amusing stories about Raven. Konnan recalled being a guest on the Donny & Marie talk show with Raven. Konnan stated that Raven intentionally gave the hosts incorrect talking points to put himself over.
"So [hosts Donny and Marie Osmond] go, 'yeah, Raven, I hear that you have an IQ of 145' and [Raven] goes, 'it's 155'. And then [Donny Osmond] goes, 'I hear that you read books every week' and he goes, 'yeah, I read eight to ten books, cover to cover'. He had fed them these questions, so they would ask him and he still gave them a low IQ, so he could say a higher one! How over is Raven? And he forgot to mention that the eight to ten books were comic books, but that's another thing."
Another funny story involved Raven trying to sneak an unattractive woman out of his hotel room in Louisiana, so the other wrestlers would not see her.
"This elevator opens up and it's like three [o'clock] in the morning. You know [Raven]'s trying to sneak this girl out without anybody seeing her. And the door opened and he looked at me, like, 'bro, I'd rather see anybody at this moment, including the devil, than this motherf–ker because I know he's going to tell'. This girl was so ugly Hello Kitty said 'goodbye'. I mean, she was brutal! And I knocked on Kevin Nash's door and I go, 'bro, you have got to see this! You have got to see!' because [Raven] was outside. I don't know if he was looking for his car or they were waiting for a taxi, but she was outside standing in the parking lot. He was ribbed mercilessly for a couple of months."
In addition to these topics, Konnan discussed coming up the Max Moon character and he shared his thoughts on why Místico, the original Sin Cara, failed in WWE. To listen to the rest of the podcast, click here.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: Talk Is Jericho