Chris Jericho On If CM Punk Will Return To WWE, Punk Fighting Again, Goldberg Being Difficult In WCW
On episode 128 of You're Welcome! With Chael Sonnen, 'The Superstar Of All Superstars' Chris Jericho appeared on the program. Among other things, Jericho shared his thoughts on CM Punk's future, and he also talked about how WCW's negative atmosphere made Bill Goldberg more difficult to work with.
When asked what the future holds for Punk, Jericho said that he thinks Punk will fight again and eventually get into MMA commentary.
"I think, if I put myself in his position, and there's a lot of brouhaha about him being involved in MMA, and I think the fact that he lost so quickly, that put some egg on his face. And I think he's going to want to try again just to show people he's not going down like that, so I think he probably will fight again, whether it's the UFC or whatever it is. And he'll probably fight again and again until he wins. And then, when he wins, maybe he'll start learning from that and win some more. I never expected him to be a one-and-done type of guy. What I actually thought was going to happen was he'll have a couple of UFC fights, win, lose, or draw, and after go into commentating or interviewing because then, he could come at it from the standpoint of he knows what it's like to be inside of that Octagon."
As for whether Punk will ever return to WWE, Jericho said to never say never.
"It would be a big deal for him to come back to WWE, but I don't know if he would ever. I mean, never say never. Dusty Rhodes came back. Bret Hart came back. I'm sure, at some point, he'll come through."
On the subject of Goldberg, Jericho claimed that the negative WCW culture is what made Goldberg difficult to work with. Also, 'The Greatest Of All Time' professed that Goldberg was as popular as 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin and The Rock when Goldberg's popularity was at its zenith.
"When Bill first came in he actually was a really good guy, but WCW kind of bred a lot of ill will. It was just kind of the atmosphere there. And coming in as a new guy, I think he was just kind of, when you're a new guy to the business, you act like how the top guys act and all the top guys were acting like assholes and I think that Bill thought that that was the way to be. But I still think that Bill, for his timeframe in '98 into early '99, was as big of a star in wrestling as you're ever going to see. He was just as big as Steve Austin or as big as The Rock at the time. Was the longevity there? Probably not, but people forget."
Jericho continued, "he was the first of his kind, a guy who you had never seen before, a physical freak, who had this real raw charisma, and he was just at the right place, at the right time, when WCW was at their peak and he just helped take them even higher. But that's something I don't think we're ever going to see again. So sometimes people might forget just how popular he was and how over with the crowd he was, so it was pretty cool to be back there and watching him go and it was also sometimes a little bit of a hassle when, like I said, he acted the way that he acted, at least towards me, which, it is what it is, and it's all done now. But, like I said, nobody was all that helpful or friendly in WCW at the time because right from the top on down is how the atmosphere was bred. And that's the reason why the company is no longer in business."
Drink in the interview here. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit You're Welcome! With Chael Sonnen with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.