Chris Jericho Recalls Wanting WWE Title Match With Chris Benoit In Winnipeg, What He Got Instead
Former WWE Superstar and NXT coach Nick Dinsmore aka Eugene was on a recent episode of the Talk Is Jericho podcast. Dinsmore recalled hosting RAW in Winnipeg, which led to Chris Jericho revealing a nixed world title match he pitched to have in his hometown.
"I'll never forget that week. I'm from Winnipeg," Jericho noted. "I think [Chris] Benoit was the champion at the time. I'm like, we should do something like Jericho vs. Benoit for the world title in Winnipeg. What a story, and [Brian] Gewirtz calls, 'I got some ideas.' What is it going to be?' You're going to play musical chairs.' I was like, 'What the f**k are you talking about?' And I was super pissed because I was expecting some kind of classic angle in my hometown.
"First time ever on TV in Winnipeg, but I'll tell you what, that segment ended up being great because we're just having some fun with it, and it was actually really cool, but when I was first pitched that, I was like, 'This sucks! I hate Eugene,' as if you wrote it."
Jericho noted how popular he Eugene character was at the time. Dinsmore then told Jericho a conversation they had after a Highlight Reel segment where the ratings did really well for that episode.
"It was a refreshing character at the time, and I remember it was you that told me this after I was The Highlight Reel," Dinsmore recalled. "You said that the next week the ratings have gone up by X points that it hadn't been that high in two years."
Dinsmore had to take time off, and that led to the momentum of his run to stop. Jericho and Dinsmore were discussing ideas about how he could have kept the Eugene character fresh, and Jericho came up with an idea of pretending Eugene being "special" was all fake. Dinsmore noted that Vince McMahon did not want to do that in fear that it would hurt future gimmick characters.
"I thought it would have been great when the time comes that you drop it, it's all just a ruse to turn heel," Jericho suggested.
"Vince didn't want to do that because he didn't want to compromise any gimmick wrestlers going forward," Dinsmore revealed. "It's just a gimmick."
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.