As noted, Chris Jericho recently appeared as a guest on Inside The Ropes for an in-depth interview. Featured below are some additional highlights from the discussion.
On the reaction from those who thought he couldn’t keep up with Kenny Omega at this point in his career: “I was laughing to myself when we were getting ready for the match and people were like ‘Jericho, can’t keep up with Kenny Omega. How’s he going to do the New Japan style?’ What’s the New Japan style? Good wrestling is the style. I don’t have to keep up with anybody. I’m Chris Jericho, I dictate the pace of the match as does Kenny Omega. He’s not a f*cking luchador in his first match, he knows how to work, timing, and all that sort of sh*t.”
On his belief that high-risk moves isn’t what makes a five-star match, it’s more about telling a story: “I’m not going to take a dragon suplex off the top rope, that doesn’t make it a good match. That makes it risky and stupid. You don’t need that sh*t. I wanted a good story, I wanted to come out of the gate, I didn’t want any rest holds. I wanted a high spot in the beginning and work this storyline. We went 35 minutes, I didn’t know how long it was going to go and when it was done, I was like, ‘That was really, really good.'”
On the reaction to the match and what he wanted out of it: “When I see all the results, ‘five star match,’ ‘match of the night,’ ‘match of the year’ candidate. Hey, everybody likes to hear that, I like to hear it. More importantly, it made me laugh at the people who didn’t think I could keep up, but I’m also a 27 year vet of the wrestling business and a disciple of Vince McMahon. And what’s the most important part of a match? Okay, five stars is great, did it make money? And the answer to that is f*ck yes, a sh*t ton of money. Through an extra 15,000 people buying tickets for the [Tokyo] Dome, through a 250% increase on the New Japan World subscriptions. That’s all money and specifically because of Jericho’s involvement with the company, which means more money for me, which is what the business is all about. … [It] made millions of dollars, that might be the most important match I’ve ever had at 47 years old.”
On some of the spots that hurt him in the match: “The one winged angel on the chair really hurt. I’m not saying it hurt like a joke, it really f*cked me up. It hurt my back to where there’s something still not right, but whatever, I can never take that move again. I can never take the powerbomb on the apron again from Kevin Owens, it hurts, and wrestling is not supposed to hurt like that.”
Check out more from the Chris Jericho interview on Inside The Ropes above.
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