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Chris
Jericho On Who Is The Most Underrated Wrestler - 7th
February 2021
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Everyone
knows that despite a 30+ year career in the ring,
Chris Jericho’s passion for music burns as deeply
as his passion for wrestling. He and his band, Fozzy,
have released seven studio albums and have toured
all over the world.
Being
a part of the music industry has allowed Jericho some
perks and one of those was getting to attend the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony a few years
ago. There, Jericho not-so-coincidentally ran into
Sir Paul McCartney and he recalled that hilarious
but awkward encounter on The
Hollywood Raw Podcast with Dax Holt and Adam Glyn.
“We’re
at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Ringo was getting
inducted by Paul. And my cousin and I had a contact
that allowed us to stand on the floor of the arena
where only the inductees are, but we didn’t have
a ticket because it’s $10,000 for a seat to sit
on the floor,” said Jericho. “So, you can’t
stand here, so then you go stand here, and then someone
says you can’t stand here. Anyways, we found
out… We could see where Paul and Ringo were at
the front. When everyone was standing up watching
Green Day play, my cousin and I just walked through
the entire crowd using the only rule that you need
to have, which is just act like you’re supposed
to be there. Right?
“We
ended up standing right behind Paul and Ringo. And
then when the show was done, Green Day was done, Paul
started walking. So, I started walking kind of almost
beside him, by this row of chairs, till we finally
just meet at the peak. ‘Oh, my goodness, what
a coincidence! Hey Paul, Green Day was great. They’re
awesome. They’re great.’ I was like, I didn’t
know what to say, but I said, ‘Listen, I see
you have your security guard leading you, but you’ve
got no one behind you, so if any ninjas come, I got
your back.’
“I’m
like, what am I… The ninjas?”
But
the awkwardness didn’t end there for Jericho
as he talked about running into McCartney again at
the after party.
“All
right. Yeah, and then I go, ‘High five, Paul.’
He gives me a high five, so I’m just jumping.
Later we go to the after-party and he’s eating
with Joe Walsh. We went to the Copa, me, Joe Walsh
and Paul McCartney, man. So, he’s eating this
spread, he’s eating some cheese, and all these
people are gathered around. I’m like, I’m
going to go try and help him out,” recalled Jericho.
“I go, I say, ‘Paul, listen these people
are bugging you; I’ll help you out.’ He
goes, “Listen?” He goes, ‘Who are you?’
He goes, ‘Who are you, man?’ He goes, ‘Are
you a cameraman or are you a security guard? Who are
you?’ I go, ‘I’m just trying to help
you out.’
“He
goes, ‘Listen, if any ninjas come around, I’ll
let you know. Until then…” Just like I’ll
see you later, leave me alone type thing, and he walked
away. And the only thing I could think of was like,
he remembered the ninjas. He knows who I am.”
The
hosts then pivoted to rapid fire-style questions with
Jericho who, at last count, had wrestled in 2,725
matches through October 2020. First, he was asked
who the smelliest wrestler he ever got into the ring
was.
“I
don’t know. I remember Kane’s glove always
used to smell really sweaty and he used to put Febreze
on it, so it smelled like putting cologne on a corpse
sort of thing. But just his glove though, not the
rest, just his glove,” stated Jericho.
Then
he was asked who the most underrated wrestler he ever
locked up with was.
“Let’s
see. Who’s the most underrated wrestler? Oh man,
those are hard. What pops into your head, it’s
hard. There’s a guy called 2 Cold Scorpio who
was really good that I don’t think gets the credit
for how good he is. There are probably a million others
too, but that’s the first who comes to mind.”
Jericho
and 2 Cold Scorpio – who was known as Flash Funk
in WWE – both worked for WCW, ECW and WWE at
various points but they only crossed paths in ECW.
They wrestled three times while in ECW in 1996 including
in Jericho’s final match with the promotion before
he joined WCW.
Jericho
has performed in hundreds, if not thousands of arenas
in stadiums and thus, has seen his fare share of fan
signs. Most are rudimentary, some are funny and a
select few are so memorable that they still stick
with Jericho today. He was asked what the best signs
he’s ever seen in the crowd.
“The
best sign that I ever saw was when I was a bad guy
and it said, Chris Jericho is STU, and then they ran
out of room, PID. I was like, dude, come on. Chris
Jericho is… You’re too f***ing stupid, sorry,
to even space it out properly to say, Chris Jericho
is… Write the letter smaller,” said Jericho.
“If you mess it up, rip it up and do it again.
You’re really losing your point here; Chris Jericho
is stupid.
“The
other one that I always love is when I was in about
the summer of 2002, I was working with Hulk Hogan.
It was his last run in the WWE and we were doing all
the live events non-televised. He was the good guy,
I was the bad guy, and had so much fun. People just
love Hogan and people just hated me. I remember one
kid in the crowd had a sign that said Hulk Hogan is
a Jedi. It was right around when the second of the
new Star Wars movies came out, maybe Attack of the
Clones. That just really bothered me. I remember I
cut a whole promo on this kid who wrote the sign that
Hulk Hogan was a Jedi, and how dare you compare the
brilliance of a Jedi with the dumpster fire that’s
Hulk Hogan.
“Then,
at the end of the match, we ended up fighting ringside.
And the kid who wrote it, Hogan held my arms behind
me, he goes, ‘Hit him, kid.’ And I’m
like, okay, what’s this kid going to do? Whatever.
This kid, he’s probably eight years old balls
up his fist and punched me in the face as hard as
he could, and it really hurt.
“I
was like, ‘Hulk, come on, man.’ He’s
like, ‘Sorry, brother. I thought he would just
give you a slap or whatever.’ I’m like,
‘Geez, Louise. If you were such a Jedi, why don’t
you use mind control and tell him not to punch me
in the face, Mr. Jedi?”
WrestlingINC.com)
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