Post by Kevin Hamilton on Oct 25, 2007 12:30:12 GMT -5
In the new issue of PWI there's an excellent ten-twelve page interview with Chris Jericho. In it there were a few points I found that were interesting, and perhaps not what you'd expect.. the following quotes are taken verbatim from the issue. ( the whole thing is really good as well, ya might check it out.)
On Cena-
"You have to go back to the summer of 2002 to see my real influence on Cena. He had just come in, and I thought he was great. He would do these really cool promos in the backstage area, practicing with Steve Lombardi, that I would watch. I thought he was very charismatic. I asked Vince if I could do a program with him. He asked me why, and I said I thought he was good and charismatic. He didn't agree, and I said 'I'm telling you Vince, this guy's got something' We worked the program and got to the PPV in Detroit and I begged Vince, 'Please let me put this guy over.' He asked why and I said this guy is going to be something for you. I put him over and was then switched from Smackdown to Raw. But they didn't do much with him till he did the rapper routine on the Halloween show. Then when I was getting ready to leave WWE, I think the original plan was for me to do something with Carlito. I said to Vince, 'let me do a program with Cena. Let me put him over to the hilt and pass the torch. ....
I told John not to let people make him believe what they're saying. I told him, you're a good worker. You just need to show people that yes you know what you're doing, because you do. I can't think of the last time I saw a bad PPV match involving John Cena. The guy delivers every single night and he goes above and beyond to help other guys look good."
On the night he was 'fired' and dragged out kicking and screaming some thought was disrespectful-
"I thought it was one of the memorable performances of someone getting dragged out, kicking, screaming and crying... I thought that was a great way for a heel to exit, a true coward."
On the buildup to WM X8 that some have called unfair to him because Steph was involved in the storyline, and charges he took a backseat to the HHH/Steph stuff-
"Actually Stephanie's involvement was all my idea. See I had a long storied history with Steph that basically started as a throwaway promo where I called her a filthy disgusting dirty brutal bottom feeding trash bag ho. People loved it so much, including Stephanie, that she just became my nemesis.... People started to get into it to the point that, when the HHH thing happened, that it would be cool if when he came back, he found out that Steph had been cheating on him with me. Of course as things are wont to do in WWE, we became something of an alliance without the romantic spark of it, I thought we lost a little something without that, but the whole idea of Steph and I becoming an alliance was fine with me..... A lot of people thought the focus was taken away from me, but I thought it added to the storyline of the match. It was the 'Mania main event that was going on after Hogan vs. Rock which is Ali vs. Tyson in boxing. It's hard to follow that. The more tools we had to get people into our storyline, the better."
He also talks about Goldberg, Shawn Michaels, Benoit, TNA, why he doesn't wrestle independent shows and more. Overall a really interesting interview. Worth the price of the mag.
On Cena-
"You have to go back to the summer of 2002 to see my real influence on Cena. He had just come in, and I thought he was great. He would do these really cool promos in the backstage area, practicing with Steve Lombardi, that I would watch. I thought he was very charismatic. I asked Vince if I could do a program with him. He asked me why, and I said I thought he was good and charismatic. He didn't agree, and I said 'I'm telling you Vince, this guy's got something' We worked the program and got to the PPV in Detroit and I begged Vince, 'Please let me put this guy over.' He asked why and I said this guy is going to be something for you. I put him over and was then switched from Smackdown to Raw. But they didn't do much with him till he did the rapper routine on the Halloween show. Then when I was getting ready to leave WWE, I think the original plan was for me to do something with Carlito. I said to Vince, 'let me do a program with Cena. Let me put him over to the hilt and pass the torch. ....
I told John not to let people make him believe what they're saying. I told him, you're a good worker. You just need to show people that yes you know what you're doing, because you do. I can't think of the last time I saw a bad PPV match involving John Cena. The guy delivers every single night and he goes above and beyond to help other guys look good."
On the night he was 'fired' and dragged out kicking and screaming some thought was disrespectful-
"I thought it was one of the memorable performances of someone getting dragged out, kicking, screaming and crying... I thought that was a great way for a heel to exit, a true coward."
On the buildup to WM X8 that some have called unfair to him because Steph was involved in the storyline, and charges he took a backseat to the HHH/Steph stuff-
"Actually Stephanie's involvement was all my idea. See I had a long storied history with Steph that basically started as a throwaway promo where I called her a filthy disgusting dirty brutal bottom feeding trash bag ho. People loved it so much, including Stephanie, that she just became my nemesis.... People started to get into it to the point that, when the HHH thing happened, that it would be cool if when he came back, he found out that Steph had been cheating on him with me. Of course as things are wont to do in WWE, we became something of an alliance without the romantic spark of it, I thought we lost a little something without that, but the whole idea of Steph and I becoming an alliance was fine with me..... A lot of people thought the focus was taken away from me, but I thought it added to the storyline of the match. It was the 'Mania main event that was going on after Hogan vs. Rock which is Ali vs. Tyson in boxing. It's hard to follow that. The more tools we had to get people into our storyline, the better."
He also talks about Goldberg, Shawn Michaels, Benoit, TNA, why he doesn't wrestle independent shows and more. Overall a really interesting interview. Worth the price of the mag.
