Interview: Chris Jericho

IGN Wrestling catches up with Y2J to chat about his world title victory!

April 20, 2000

It’s been a hell of a week for one Chris Jericho. On Monday night, he won the his first world title, beating Triple H on Raw Is War. On Tuesday, he defeated the biggest star in pro-wrestling, The Rock, at the Smackdown tapings. On Wednesday, he defeated Eddy Guerrero at a special show to celebrate the life of Gary Albright. After a few days like this, what more can he possibly do? Get a top story interview on IGN Wrestling, of course!

IGN’s Josh Pontrelli had the chance to chat with the man himself him last night, at the Gary Albright Memorial Show at Agricultural Hall in Allentown, PA, and had plenty of good words about him. "Chris is one of the coolest people I’ve ever met. He was very down to earth, and cared about Gary. If anyone has a chance to go to a Chris Jericho interview or autograph session, don't pass it up. You’re missing out."

Josh: You recently entered the WWF. How do you find it different to WCW, and can I have your thoughts on your career so far?

Chris: It's going really good, it's been eight months now. There's a lot of differences between the two companies. The WWF is a lot more organized and much more professional; there's just much more intelligence and much better ideas on how to have a successful wrestling company there.

Josh: You've worked for many promotions throughout the world. What are the differences between the big 3 of today, the WWF, WCW, and ECW?

Chris: ECW was more of a grass roots, kind of a smaller
promotion, but it still had a lot of great fans and great wrestlers came through there, great style, you know, good work ethic. WCW, had a lot of money and a lot of great stars as well. They weren't quite as organized or on the ball with promoting their younger guys like they should've been, in my opinion. The WWF is what a wrestling company should be. It's entertaining, exciting, like I said, it's very organized and planned out. It has been a great time; I have had no problems at all. Everything has been good.

Josh: Of the promoters you worked for, out of Eric Bischoff and Vince McMahon, which one do you feel, does a better job?

Chris: For me, obviously, Vince McMahon has done a better job. The best promoters I have ever worked for have been Vince McMahon... Paul Heyman has been a great promoter, and Richie Choshu in New Japan Wrestling. Those are the best promoters I have worked for.

Josh: You recently "won" the World Title...

Chris: What do you mean "won"? I was the champ for ten minutes, baby!

Josh: Yes, but that won't go in the WWF record books. Have they told you of any other plans to push you up to the main event level again?

Chris: Well, I mean, as far as the fans and Jericholics are concerned, I'm already at that level. As far as I'm concerned, I won the title and never lost it. You know, maybe it's not in the official WWF record books, but it's in the official Jerichaholic wrestling books.

Josh: You maintain your website well (ChrisJericho.com). You are constantly
updating it and answering fan's e-mails.
Jericho: Right.

Josh: Has the internet helped you in anyway?

Chris: Yeah, of course, it has been a great asset to me. It helped build up a very good fan base for me. Only because of the internet, a lot of fans approach me, especially about my website. Fans kind of get a kick out of what I write on it, and the information you can get from it, so, it's been good, yeah.

Josh: Did you see the movie Beyond The Mat?

Chris: Yeah, I did.

Josh: Any thoughts on it?

Chris: I thought it was very interesting. You know, it was a dark movie, but a lot of its points were fairly true. It was entertaining, probably because I've been there and I know all the stories they are talking about.

Josh: You trained in Stu Hart's dungeon. How did that affect your wrestling?

Chris: It was pretty hard training. It was pretty much Japanese style training. There were a lot of cardio, calisthenics, and stretching and getting beat up. We didn't really get into the ring all that much in the first month. Just a lot of exercise, kind of discipline & exercises. But it provided a really good base for what I do today. There are still things I learned there, are things I do today.

Josh: Of all the wrestlers of the past, do you have a favorite talent?

Chris: There are a ton of great wrestlers. I was a big Dynamite Kid fan. I liked British Bulldogs tag team, Shawn Michaels, Owen Hart, and in this day and age, Chris Benoit pretty much of a favorite of mine. Eddie Guerrero.

(Eddie and Chris, sitting next to each other, crack up.)

Josh: We are at the Gary Albright Memorial Show. Any fond memories of him?

Chris: I didn't know Gary too well, I met him a couple of times in Japan; in the airports and in Tokyo a couple of times. I kept in touch with him over the internet. He was a very friendly guy, and very easy going; easy to get along with. You know, it's a sad story, once again, I wanted to come to show my support and show my respect because I'd like to think that if something like that ever happened to me, that the boys would feel the same way. He was a great guy, will definitely be missed.

Josh: Well, Chris, on behalf of the readers and staff of IGNWrestling, I'd like to thank you for this interview.

Chris: Thank you very much Josh, I appreciate it. You did a tremendously terrible job.

Josh: Yeah, yeah.