During a recent episode of his podcast Talk is Jericho, Chris Jericho shared a story of pitching an idea to Vince McMahon. Regaling his guest Matt Hardy, he explained how it didn’t take long for Vince to change the initial idea.
Chris Jericho’s Original Highlight Reel Idea
“[…] the original Highlight Reel, I pitched it as ‘Jericho’s Junction’ because I was watching a bunch of Mean Gene Okerlund interviews and myself included,” Jericho said. “When I first started doing interviews, he was the Jedi. If you didn’t know what you were doing, Gene would lead you through the interview and make you look like a star, and I said, why don’t we do Jericho’s Junction where every week like a Piper’s Pit, we bring out underutilized stars whoever they were at the time. I’ll lead the interview. We’ll get the people over. We’ll get them to do interviews and connect with the crowd.”
According to Chris Jericho, Vince apparently loved the idea. He was then told that his first guest would be Goldberg.
“I’m like, well Goldberg is not really the guy. I’m thinking more like Bull Buchanan. Nope Goldberg. Next week Scott Steiner. The next week, it’s Rock,” Jericho recalled. “I’m like the whole concept of what I had is gone, and now it’s just another talk show which is fine. That’s great. But the original plan was much like you just like let’s give some of these underutilized guys guys a spotlight where somebody like me or you knows how to bring them along.”
Matt Hardy’s Broken Block Concept
Chris Jericho’s story came off the back of Matt Hardy’s ignored pitch for the Broken Block. Hardy detailed the idea, explaining that it would have been an opportunity to highlight underutilized Superstars. All he wanted was 10-15 minutes to do so.
“What I pitched [was] give me 10 to 15 minutes of the show, and I want to call it ‘The Broken Block’. My idea was give me underutilized guys like Chad Gable and Ali and Apollo, guys that aren’t being utilized at all. Let me put them on that show. Let them do badass things. Let me put some vignettes from the Hardy compound and House Hardy and just give me like 10 to 15 minutes, and I’ll call it ‘The Broken Block’ every show and just see how it does.”
Hardy continued, “These guys have matches in the arena. I’m almost like the commissioner or like I’m heading up this broken block, and we try to give Ali and Chad Gable a best-of-seven. Cut them loose. Let them have great matches. They’ll become stars on their own just because of the quality of their matches, and then will interject a little Vanguard 1 and we’ll have some of the you know House Hardy on it. ‘The Broken Block’. 10 to 15 minutes that’s all I was asking for. Never heard anything about it.”
Matt Hardy debuted for AEW last week on Dynamite, aligning himself with The Elite. This week, Chris Jericho and Matt Hardy are scheduled for a face-to-face meeting in the ring.Â
H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
