Chris Jericho spoke with LocalBozo.com about his latest WWE run, his band’s new CD, his future plans and more. Here are some highlights:
His latest WWE run and if wrestling is still as fun for him: “If it wasn’t fun for me I wouldn’t do it, you know? I took time off on the ‘Chasing the Grail’ tour and once that tour was done it was time to move forward doing a new record and my job as a singer is to write the lyrics and to sing on the record. Lyrics were all done and doing vocals took about 15 days total so other than that I had nine months of nothing really going on. So it was the perfect opportunity to step back into WWE for awhile. But the plan was always when the new record came out, then I would leave and go back full time with Fozzy.”
“So you know, we’ll see what happens in the future. I still love doing what I do in the WWE but like I said, Fozzy’s kind of taking precedence at this point. With all the momentum and great things we have going on, it’s cool to see this second dream come true. But it’s good to know too that WWE’s always gonna be there and I feel great. I thought this last run was awesome and I feel better than I did, you know, 3,4,5 years ago. So, you know, I’m raring to go for the next round.”
How wrestling has changed: “The people that are stepping away are ones that have been there for years and years and years. It’s a grueling schedule- physically, mentally. Traveling is hard. It’s good to know that you have these other options and you have to explore them. For me, I wrestled for 15 years straight every day, left for a couple years, came back for another three years, wrestled straight every day almost, and then, you know, left for awhile, came back for nine months.”
“As you get older, I think that’s a good schedule. I’ve kind of built up my status in the WWE where I can do that. Not everybody can, but you know, you look at guys like The Rock or… You know the thing is when Rock came back, he just comes back for once or twice, I came back and did every show. I was in Abilene, Texas working house shows as well as working Madison Square Garden. I didn’t pick and choose my spots. I came back for nine months and that’s the way I’ll always be. I like doing the whole cycle and if I came back for a month, I’d still do as many house show matches, not just do TVs and pay per views. So, you know, for me I like doing it. Like I said, I’ve been playing with Fozzy since 2000and I’ve been playing in bands since I was 12, so it’s not a matter of making this choice, it’s who I am and it’s just what I do at this point. So from this point forward that’ll be how I work WWE. I’ll just be coming in and out when I have openings in my schedule, but when I come in, I’ll make sure to give 1000% and do as many shows as I can in that timeframe.”