Chris Jericho spoke about his surprise return to WWE on the latest episode of his Talk is Jericho podcast, which you can hear at PodcastOne.com.
Jericho said he always keeps in touch with WWE and has been getting texts and emails for months asking him about a possible return to the company. He was negotiating with WWE late last year and earlier this year about working WrestleMania XXX, with Jericho pitching Daniel Bryan and Bray Wyatt as potential opponents.
The WrestleMania XXX return didn’t work out, but he got a call a month ago saying one of the writers wanted to speak to him. They mentioned bringing him back to feud with Bray Wyatt, which he was really excited about. Three weeks passed and he never heard back from WWE, until last Friday, when he got a phone call.
Jericho said the deal was brokered by Triple H and it took about 5 minutes for them to agree on a game plan.
On Monday morning, he flew into Boston (instead of Hartford, Connecticut) to keep his return a secret. He rented a car in Boston and drove to Hartford, arriving at the arena around 5:30pm. Since there were fans waiting by the entrance of the arena, he had to wait for them to leave before pulling in.
Jericho was first met by WWE’s head of Talent Relations Mark Carrano and was then escorted to the crew bus, where he hung out for about 4 hours. He met up with Dean Malenko, gave some input about how he’d be used on the show, with Vince McMahon signing off on the angle.
He met with the Wyatts, The Miz and Michael Hayes before heading to the gorilla position, where he got warm greetings from Vince, Triple H and Stephanie.
Jericho said he’s back with WWE working an “almost full time” schedule and will be doing overseas tours with WWE and working live events.