Chris Jericho made his WWE debut in 1999 and he instantly become a big star in the company. Jericho believes he could have even had his first WrestleMania main event within a year, if it wasn’t for Triple H. Y2J was interviewed on the latest episode of The Kurt Angle Show where they discussed the various stages of Jericho’s career.
During the talk, the AEW star claimed that he was originally supposed to be a part of the fatal four-way main event of WrestleMania 2000. He was going to be the fourth participant of the bout instead of Mick Foley:
“The original plan for that WrestleMania if you remember, it was a four-way title match with a McMahon in every corner. It was [The] Rock, Big Show, Triple H and Mick Foley. With Vince, Shane, Linda and Stephanie with whoever they were with. The original plan for that match was Hunter, Rock, Big Show and Jericho. And if you think that I’m just saying that because I heard rumors or someone told me, they actually made promotional pieces for the match.”
Chris Jericho showed a press kit for WrestleMania 2000 which featured his photo with the other three participants. He also recalled seeing a billboard on Sunset Boulevard with the same picture. However, he thinks that Vince McMahon didn’t believe in him enough at the time to put him in the spot:
“I think Vince just didn’t have the belief in me, I guess to put me in that spot yet. So he brought Mick back. That was after Mick had retired. I think Mick told me that Vince offered him enough money to pay his kids’ college educations. So he came back.”
“There Was A lot Of Politics At That Time” Says Chris Jericho
Interestingly enough, Jericho believes that his heat with Triple H during the early days might have cost him the opportunity. He mentioned how he is cool with The Game now but it wasn’t always the case:
“There was a lot a lot of politics at that time. When I say this, it’s not from a bitter point of view or an angry point of view. It’s just the way it was. So to come in, there was a lot of legit heat between Hunter and myself. [It] Involved China, [It] involved a little bit X Pac as well. But Hunter and I just didn’t like each other and I think Hunter had such a pull at the time, such power that if he didn’t like me of course, [he could have gotten me removed]. Even if he’s not going out of his way to bury me to Vince, I am sure every time my name came up he would be like ‘ugh, that guy? come on.’
It’s just kind of the way the business worked at the time. So I think that might have had a lot to do with it. [Hunter probably said] ‘You don’t want Jericho, is that a big enough name? Bring back Foley or see if Austin’s available.’ Or whatever it may be. That kind of [was] one of the reasons. Once again, I’m not saying that I’ve heard this. I just can tell. I can read the room for the past that we had. We’re really cool now but at the time we just fucking didn’t like each other, [it] just didn’t work.”
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