– WWE Hall Of Famer Mick Foley told fans in attendance at his Valley Park, Missouri comedy show that he is “likely to appear on RAW again next week.”
– Chris Jericho held a Twitter Q&A recently and addressed the recent rumors that he could be appearing at Royal Rumble and WrestleMania 31 next year. The first ever WWE Undisputed Champion claimed that he will not be at either show. He also spoke about the CM Punk podcast, noting that he’s glad Punk got everything off of his chest. You can follow Jericho on Twitter @IAmJericho.
Last week during his now infamous podcast interview with Colt Cabana, CM Punk implied that Chris Jericho was one of the people who had reached out to him attempting to get him to break his silence on Jericho’s podcast. Jericho has since reacted to Punk’s comments with this video.
Jericho says that he’s always considered Punk a friend, one of his closest friends in the business over the past few years. Jericho denies that he tried getting Punk on his podcast after he walked out of WWE, revealing that he did try to get Punk on the show last December, but Punk turned him down at the time because he was burned out and didn’t have anything to say about the wrestling business at the time.
Part-time WWE Superstar Chris Jericho is being advertised for the WWE live events on January 23rd and 24th in New Jersey.
While the events Jericho is advertised for are on the same weekend as the WWE Royal Rumble pay-per-view, he is not actually being advertised for the Royal Rumble itself at this time.
Jericho’s current tour dates with Fozzy are scheduled to wrap-up on December 12th and aren’t expected to pick back up again until March 4th. The final date advertised officially is for March 21st, the week before WrestleMania 31.
– Randy Orton is not currently scheduled for any WWE events until the WWE Holiday Tour kicks off after Christmas.
– Steve Austin is taking questions for his upcoming podcast with Vince McMahon, which airs live on the WWE Network next week immediately after RAW. If you’ve got a quetion you want Austin to ask Vince, send it to questions@steveaustinshow.com.
– Mr. Money in the Bank Seth Rollins will be a guest on Chris Jericho’s Talk is Jericho podcast later this week.
Part-time WWE Superstar Chris Jericho recently appeared on the Sam Roberts podcast and spoke about the fact that CM Punk no longer keeps in contact with many people who thought they were his friends since he left WWE.
“Punk and I were pretty tight and I haven’t heard from him since then,” Jericho said. “I’m not surprised that he left, but I’m surprised that he stopped talking to everybody, stopped talking to me, because we talked about a lot of stuff beyond wrestling.”
Jericho continued, “And that kind of surprised me more than anything, he just detached himself. From what I understand, I’m not the only one, that he pretty much of detached himself from a lot of people who thought they were his friends, but that was him. Maybe he’ll come back and maybe he won’t. In 2005 I did the same, I left and couldn’t take it. I came back and was able to be way better than I ever was.”
Check out Jericho’s full appearance on the show above.
– Part-time WWE Superstar Chris Jericho is being advertised for the January 24th WWE Live Event “Supershow” from the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey. This is the night before the Royal Rumble – let the speculation begin.
– After spending 4 days in Brazil scouting talent for NXT, William Regal is now off to India to continue the search. He tweeted on Monday:
I've been honored to spend the last 4 days in Brazil scouting for NXT. I take my job as NXT GM very seriously.#NXTTakeOver.
– The latest edition of Chris Jericho’s “Talk Is Jericho” podcast, which features WWE Diva Paige, is now available. The official description for the show reads as follows:
TIJ – EP91 – WWE Diva Paige & Ash The Fish Expert
“2X WWE Divas Champ Paige talks to Y2J about British wrestling, her WWE tryout, learning to cut promos from Dusty Rhodes, her two Championship title victories, which of the divas she calls “friend,” why she loves being a heel, and cockney slang! And Ash The Fish Expert returns to discuss recent Lake Monster sightings and answer your questions!”
– This week’s edition of “The JBL (Not Cole) Show,” which you can watch below, takes a look at the history of the show and some of its’ finest moments.
Courtesy of Tumblr user Kerry McKend, check out this video of Chris Jericho and Dean Ambrose “rocking out” with weapons at the WWE Live Event form Glasgow, Scotland.
Chris Jericho was Michael Cole’s guest in this week’s sit-down interview at WWE.com.
Jericho spoke about his WWE return as part of the European tour, as well as the return of his “Highlight Reel” segment, which is featured on this coming Friday’s edition of WWE SmackDown with special guests, The Authority.
He also spoke about the upcoming “Team Cena vs. Team Authority” main event at the WWE Survivor Series pay-per-view, breaking down the match and the high-stakes stipulation.
Check out the Michael Cole sit-down interview with Chris Jericho above.
The following are complete spoiler results of the WWE SmackDown taping from Liverpool, England.
– Chris Jericho opens up the WWE SmackDown taping for this week. He comes out to a huge pop from the Liverpool audience. It’s time for the “Highlight Reel” segment. Jericho’s guests, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, make their way out to the ring. The fans break out in a “Where’s Our Network?!” chant, much like at Monday’s RAW, which was also taped in Liverpool, England. Not a lot of details about what was said, just that this was apparently a really good segment.
– Vince McMahon came out of nowhere and cut a promo at the top of the stage. He came out after some more “Where’s Our Network?!” chants broke out. He insulted the fans in attendance, saying that Liverpool sounds like a “skin disease.” This was apparently a dark segment that won’t air as part of the broadcast this Friday night. For a photo of Vince at the SmackDown taping in Liverpool, click here.
– Bray Wyatt def. Sin Cara in what was basically a brief squash match. Wyatt dominated from bell-to-bell, picking up the win with his “Sister Abigail” finisher for the 1-2-3. After the match, Wyatt cut a promo, which prompted Dean Ambrose to come out. Wyatt fled the scene before Ambrose could get to him. The segment ended with Wyatt at the top of the stage laughing at Ambrose.
– Goldust and Stardust def. Adam Rose and The Bunny in tag-team action. This was said to be a decent match, but mostly a comedy bout. They teased more issues between Rose and The Bunny.
On Monday’s edition of WWE RAW in Liverpool, England, two segments were announced for this week’s edition of WWE SmackDown, which will also be taped in Liverpool, England, on Tuesday afternoon.
In addition to the Chris Jericho and Dean Ambrose vs. Bray Wyatt and Kane tag-team match on SmackDown, a “Highlight Reel” segment was also advertised.
On RAW it was revealed that Jericho will host a “Highlight Reel” segment with special guests, The Authority.
Make sure to visit the website here tomorrow afternoon for live WWE SmackDown and WWE Main Event spoiler results coverage.
– Dolph Ziggler and WWE doctor Chris Amann are the guests on the latest edition of Chris Jericho’s “Talk Is Jericho” podcast. Both part one and part two of the interview is available right now at PodcastOne.com.
– Below is a new video from the official WWE YouTube channel, which features Sgt. Dan Rose. As noted, the inspirational figure will make an appearance on tonight’s edition of WWE SmackDown.
– NXT star Solomon Crowe cut a promo at the NXT live event on Thursday night in Lakeland, Florida and mentioned that he’s “finally coming soon.” Crowe’s television debut is one of the most anticipated among NXT fans, as he’s already developed somewhat of a cult-like following.
– Joey Styles mentioned on social media that Rey Mysterio, Shane Douglas, Chris Jericho, Psicosis and 2 Cold Scorpio are among those who will be featured on the “ECW Exposed” special that is scheduled to air on the WWE Network after this coming Monday night’s edition of RAW.
– The “soldier” who Rusev attacked on Monday’s RAW was Independent wrestler and Magnum Pro Wrestling owner Jaysin Strife. Strife has never served in the US military.
– Former ROH champion Adam Pearce is making his third visit to the WWE Performance Center this week, leading to speculation that he is there to interview for a job. If Pearce does end up landing a job as a trainer in WWE, he might end up replacing Nick Dinsmore who was released last week.
– During his Q&A session on Twitter last night, Chris Jericho revealed that Paige will be appearing on his podcast “Soooooon.”
– WWE World Heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar did not appear at last night’s SmackDown tapings from Wichita, Kansas, despite being advertised in the weeks leading up to the show locally in TV commercials and on the arena website. His name was pulled from ads in days leading up to the taping and no refunds were offered at the show for pans who paid to see him.
– Chris Jericho did a Q&A session on Twitter last night and said he won’t be at WrestleMania 31:
Part-time WWE Superstar was a guest this week on The Turnbuckle Weekly with Chuck Carroll. The full interview can be heard on the 106.7 The Fan and CBS DC website. While discussing his new book, Jericho spoke about his future in WWE:
“Over the last four of five years my schedules and dates surround Fozzy, and WWE has kind of been not as much of a priority. I still love doing it, but I realize it’s not something I’m going to be doing forever. I realized that years ago. To go back for the European shows, Roman Reigns got hurt, there was some injuries and I always enjoy working overseas. So, it’s kind of just a quick little run. Other than that I don’t know. When this Fozzy tour ends, whenever that may be, if I have time available and the WWE has something interesting for me to do. It’s not like they’re just sitting around waiting for Chris Jericho to come back. There have been times… I was going to go back for WrestleMania 30, but we couldn’t figure out anything for me to do that was worthy of that.”
Jericho also spoke about winning Vince McMahon over by not being another “yes man” –
“There [have been] a lot of confrontations with Vince, but that’s because there’s a mutual respect. And some of them get out of control… It’s only because both of us respect each other, trust each other, and believe each other. It doesn’t mean I’m always going to like the things he does or the things he wants to do. And it doesn’t mean that he’s going to like the things that I do and the way that I act and react to things either.”
Other topics discussed include:
* Cody Rhodes and Santino Marella’s bizarre posing competition at a post-WrestleMania party for WWE employees (judged by Undertaker)
* Kid Rock’s reaction to said wacky contest (Jericho was standing with him)
* How he selects which stories aren’t worthy of making it into the book
* How he convinced editors to put a “bonus track” chapter in the book with extra stories
* How the writing process has become easier with Best In The World
The following are highlights of a new Between The Ropes interview with Chris Jericho:
On his latest run in the WWE: The Bray Wyatt cage match in Baltimore and then the Randy Orton – Night of Champions match in Nashville I thought were two…whatever a five star match is. Two really really really good matches that I would put on my list of all-time favorites. And that was good to know because as the years go by, I feel just as good as I ever did. When I go back I’m mentally prepared and I think I still work up to a level I set for myself. But when you go out there and actually do some of those things and actually get the feedback from the live audience that you know you can get and from the critics. The fact that my last match was the best match on the pay-per-view against Randy Orton, I take great pride in that. And if I never work again, I know I’ll always have that. It’s still cool to contribute at the highest level and the day — and Brian, I’m not exaggerating about this — the day I feel I can’t compete at the highest level I set for myself and can’t steal the show, I will not do it again. Throw it on the record, I’m the one guy who can say that. I’m sure Shawn Michaels could say that too. You will not see me in the ring again as a parody of myself or anything other than the absolute best and can go toe-to-toe with anybody else on the roster.
On his relationship with Vince McMahon: I think Vince sees a lot of himself in me. I’m a rebel. I do things the way I see fit but I do it for the good of the company. I’m a company man through and through. I’ve wrestled for nobody — I haven’t taken a bump in any other ring other than a WWE ring since 1999 when I started working for Vince — and I never will. I won’t go back to Japan for a tour or go work here or go work there. Not interested in it. If I’m going to be wrestling, it for Vince McMahon and Vince McMahon only. And he knows that I think he respects that. He also knows I’m not a ‘yes’ man. I don’t have that in me. I have to tell him how I feel. I have to tell him why I think this is better and I can tell him sometimes he’s wrong. Nobody likes to hear that, especially a guy in his position but I think I can do it in more of a deliberate way, more of an ambassadorial way, but I don’t have that in me and I don’t think he wants that.
His thoughts on Dean Ambrose: I saw Dean when he first started and there was something different about him. He has that Jeff Hardy ‘X’ factor. There’s just something about him that you can’t push on somebody. You can teach them how to take a bump, give them a look, give them wins but certain guys have a certain something about them that you know is going to take them to the next level no matter what. Dean definitely has that and in my opinion — I’m not the god of everything but I have a pretty good track record of picking guys — I think he’s the closest that they have right now to being the next face of the WWE. I don’t think that’s as important now with the Network and less emphasis on pay-per-views and that sort of thing. But as far as a guy who can come in there as the top babyface, I think Dean’s your best best right now.
The following are highlights of a new Busted Open Radio interview with Chris Jericho:
Is wrestling a lot less organic than it was when you were at the height of your career? “Brian Gewirtz is very much responsible for some of the greatest things we seen over the years. That guy is close to being a genius in the wrestling things on coming up with ideas as Vince. Then you had Shawn Michaels who is one of the best in the business and Chris Jericho who is a Shawn Michaels disciple who is at the peak of his game after 17 years in the business. It is a perfect storm of trust and creatively. You had the fans buy into it. When I punched Rebecca in the face it was supposed to happen but obviously I wasn’t supposed to hit her for real. She zigged when she was supposed to zag and I zigged when she was supposed to zag and I actually hit her. We felt so devastated and I thought for sure Shawn was going to kick my ass and I gladly would have let him. All she got was a fat lip and after she got up she was like ‘Is that all you got Chris?’ people that were watching because people say then after a week we realized this was the best thing that could have happened. It made it real and the people are saying if anyone hit my wife, my husband, grandmother and grandfather I am going to kill them. That is when the feud went into overdrive because it got real.”
Is it difficult for a fan to buy into the current state of professional wrestling? Well, it is different. After Michaels there was the Mysterio angle. That is what I pitched to Vince to work around Rey’s mask. Vince said ‘they don’t care about the mask’, and I said ‘of course they do that is why they buy it.’ We had this guy wear a mask and never explained what it means too him. I want his mask. Vince said ‘Why do you want his mask’? I said because I am a bully. I want his milk money. I don’t want any milk. I am going to take it and throw it into the lake. Then Vince loved it. Then with the CM Punk feud in 2012 my thing I wanted to take it to this next level I wanted to tattoo him. Vince loved it and then was kind of talked out of it. I think someone got in his ear that there is going to be blood. Plus, Vince said he has a million tattoos. Well, it doesn’t matter if he has a million tattoos. What if I tattoo my initials on him FOR REAL? Punk was saying let’s do this for real and that is like being violated. That is why we switched over to the alcoholic thing and I got a lot of hate for that. People saying ‘Oh my father is an alcoholic and how dare you say and use that as a crutch for a pro wrestling storyline.’ Guess what? That is why I did it.”
Was CM Punk okay with the alcoholic angle? “I was begging Vince for us to do the tattoo angle; someone had told Vince that tattoos will create blood and Vince got scared. Plus no one would see it for the reason to describe but he doesn’t have tattoos so he doesn’t get it. He came up with the idea that Punk’s dad has problems with alcohol and you think he wouldn’t go for it and to Punk’s credit and he went for it. I don’t know if he had issues with his family and he wanted to take it out with them and I don’t think he even told his dad about it. Punk gave us full 100 percent with it as he should have and then his sister got involved then it got real. Can we do that now, I don’t know because you got to go into a deep place? When I came back with the Bray Wyatt thing and I was on fire and I was pitching so many ideas. I went in to pitch some ideas to Vince for Summer Slam and the PPV after that, and his response was (and this is great I should save it for my next book.) He was eating steak and I went through this entire 10 minute pitch about this and that and this guy will come back and this retired gunslinger will come in and help his old rival and this whole thing and his response while eating his steak and he says ‘Bad cow’ I said what? ‘Bad cow, this steak is tough, bad cow’ I am like’ is that all you have to say?’ And he is like ‘what else you got’ and I am like okay he doesn’t like this idea. We didn’t do much with the story but like I said all I can do is make suggestions and he is the boss, so he makes the suggestions, but I am a big fan for long storylines.”
It seems like you always had Vince McMahon’s ear: What happened was I finally came into my own in 2008. I came back in 2007 and it was kind of stagnant and I was still doing the Y2J thing that I was doing in the early 2000s and it wasn’t working and I needed a switch. That is why I changed everything and I watched the movie ‘No Country for Old Men’ with the character Anton Chigurh the very quiet, slow speaking psycho, I am going to kill you and that is the way it is. I took that kind of mindset and some people were still ‘Hey let me tell you something I’m going to do this!’ I took it down and turned the volume down and made people listen and I remember people saying ‘We can’t hear you’ when I was doing promo,s and I was like that is the point dummy. Just be quiet and listen to what I am saying, and when you have to pay attention to what I am saying, then you are going to understand that I am serious. I dropped the countdown, dropped all the catchphrases, dropped the highlight reel, stopped wearing tights and switched to trunks.
“I started wearing suits which people weren’t doing at the time. Letting people know that this is different and this is KISS without the makeup. People still ask me why did you switch from tights to trunks? I still get that until this day! I also watched a lot of Nick Bockwinkel tapes. They did that AWA anthology and he was using big words and talking over people’s heads and it pissed people off. Combine those two things and combine it and also with the Shawn Michaels hypocrite thing and bam I found who I am going to be. It made Vince a lot money and it caused a lot of problems. I was getting attacked on the streets. I got attacked by crowds in B.C. I had to pie face a girl who was on Nancy Grace. I was public enemy number one. The whole company was in an uproar. Rob Zimmerman who was the head of PR, he was angry, Stephanie was angry, the company was angry, but the only guy who stayed by me was Vince McMahon. He said you should never have been put into that position with all those fans in the first place. I will fight this until days end.
“When the glow stick happened I was cutting a heel promo and I had a glow stick hit me in the face. It actually hit me in the eye. I freaked out, and said ‘who threw that son of a bitch, you want to throw something? Then throw it! Then all of a sudden a blizzard of glow sticks come into the ring. It’s on YouTube you should check it out. Everyone in the company was so angry. I was going to get suspended for 15,000 and then Johnny Ace called me saying you’re getting fined or even suspended. I was so angry that I called Vince McMahon and saying maybe the corporate Vince McMahon would be angry, but the Mr. McMahon the heel would be like this is what we work for. I caused people to hate me so much that they spent money for a glow stick and threw it at me.
“He got mad at me with the Brazil kicking flag thing. I can’t say that he had my back on that one,but he did have my back to get me out of Brazil that night, He said ‘you know you’re in trouble? I want you out of the country.’ You’re fined and suspended and I want you out of the country, if not you can be in big trouble. He pulled some strings, and paid some people to help me get out of the country. Even though he was furious at me at the time, I didn’t agree with it, but in retrospect he was right. In the end he knows I draw money for the company, and I had the best interest in the company, because I was never an asshole. Even though people thought I was hard to work with.
We missed you at WrestleMania 30; we know at some point you will come back but will you be back by WrestleMania 31? I was going to come back for WrestleMania 30, but we just couldn’t find anything to do. There is a certain thing I need to do to come back to, but I will not do the Fandango thing again. The next night on Raw Fandango was the biggest character on Raw and I will put that directly on the work we did together. I need something that I can sink my teeth into. Something I can believe in and something that has some steam to it. It doesn’t have to be for a title, but it needs to be a semi- main event or something that I think people want to see and that is why when I came back I wanted to work with Wyatt. I wanted to work with Wyatt at WrestleMania 30 but he had the Cena thing. I wanted to work with Daniel Bryan but he was first scheduled to work with Sheamus, but he went on into the main event. So for me to come back and be in the Andre the Giant memorial battle royal, that wouldn’t have worked for me. I want to come back and it comes down to schedule with Fozzy and if I can work it out with Vince.”
The following are highlights of a recent Chris Jericho “Ask Me Anything (A.M.A.)” chat on Reddit:
Do you feel like WWE dropped the ball on Bray Wyatt? I thought he looked like a complete joke in his feud with Cena so I appreciated that you took him more seriously. Bray will be a world champion within a year
Thoughts on the rapid rise of Dean Ambrose? Much deserved
What happened to Lights Go Out being in WWE 2K15? It’s not listed in the official press release! Tell me about it. I’m pissed
You don’t mention much in your book about your 2010 departure from the WWE. How did you put that storyline together? Were there plans for you to return and feud with Orton? the plan was for me to return and feud with Orton for Wrestlemania. I chose to do DANCING WITH STARS instead
Do you think Benoit should be in hall of fame? Never
Do you think the wrestling business is better off now (PG, concussion awareness, no blood, etc) or during the peak Monday Night War era (better creatively, more jobs with three companies, worse medical checks in place, etc)? Better now.
Have you ever sneezed/seen someone else sneeze in front of Vince? What was his reaction? He hates sneezing!
The following are highlights of a new Sports Keeda interview with Chris Jericho:
AG: You’ve wrestled many great matches and faced some of the biggest names such as Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle. Here’s a hard one for you – What has been your best match so far in your career?
CJ: Well I mean, yeah it is a hard one, but sometimes, if I have to tell you one, the one between Shawn Michaels and myself at Unforgiven 2008 – it was a match for the world title. It was a great match and the culmination of the angle that basically grew organically on its own for over 5-8 months. It was a perfect example of really good storytelling.
AG: In recent years, you have come back and put over talents such as Fandango and Bray Wyatt. Do you think WWE has dropped the ball with them since?
CJ: I mean, put them over, beat them or both. It’s just a matter of working with new characters and new guys. WWE doesn’t drop balls; your career goes in waves, it goes in cycles. I know that more than anybody else. Sometimes you work on top, sometimes you’re not and when you’re not, it’s upto you to make your mark and get back on track again. I think that WWE has a plan and never tries to sabotage anybody on purpose. Why would they do that? It costs them money.
Someone like Bray Wyatt has a huge potential, huge upside. He’s got a long way to go, so there are no worries and no rush. Fandango – I thought was kind of a one trick pony as far as his character and gimmick go. There is only so much you can do with it. I think it’s time to update that character and take it to another place because you can only do so much with a character like that.
RM: A lot of the wrestlers in their interviews have mentioned about how snug you are with your work, which in my opinion is what makes it all the more believable. The working style in the WWE, especially in this day and age, is a lot less physical except for a couple of people. Have you had anybody complain about your style or have you toned it down over the years?
CJ: No, not at all. I mean I just worked the way I work. Maybe when I first came to WWE back in 1999. There must have been complaints from certain people but I think those people were complaining about everything I did. Whenever I worked with people like Chris Benoit, Bob Holly, Bradshaw or any of those guys, they worked hard. That doesn’t mean you are stiff, it means you are working solid.
I don’t ever get complaints for the way I work and nor would I expect any. I am not hurting anybody, either Sheamus or Cesaro or anybody who works the general hard style, you are just working, trying to get the best possible match you can make it. No one’s breaking any bones or losing any teeth. I just work hard and that’s what it’s all about.
– Due to WWE’s issues with the depth of their current roster, Chris Jericho will in fact be making a quick return to the company for their upcoming European tour.
While he is not scheduled to appear on RAW, he is set to work six dates on the European tour, from November 10th through November 15th, with a possible appearance on SmackDown.
– Sami Zayn vs. Titus O’Neil has been announced for this week’s edition of WWE NXT on the WWE Network.
– Chris Jericho noted via social media that he was recently in New York City filming footage for a new Jericho DVD project. According to various sources, it’s possible that the DVD could be a WWE project.
– Below is a video of a CWE event in Canada where WWE Hall Of Famer Amy “Lita” Dumas is working as a special guest referee.