Chris Jericho Talks About Vince McMahon’s Reaction To Finding Out About His Match At NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom 12
Former WWE Superstar Chris Jericho was a guest recently on Busted Open Radio and talked about his upcoming match at New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Wrestle Kingdom 12 against Bullet Club member Kenny Omega. NJPW’s Wrestling Kingdom 12 will take place on January 4th, 2018 from the Tokyo Dome, in Tokyo Japan.
During the interview Jericho talked about calling Vince McMahon and letting him know about the match. Jericho also revealed that never actually had Vince’s permission to do the match, but noted that he also didn’t have too. He went on to say that Vince sounded really excited about the match, and that McMahon knew that Jericho’s intentions were in the right place. Jericho said that Vince also felt as if this was a win-win for all parties involved.
“I know he wasn’t upset because I called him six weeks before and told him. As soon as the deal was done, I would never surprise him like that. You know, I didn’t ask him for his permission, but I didn’t have to. I told him what was going on. To be quite frank with you, he was super excited about it.”
Jericho added, “I had no contractual obligation, but it was respect.”
Jericho went on to say, “See the thing about Vince, he loves wrestling. It’s what he knows best. Obviously his mission is to seek and destroy and kill every other company, but I think he secretly likes it when other companies do good because it makes it better for his company. When Chris Jericho goes to New Japan — and everyone knows I’m not a New Japan guy, I’m a WWE guy — when Chris Jericho versus Kenny Omega headlines the Tokyo Dome, it’s not some kind of behind the scenes screwjob. It’s taking a great opportunity and helping the business — helping Kenny Omega, helping New Japan — but guess what, it helps Chris Jericho, which in turn helps WWE. I think all of that is stuff you take into consideration. If it had been somebody else, I think Vince wouldn’t have been happy. But once again, he knows where I’m coming from. I would say you could count on one hand the amount of people that had done that over the years, as far as leaving for somewhere else and telling him about it first. I had no contractual obligation, but it was respect for the guy that I still consider to be my boss, because I would never want to do him like that. That’d be a pretty crappy thing to wake up one day and see that. I think it was the right move to do and I think he appreciated it.”
