It’s hard to look past Chris Jericho when you’re talking about the quintessential company man in the WWE. Everything he’s done throughout his career means he’s already cemented a spot as a first ballot Hall of Famer, whenever he decides the time is right to finally bow out of the professional wrestling business.
The fact that he’s been able to remain entertaining throughout his career and do exactly what the company has asked of him puts him in a unique position, as he seems to be the only star that’s able to get away with regularly coming back for short stints, before diving into his other ventures again.
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Although, when you consider what he’s done for the company, he’s certainly earned those privileges - such as flying halfway across the world to Saudi Arabia to enter as number 50 in the Greatest Royal Rumble for a stint which lasted less than four minutes.
However, despite agreeing to do whatever the company tells him or asks him to do, not everything sits well with him. In fact, one particular booking decision made Jericho think about walking out on the company because of the change of opponents at WrestleMania 29, per Pro Wrestling Stories.
Sharing the story from his book - No Is A Four Letter Word - the source has revealed that the whole point of Jericho’s short return was to put over Ryback at the Grandest Stage of Them All, as at the time, he was a massive deal before that downward spiral.
Instead, the company changed the plan and had Jericho put over Fandango instead, and it’s not something Jericho was too happy about. In the end, it was advice from The Undertaker which made him stay and put over Fandango, even if he wasn’t a huge fan of the idea.
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He said: “I confided in Undertaker to get his advice, to which he basically said, ‘Of my 20-0 [at the time], I had to wrestle some dudes that I didn’t really want to (Gonzalez, Snuka, etc.)’ Basically, he said to do my job to which I agreed.
“Although I didn’t want to work with him, I decided to just do what Vince asked and for that, Vince paid me one of the biggest payoffs I’ve ever received.
“Most of the time with Vince, it’s not arguments, it’s just debates, or it’s a very calm, ‘This is what you’re doing.’ I wasn’t supposed to be working with Fandango at WrestleMania 29. It was supposed to be Ryback and that was kind of the deal we made. That was the promise that was made and it was changed very quickly for no real reason. I wasn’t happy about that either.
“Nothing against Fandango, but that spot wasn’t really a WrestleMania-worthy match, but once again, once I was told that this was my role, I made it into a WrestleMania-worthy match. We had about three weeks to come up with an angle and if you go and watch that match and watch the night after, the most over guy on that show was Fandango.
“And I’m taking a huge chunk of the credit for that, thank you very much!”
Thankfully, that horrible booking decision wasn’t enough to deter Jericho for good, as he’s returned several times since then to continue providing entertainment with his previous run arguably going down as one of his best.
What do you make of Chris Jericho’s annoyance towards the WWE changing his WrestleMania 29 plans? Have YOUR say in the comments section below.