Interview: Chris Jericho on NJPW Schedule, His Boat Cruise, and More

Recent episode of the X-Pac 12360 podcast show had Chris Jericho as the guest discussing his current NJPW schedule, his upcoming boat cruise, backstage politics in wrestling during the 1990s, and more.

On the topic of his current schedule with New Japan Pro Wrestling, Jericho stated he originally did not expect to wrestle beyond Wrestle Kingdom 12 but has enjoyed working a Brock Lesnar type schedule with NJPW.

“A lot more tales to tell with Chris Jericho in New Japan. And almost doing a Brock Lesnar type of schedule to where I am not there for every show but the ones that I am there for are now special cause Jericho is there. I didn’t expect to be doing more matches with New Japan as of January of this year and now that I’ve done another one and there’s a couple more in the pipeline I might decide to stay a little longer.”

On the topic of his upcoming Rock ‘N’ Wrestling Rager at Sea cruise, Jericho stated he currently has plans to hold the cruise as an annual event and for his first cruise event to be very successful in terms of overall entertainment.

“My schedule is ridiculous I’m not gonna have any fun at all, I am working the whole damn time but I have to sell this cruise, I have to make it a success. So you know wrestling fans are gonna have a great time, it might be a little bit crazy for the boys but it’s gonna be a fun experience for everybody because it’s people from all of the same mind set of really loving this certain art form of wrestling and rock n’ roll as well as love live comedy and love live podcasts all that sort of thing. It’s never been done before, I am taking a big chance but I had to do it and so far so good. My goal is for it to be an annual destination vacation. In year two, I’ve already got X-Pac 12360 on the docket for a live podcast if you could put up with it [laughs].

On the topic of backstage politics in wrestling during the ’90s, Jericho stated wrestling was a lot more ruthless during the ’90s than in today’s era. He attributed this due to the feeling you could only be successful if you held down a main event spot and the real animosity between WCW and WWE during that time.

“It was such a different business in the 90s. Even if it was only twenty years ago it might as well have been fifty years ago with the way the boys thought, the way the business was…it doesn’t even matter who the main event is anymore, whereas back in the 90s, if you were going to make the big money you had to be in the main event. And as a result, to stay in the main event there was a lot of political imagination going on behind the scenes to keep guys down or help guys out whatever it was. And those sorts of politics don’t really exist anymore.”

“When I came into WWE; it’s hard for people to actually believe this but at that time frame the wrestling war was real… there was a little bit of underlying heat amongst the boys if you came from WCW or vice versa. It’s just the way that it was. And so when I came into WWE… the first night I interrupted The Rock, I’m sure I had nuclear heat just by the fact that I was doing it. I was completely oblivious to that, knew really nothing of the politics that were going on. I was just doing my thing.”

Other topics discussed during the interview included his thoughts on his IWGP Intercontinental Championship match against Tetsuya Naito at Dominion, being able to adapt the WWE style of wrestling in other promotions, Chyna having the stiffest forearm strikes in wrestling, and his thoughts on the passing of Vinnie Paul.