Former WWE superstar Chris Jericho was one of the best wrestlers in WWE’s history. He was a fan favorite during his babyface run in WWE in the early 2010s. Currently, the star is performing in AEW after leaving WWE.
However, The Demo King continues to share stories from his WWE days during most of his off-air appearances. In 2020, he shared a story where The Undertaker motivated him to participate in a match he initially wanted to avoid.
Chris Jericho revealed the Undertaker convincing him for the WrestleMania match
In 2020, Chris Jericho appeared in an interactive show with “Inside The Ropes”. During that show, Chris shared a story related to WrestleMania 29 where he was convinced by The Undertaker to perform in the match. The Demo King was originally scheduled to wrestle former WWE superstar Ryback at that year’s WrestleMania.
However, Vince McMahon changed his mind and introduced a new wrestler named Fandango instead. Surprisingly, Jericho was then chosen to face off against the newcomer. Jericho was disappointed with this change as he wanted to wrestle against Ryback, who was quite popular at the time. Getting angry over it Chris Jericho called Vince and wanted to call off that match, but eventually, that didn’t happen.
“The idea when I came back that year was at WrestleMania; I would face Ryback. I knew something was going on because every week, somebody new was getting an angle for WrestleMania, and I kept asking, When are we starting the build for Ryback and Jericho?’ All I heard was, ‘Vince wants to talk to you on his own.’ I knew it wasn’t going to be Ryback.” said Chris Jericho.
Chris called The Undertaker to ask for advice on convincing Mr. McMahon. However, The Dead Man convinced him to fight in the match and Chris found the motivation to perform.
“And I called Undertaker and I said, ‘This is what Vince wants me to do! He wants me to work with this guy. I gotta work with Fandango at WrestleMania, what am I supposed to do?’ He goes, ‘Do it. What’s the problem? That’s who he wants you to work with, work ’em! He goes, ‘If you go and do your best, and get this match over, and get this guy over, Vince will respect you.’ And that was an eye-opener for me” said Chris Jericho.
The reason behind Jericho leaving WWE
Jericho made his debut in WWE in 1999, after spending several years in WCW. Throughout his tenure in WWE, he demonstrated his outstanding wrestling skills by winning several Championships. Unfortunately, in 2018, after nearly two decades of being with WWE, Chris Jericho shocked the world when he left and signed with NJPW and then AEW.
In 2017, Chris Jericho partnered with Kevin Owens and started his final WWE gimmick known as ‘The List of Jericho’. They played a vital role in the main roster of WWE, forming a tag team and competing in several big matches. Everything was going smoothly for them as Chris won the United States Championship title and Kevin Owens became the Universal Champion.
However, this solid partnership had to end at the Festival of Friendship segment. In that segment, Kevin Owens betrayed Jericho and led to a singles match at WrestleMania 33. After that match, Jericho left WWE.
The main reason behind the departure of Chris Jericho was because of the less priority his matches were given by WWE. He complained about it during an interview with Kurt Angle. He also mentioned that he was becoming the “second match guy”, with which the star was not comfortable at all.
“I don’t see what else I could do, I felt the same when I left WCW. I felt the same with the Kevin thing, I can’t go any higher than this and if Vince sees me as a second-match guy, that’s where I’ll be my entire career so I need to split and that’s what I did.” Chris Jericho said on The Kurt Angle Show.
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