He says he really loves the storytelling aspect of the business, now more than ever. The creative process backstage is something that he really loves as well, and while some Producers mightn’t like it when he’s around, he really enjoys the back and forth creative discussions he has with Vince McMahon. He adds that he doesn’t listen to anyone other than McMahon because McMahon’s his one and only boss.
Jericho admits that he might have been a creative ‘lunatic’, even as a 27-year old nobody in WCW. His feud with Goldberg was initially supposed to end with a 30-second squash match, but he couldn’t understand why the company didn’t want to build that match up to be more. He sat in a meeting with Eric Bischoff, Hulk Hogan and other executives, trying to convince them why he shouldn’t lose to Goldberg in a quick squash match.
His creative instincts were good even back then, and once that angle got over he had earned the trust of WCW creative from that point on. He says that he eventually transitioned to WWE and he believes that was the best choice for him at that time.
He chose to go to WCW over WWE initially because WWE was going through a low point creatively, and he actually thinks he was McMahon’s first choice to play the ‘Goon’ character. By going to WCW and building his brand as ‘Chris Jericho’, he was able to arrive in WWE just a few years later as a more seasoned talent and he went on to have a very successful career.
