Talk is Jericho Recap w/ Conrad Thompson – Discussing Jericho’s WWE Debut, Who Came up With the Countdown Clock? How Did the Locker Room Treat Him? More!

Jericho notes how the payoffs were different in WWE compared to WCW. In WWE, you never really know how much you’re going to make after each show until the payoffs are distributed. He notes that he’s been surprised by payoffs in the past, particularly when he main-evented WrestleMania 18 with Triple H. Triple H was paid 80% of the money distributed for that match while he only received 20%. He went to Jim Ross and complained, and McMahon agreed with his complaint and wrote him an additional cheque.
He notes that he went to McMahon with a similar complaint in 2016, when he was working alongside Kevin Owens in RAW’s main event angle. His payoffs were “shit” at that time and he thought he deserved more so he approached McMahon. McMahon once again delivered, giving Jericho an upgrade in pay.

Thompson notes that WWE announced Jericho’s signing on their website prior to his debut, and Jericho says he was bummed out when he saw that. He wanted his debut to be a surprise, but he understands that McMahon and WWE probably wanted to show the world that they’d signed another one of WCW’s talents since the Monday Night Wars were still ongoing.
Jericho notes that he was in discussions with WWE writer, Vince Russo prior to his debut. It was Jericho’s idea to be introduced with a countdown clock since there was a lot of panic around the Y2K phenomenon at that time. Russo thought it was a great idea and said he’d pitch it to McMahon, and after a short period of time he got back to Jericho, saying McMahon loved the idea and he was going to start the clock a month before his debut.