Chris Jericho has been part of some wacky segments throughout his career, but there was one skit that the Chicken Federation of America wouldn’t have allowed!
During his legendary career, Chris Jericho has partaken in a number of zany segments, almost always looking like a clown in doing so – but he always makes it work. However, external parties can sometimes make filming such segments an issue, as he hilariously found out in the case of the Chicken Federation of America.
Speaking during an Inside The Ropes live show via Talk Is Jericho, ‘The Wizard’ talked through his storyline with MJF, explaining how it brewed over a year:
“It was exactly one year. Think about that, a storyline in wrestling lasted for a year and I really take great pride in that because I love long-term storytelling. That’s one of the things I don’t like about WWE sometimes is they shotgun everything that goes so fast. It’s like The Hurt Business, those guys looked cool, and it was like, ‘That’s cool.’ And like eight weeks later they break up and it’s like, ‘Why?’ You could have done a year with those guys.
That’s what I wanted to do with Max [MJF] and once again, I always kind of looked at it like, ‘Well who do I want to work with? Who’s available, who’s not fighting for the title? Let’s figure it out.’ So it was Cody [Rhodes] that we did, then the whole Mox [Jon Moxley] feud, and then we did The Elite feud for Stadium [Stampede]. Then we, in the royal sense me, we did have the Orange Cassidy feud and as soon as that was done, suddenly [it was] MJF and Jericho, his story ended, my story ended, and we always knew kind of what we wanted to do and that [we] will team up first and then you’ll turn on me and see what it goes.
Did we think it was gonna last a year? No, but once again I thought this, and said it for years, is that you don’t try and lead the story, you let the story lead you. Where is it going, what’s the twists and turns that are happening here? So that’s what we started off, Max wants a faction, wants to get in The Inner Circle, some guys are into it, some guys aren’t. We have a match, if you can beat me then you are in The Inner Circle and then he does and like, ‘Wow, now we have two extra guys, that causes some problems’.”
Chris Jericho continued, explaining how he found out chickens weren’t allowed to be on a live film set due to strict laws set in place:
“We go to Vegas and film. I just watched that Vegas bit, it’s so funny, it holds up so well. And that was us just once again, what’s in the lockdown? Let’s go to Vegas. Let’s have AEW send us to Vegas and just drink and party and film sh*t, and that’s what we did. One of my favourite parts is Elvis. Walking through the hallway of the hotel which, by the way, was that suite – if you guys remember that we did this big Vegas, Inner Circle in Vegas, the hotel suite where we filmed was the same hotel suite as The Hangover. They filmed the movie The Hangover, it was $30,000 a night, it was amazing.
But Elvis was walking through and I said, ‘We need some farm animals, like can we get some chickens?’ And they’re like, ‘No, you can’t get chickens.’ What do you mean you can’t get chickens? They won’t allow it, the Chicken Federation of America won’t allow chickens live on set. I’m like, ‘Really? Chickens? Can we just CGI them?’ And they’re like, ‘I think we can’, let’s CGI chickens.
So having Elvis, after Elvis and I wake up in bed together because we’re both super drunk and we’re walking through the hallway and we’re all f*cked and here comes the chickens and I was like [Elvis voice], ‘Who brought the farm animals, baby?’ This is stuff that I get a big kick out of so I hope you guys thought it was funny. I’m sure some people thought it was the worst thing ever, but I love that style of wrestling too, though.
Like, I grew up in the ’80s watching Vince McMahon sing Stand Back at the Slammys, I mean that’s wrestling to me too, it’s that side that it’s fun, right? So when we do Dinner Debonair, we go to Vegas, we did the Bubbly Bunch and all the stuff that we did, that’s wrestling to me as well. It’s entertainment. It’s character building, it’s fun. And that’s the crux of what the business is, it’s fun, it’s supposed to be fun.
If you want high art, go watch the chess tournament. Trust me, nobody wants to watch the chess tournament. You want some fun and see some great moves to see some ridiculous characters and CGI chickens with Elvis walking through a hotel room? That’s wrestling.”
Chris Jericho ultimately defeated MJF at All Out 2021 to end the feud, with the stipulation being that if Jericho lost, he would be forced to retire. Jericho now stands as ROH World Champion, while MJF is in possession of the casino poker chip for a future AEW World Championship opportunity.
If you use any quotes from this transcription, please credit Talk Is Jericho and link back to this article with a H/T to Inside The Ropes.