Chris Jericho has discussed his thoughts on scripted promos in wrestling, and how he prefers his approach to WWE’s. Jericho was a guest on Guardian of the Galaxy actor Michael Rosenbaum’s “Inside of You” podcast when he spoke about his views on the differences.
Jericho revealed what changed WWE’s approach of letting wrestlers script their own interviews to giving them content created by writers:
“When I started in WWE, probably the first six months, I wrote all of my own stuff because that’s how it was. There’s a famous promo I did with The Rock where it was my big debut in WWE and it was a big thing in 1999. There was no rehearsal, there was no lines, no script, nothing. So then as WWE progressed, they started getting into (network TV),” Jericho explained. “so they get the network show (on UPN) with SmackDown, so it’s ‘OK, we’re going to go head-to-head with Friends. We’re going to beat Friends.’ That’s Vince’s attitude, right?”
AEW’s first World Champion went on to explain why he thinks this approach doesn’t suit him:
“So to do that, we need writers like they have on Friends. Well, it doesn’t work that way in wrestling because on Friends if I’m David Schwimmer playing Ross, I’m not David Schwimmer. I’m Ross. In wrestling, it’s almost like Seinfeld. It’s Jerry Seinfeld playing a version of Jerry Seinfeld on the show Seinfeld, but it’s not really him but it is kinda him. And it’s the same with wrestling, right? Chris Jericho is a character” Jericho explained, “but it’s also mostly me turned up to the 10th degree. So I can’t have somebody write something and go, ‘Here’s what you’re going to say, Chris.’
Jericho, who came in at number 4 in ITR’s Top 50, has appeared in several well-received promo segments in his time in AEW. Most notable of these is, the award-winning, ‘Le Dinner Debonair’ musical number he starred in with MJF.
Credit Inside of You podcast.
h/t to Wrestlezone for the transcription.