As noted, Chris Jericho was recently a guest on Jim Ross’ weekly podcast, The Ross Report, and spoke at length about his upcoming “Alpha vs. Omega” match between himself and IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega at the upcoming New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) Wrestle Kingdom 12 event at the Tokyo Dome in Japan in January.
During the interview, Ross asked Jericho whether or not Vince McMahon was informed of his plans to do the Omega match ahead of time, considering he just wrapped up another one of his better runs in WWE history earlier this year.
“Yeah, I mean, not to get into specifics, but you know how smart I have been throughout my career and you know the relationship I have with Vince that I would never jeopardize that or give him any nasty surprises,” said Jericho. “So I’ll just leave it at that.”
Jericho continued, “Like you said, I think in the back of his mind, no matter how much wrestling fans sometimes like to lionize Vince, or whatever the word is, kind of think that he’s this big evil, manipulative guy, I think he appreciates the fact that when the business is healthy, I think that he knows that it’s better for his business as well, so for Chris Jericho to go to New Japan, I mean, everybody knows that I’m a WWE guy. That’s just the way it is. I have been for 17 years, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime dream match, per se, with a lot of money at stake. And, for me to not pursue that I thought would have been a crime. And I think Vince felt the same way. As I said, the timing of this is perfect.”
“He was cool with me doing this match and he’s cool with you doing New Japan shows because I think deep down inside, Vince loves wrestling and he loves WWE wrestling, but he knows, guess what, it doesn’t matter what you do, J.R., or what I do, we’re WWE guys,” Jericho added. “It’s what we are. The more they can see us outside of that, the more it promotes his brand.”
Check out the complete episode of The Ross Report featuring the Chris Jericho interview at PodcastOne.com.
