On a recent edition of his “Talk Is Jericho” podcast, Chris Jericho recalled his WWE debut 25 years ago as Y2Jericho, when he was unveiled as the Millennium Man in August 1999.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On his rivalry with Goldberg in WCW: “[Goldberg] had his reason why, and I had my reasons why, and I just realized I’m never going to get above a certain level here in WCW, so maybe it’s time to leave.”
On corresponding with former WWE booker Vince Russo: “So, I did do, I guess what you would call nowadays a ‘tampering phone call’ with Vince Russo. It was a Christmas time thing where they asked me how much longer my deal was. I think it was Christmas 1997. … So, I think when Russo called me, I was technically not even under contract and what do I mean by that? Yes, I was under a contract, I had agreed to a contract, but I never signed the damn thing.”
On what he told Russo about joining WWE: “I had made a commitment for three years, and I’ve never been the type of guy to try and, you know, stab somebody in the back or whatever it may be, and I just literally — just said, to Russo (…) that I was in a contract, but, you know, I was interested to go to WWF — at the time — when my deal was up.”
On how he used to have a dream about being congratulated by his school: “I had this dream that it would say: Congratulations to Chris Irvine — whatever, I think I didn’t even have Chris Jericho at the time when I was day dreaming this — for being the WWF Intercontinental Champion,” he recalled. “They would put that up on the school, in a sign that they had there.”
