Chris Jericho had a few choice words for his critics in an interview with The Daily Star.
“I just don’t care. I really don’t. Things go in phases. Three years ago those same people who are chanting ‘Please retire!’ were saying Jericho was the greatest the of his generation. Kenny versus Jericho at the Tokyo Dome was the match that changed the course of history. Everyone was talking about it. I think the biggest thing is just that I have been around for so long working on top, never getting hurt so I am always here. It is not like I force myself onto the shows because my ego is so big I can’t handle not being on it,” he said.
As Jericho explained it if you don’t like his routine blame Tony Khan.
“I work for my boss who puts me on TV because it draws ratings. There is a whole thing where Jericho has ‘go away heat’, that isn’t true. Look at the ratings every week. Not every week but I’d say 80% of the time my segment goes up. It is one of the biggest gainer on the show. There are just a lot of people who refuse to believe anything else because those critics have their fans and there is a narrative that’s told and then there are the facts. The facts are I am still one of the most valuable characters on the show for many different reasons. If I told Tony Khan I wanted to take six months off he would say ‘Are you f—–g kidding me?’. There’s no way.”
Examining the Dynamite ratings here is the breakdown for the Jericho segments. We will let you be the judge.
July 30th: Chris Jericho promo/Willow Nightingale vs. Kris Statlander – 593,000 viewers. Second lowest segment of the show.
July 24th: Chris Jericho vs. Minoru Suzuki – 768,000 viewers. Third lowest segment of the show.
July 17th: End of MJF vs. Ospreay/Mark Briscoe & The Acclaimed segment/TV Time with Chris Jericho segment – 841,000 viewers. Second highest segment of the show.
July 10th: Chris Jericho vs. Samoa Joe – 672,000 viewers. Fourth highest segment of the show.
June 26th: End of Storm, Shirakawa & May vs. Jay, Saraya & Cameron/Mercedes Mone segment/TV Time with Chris Jericho – 717,000 viewers. Second highest segment of the show.
June 10th: End of Mone vs. Zeuxis/Mina Shirakawa video/Toni Storm & Mariah May promo/TV Time with Chris Jericho – 671,000 viewers. Fourth lowest segment.
June 5th: End of Briscoe vs. Cage/Jack Perry promo/HOOK, Samoa Joe & Premier Athletes segment/Chris Jericho segment/Acclaimed & Elite segment/Swerve Strickland promo – 761,000 viewers. Fourth lowest segment.
Jericho went on to detail that his current ‘learning tree’ character is a result or a manifestation of the criticism he has received.
“So, I just leaned into it (the criticism). The character is very sarcastic and very much a ‘know-it-all’. All the things that people were saying I was…Well, let’s do it! We all know that person who knows everything about nothing but meanwhile they really don’t know what they are talking about so let’s do that. Let’s really be sarcastic and ‘slow speaking’ so that everyone can understand what I am doing…I kind of based it on those Devil’s Rejects character. Baby is her name. She is literally scalping a guy while she is laughing. It is kind of creepy,” he said.
TOP PHOTO: Chris Jericho vs. Claudio Castagnoli (C) in a Ring Of Honor World Championship Match at AEW Dynamite Grand Slam, on Wednesday, September 21, 2022, at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, NY. Photo by George Tahinos, Slam Wrestling, https://georgetahinos.smugmug.com.
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