Chris Jericho made his return to WWE programming in January of 2016, and shortly after Jericho returned AJ Styles made his debut. Chris Jericho found himself wrapped up in a feud with AJ Styles which lead to the two stars forming a tag team before they split up and faced off against one another at WrestleMania 32.
Although AJ Styles vs. Chris Jericho was one of the biggest matches on the WrestleMania card last year, a match with AJ wasn’t the original plan for Chris Jericho. The current United States Champion recently appeared on Busted Open Radio with Dave LaGreca and Doug Mortman and he revealed that original plans called for him to face Dean Ambrose.
“I knew from the moment that I came out what was going to happen, which was me eventually turning heel,” transcription via WrestlingInc. “It got pushed back a little bit because of the AJ Styles thing working so well, so Vince wanted us to be a tag team, and then work at Wrestlemania. The original plan was for me to work with [Dean] Ambrose at Wrestlemania, but I think I started planting those seeds as a babyface that were really pissing people off.”
Chris Jericho also accepted the award for Comeback of the Year, and he noted that 2016 was one of the best years of his career. He acknowledged that some fans were saying his act was stale when he first returned to TV, but according to Jericho he was simply planting seeds for a heel turn.
“I knew it and it was fun for me to see that ‘Jericho’s done, he’s stale, he’s so stale. Oh that scarf and the vest it looks ridiculous. Same old catch phrases and he’s trying to get a Rooty Tootie Booty chant going, it’s so annoying. It’s sad to see Jericho falling so low.’ And I was like oh you guys — I’m the master of puppets yet again. Manipulating an entire business into planting those seeds for when I finally turn heel. And when I turned heel it was like, ‘Well I’m glad he turned heel because he wasn’t doing too good a job as a baby face’ but I knew all that. That is one thing that I had planned.”
Chris Jericho of course later went on to feud with Dean Ambrose, and he viciously destroyed Dean’s best friend at the time, who happened to be a plant named Mitch. Never forget. RIP Mitch.
