The pro wrestling world can throw a lot of great ideas at you, especially if you’re Chris Jericho. The Ayatollah Of Rock n Rolla is known for his flamboyant personality and how much he gives to his artforms. In fact, if you’re lucky enough to be at the Fozzy show on WrestleMania Sunday you can enjoy Jericho in two forms of his amazing craftsmanship at once as you can see him perform with Fozzy and then watch Mania with him too.
The Highlight Reel was one of the best parts of WWE for the longest time but it didn’t all come together at once. Jericho recently appeared on the Steve Austin Show where he discussed the origin of this outstanding segment.
“My initial idea was learning from one of the greatest, I don’t know what you would call him, backstage interviewers, was Gene Okerlund who could lead you through a backstage promo even if you didn’t know what you were doing, right?” Jericho said, “my idea when I started the Highlight Reel was I wanted to be the Gene Okerlund, have guys that didn’t get promo time, and let me do an improv promo. Let’s see what they’ve got. Of course, that did not fly with Vince. He wanted an actual promo segment with top level guys.”
Jericho also shared the story of the first time he met Steve Austin on a plane while he was still signed to WCW, and Austin was in WWE.
“I met [Austin] on a plane one time and [Austin] gave me the greatest line of all time.” Jericho continued, “no, [Austin was not rude]. It was a great line! I was walking on the plane. It was one of those rare moments when you would see WWE and WCW on the same plane. And [Austin] walked by me and [Austin] said, ‘hey’. I only knew Steve Austin. I was like, ‘hey,’ he was like, ‘hey, there’s a gay guy on the plane.’ I said, ‘really?’ He goes, ‘yeah, give me a kiss and I’ll tell you who it is.'”
Quotes in this article thanks to The Steve Austin Show and Wrestling Inc for the transcription
