Chris Jericho Talks How Much Input He Has On His Storylines, How The Business Has Changed And More

Randy Zellea of Back Sports Page recently interviewed Chris Jericho, who was promoting his latest book. Below are some highlights:

How much involvement he has in his storylines:

“You could read about that in Best in the World. When you read it you could see how much involvement and input I had with my programs with Shawn Michaels, Rey Mysterio and CM Punk. I was involved with the creative aspect as they used my ideas, not all of them but I was very involved with them. When I came in to the WWE in 1999 I helped write my own stuff, but over time we bought in more writers. I work with the writers in collaboration. Nobody ever gives me a piece of paper and tell me to say things on the air. For other guys they do that and it works for them. They have to gain a trust on what they do between them and the company. You are able to work out and gain the experience to know what you are doing and know who you are. It takes experience on what you can get across as a performer in your promo and the storyline . Sometimes the boss will go with your suggestions and sometimes he won’t and if he doesn’t want to do it then there is not thing you could do. The more I could interject more of my ideas into my character and add my own personality into my storyline and in my promo the better it’s gonna be. Everybody is in their own case by case basis but in my case everything is in collaboration and it has to be. I cannot do any other way.

How the business has changed and how he stays motivated:

“Back during that time period we took the attitude of you work with who you work with and you do your best to make it good. I had nine years experience before I came to the WWE and that’s something a lot of people seem to forget about. No matter what obstacles are thrown at me, I have been through it before so I know how to make it good. So even though it took a while in my mind I had nowhere to go but up. Things were going to be good because that was the way I was trained. I was never given anything in the wrestling business from the day I started. When you don’t have things handed to you, you have to work harder to get the spot. I just did my thing and sometimes it went my way and sometimes it didn’t but I knew in the long run it was going to be good because that is how I was trained.”

His Undisputed book including a disclaimer about Chris Benoit:

“It was chosen by me personally. There was no real push back from the book company. It was all me. I had to put a little bit of a forward in there because Chris (Benoit) is talked about so much in the book in a favorable way. I had to put a little something in. This wasn’t a major thing to hold the book back. When book one did well, we got the offer from them to do book two and when book two did well then we got an offer for book three. There is no way I can begin the process for another two years for a fourth book. When I wrote the Best in the World I could tell you that I just didn’t have enough stories to write within the year time frame. Then I realized I have too many stories and I have to put some aside for a fourth book. That’s why I am so proud of book three because it happened in the shortest of time. It’s the most suffice and story wise the strongest because of things that happened in that time frame.”