Former WWE Superstar Chris Jericho appeared on Busted Open with Dave LaGreca and Mike Riker, where he addressed CM Punk’s WWE Championship defense against Ryback at Hell in a Cell. The program airs Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays on Sirius 92 and XM 208 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Highlights from the interview are as follows:
Why he thinks Ryback should win on Sunday: “I don’t know anything and I don’t work for the WWE. I haven’t talked to Vince in about a month. But I personally think and this is something that obviously Busted Open Radio has very hardcore wrestling fans who are listening as we all are. The number one thing people bitch about is that there is nothing new and it’s the same old same old with John Cena. This is the chance to create a new guy. This is the chance to make a new star instantly, and I know tradition says you must build a star. There is no tradition in a case like this. The comparisons are to Goldberg. Most of the fans in this day and age have no idea who Goldberg is and don’t care. We do, but in the year 2012 Goldberg was over ten years ago. How did Goldberg get over? …. By beating everybody. There was no loss for Goldberg. As soon as he did lose, that’s when things started going downhill for him. Ryback is not a normal guy. This is not a guy that we see that builds his way to the top and fans get behind him slowly but surely. You want to pick a new guy? Have him beat CM Punk this week. Who gives a sh** about Punk’s title reign? It means nothing. Here is a chance to take a guy who people are getting behind. If he beats Punk at Hell in A Cell and after three hundred and thirty seven days or whatever and Punk is finally beaten, people are going to start to take notice of this guy. Those who don’t watch Raw are going to tune in to see what’s going on. Ryback beats everybody. Ryback faces Rock at Royal Rumble. What happens if a couple of weeks before that something goes on with Ryback and Undertaker got involved in the Rock match? What if Rock wins the title and goes on to face Cena we expected and what if its Ryback vs Undertaker at Wrestlemania? What if Ryback beats Undertaker at Wrestlemania? You have a new star for the next ten years to headline pay-per views and main events.”
Has CM Punk gone as far as he can go as a character?: “He has gone as far as he can go. The Rock is the Rock. He comes from a different era. Undertaker, Steve Austin, that comes from a different era. Nobody will ever be a bigger star than those guys, because people in their heads…It’s like the old Batman TV show when we were kids. We thought it was the greatest show ever. You watch it back now and it sucks. But it has a certain place in your head that it will never be replaced. The band KISS in 1978 if you’re old enough to remember was thought of as the greatest band ever, even if they weren’t. Rock is a guy unto his own. Punk is as big of a star as he can be as a heel in WWE. Beating Ryback doesn’t make him a bigger star. It doesn’t.”
Can the injury to John Cena be a blessing in disguise?: “It is a blessing in disguise. The biggest breaks I ever got in this business was when someone got hurt, or when someone went to make a movie. I won the undisputed championship because Triple H was hurt and Rock was leaving. Cena got hurt. What do we do? One thing about Vince McMahon is his motto is to take a negative and turn it into a positive. Vince knows how rare it is for someone to get over so quickly. Vince knows Ryback is not a money making star right now. But if he goes into Hell In A Cell and he destroys Punk and beats him, a hundred percent those fans are going to go bananas for Ryback. You have created a new star. Punk can come back the next night and bitch and complain and do what a heel does. Heels aren’t built to win. Heels are built to lose. That’s what heels do. The fact that Punk has held the title for three hundred and thirty seven days, it might mean something to you guys. I can tell you Punk doesn’t care. Punk wants to make money and if that means Punk and Ryback becomes the hottest feud and suddenly something happens where it goes to Ryback and Rock, that’s a match where suddenly you made a new guy. I would love to see Punk and Rock and I’m sure Punk would be disappointed if it didn’t work out. But this is business. If you have a chance to build someone that can put a company on his back, then you do it. The stop and start pushes that the WWE has been doing and infamous for the last ten years has got to stop and this is the perfect time for it.”
Does he think the WWE will pull the trigger and have Ryback become champion?: “I do because of the reasons I’ve talked about. I’m not saying I know anything. I could be completely wrong. Maybe there would be a scenario where they can protect Ryback and still have Punk as champ. But for me what I like as a wrestling fan, when I was a kid, what I like as wrestling fan now even after doing it for 22 years is the element of surprise. I hate the same old same old. I worked in WCW for three years when guys were passed over. As hard as it is to believe at this point, Eddie Guerrero was the top heel in the company at certain points, but they never let him beat anybody. Billy Kidman was super popular. Probably one of the top two or three babyfaces in the company at certain points, but they never pushed him over the edge. There are guys for whatever reason, get over, even when they are not supposed to get over. If you take advantage of that and push it over the cliff, people will get behind it especially a guy like Ryback because we haven’t seen anyone like that in a long time. We haven’t seen a powerhouse come in and annihilate people. The last time might have been Batista but Ryback is more Neanderthal, more animalistic, more a beast. Batista is very well spoken. Ryback does remind me of Goldberg and like I said it’s not a copy of Goldberg. It’s like saying Jericho is a copy of Shawn Michaels. There are elements and lots of similarities but it’s a different guy and nobody has seen a guy like this in a long, long time. So I think if they do pull the trigger that it will work huge and it will create a superstar instantly. Someone that will be a money drawer, someone that people will tune in who are not watching now to see.”
Why he thinks Ryback should win on Sunday: “I don’t know anything and I don’t work for the WWE. I haven’t talked to Vince in about a month. But I personally think and this is something that obviously Busted Open Radio has very hardcore wrestling fans who are listening as we all are. The number one thing people bitch about is that there is nothing new and it’s the same old same old with John Cena. This is the chance to create a new guy. This is the chance to make a new star instantly, and I know tradition says you must build a star. There is no tradition in a case like this. The comparisons are to Goldberg. Most of the fans in this day and age have no idea who Goldberg is and don’t care. We do, but in the year 2012 Goldberg was over ten years ago. How did Goldberg get over? …. By beating everybody. There was no loss for Goldberg. As soon as he did lose, that’s when things started going downhill for him. Ryback is not a normal guy. This is not a guy that we see that builds his way to the top and fans get behind him slowly but surely. You want to pick a new guy? Have him beat CM Punk this week. Who gives a sh** about Punk’s title reign? It means nothing. Here is a chance to take a guy who people are getting behind. If he beats Punk at Hell in A Cell and after three hundred and thirty seven days or whatever and Punk is finally beaten, people are going to start to take notice of this guy. Those who don’t watch Raw are going to tune in to see what’s going on. Ryback beats everybody. Ryback faces Rock at Royal Rumble. What happens if a couple of weeks before that something goes on with Ryback and Undertaker got involved in the Rock match? What if Rock wins the title and goes on to face Cena we expected and what if its Ryback vs Undertaker at Wrestlemania? What if Ryback beats Undertaker at Wrestlemania? You have a new star for the next ten years to headline pay-per views and main events.”
Has CM Punk gone as far as he can go as a character?: “He has gone as far as he can go. The Rock is the Rock. He comes from a different era. Undertaker, Steve Austin, that comes from a different era. Nobody will ever be a bigger star than those guys, because people in their heads…It’s like the old Batman TV show when we were kids. We thought it was the greatest show ever. You watch it back now and it sucks. But it has a certain place in your head that it will never be replaced. The band KISS in 1978 if you’re old enough to remember was thought of as the greatest band ever, even if they weren’t. Rock is a guy unto his own. Punk is as big of a star as he can be as a heel in WWE. Beating Ryback doesn’t make him a bigger star. It doesn’t.”
Can the injury to John Cena be a blessing in disguise?: “It is a blessing in disguise. The biggest breaks I ever got in this business was when someone got hurt, or when someone went to make a movie. I won the undisputed championship because Triple H was hurt and Rock was leaving. Cena got hurt. What do we do? One thing about Vince McMahon is his motto is to take a negative and turn it into a positive. Vince knows how rare it is for someone to get over so quickly. Vince knows Ryback is not a money making star right now. But if he goes into Hell In A Cell and he destroys Punk and beats him, a hundred percent those fans are going to go bananas for Ryback. You have created a new star. Punk can come back the next night and bitch and complain and do what a heel does. Heels aren’t built to win. Heels are built to lose. That’s what heels do. The fact that Punk has held the title for three hundred and thirty seven days, it might mean something to you guys. I can tell you Punk doesn’t care. Punk wants to make money and if that means Punk and Ryback becomes the hottest feud and suddenly something happens where it goes to Ryback and Rock, that’s a match where suddenly you made a new guy. I would love to see Punk and Rock and I’m sure Punk would be disappointed if it didn’t work out. But this is business. If you have a chance to build someone that can put a company on his back, then you do it. The stop and start pushes that the WWE has been doing and infamous for the last ten years has got to stop and this is the perfect time for it.”
Does he think the WWE will pull the trigger and have Ryback become champion?: “I do because of the reasons I’ve talked about. I’m not saying I know anything. I could be completely wrong. Maybe there would be a scenario where they can protect Ryback and still have Punk as champ. But for me what I like as a wrestling fan, when I was a kid, what I like as wrestling fan now even after doing it for 22 years is the element of surprise. I hate the same old same old. I worked in WCW for three years when guys were passed over. As hard as it is to believe at this point, Eddie Guerrero was the top heel in the company at certain points, but they never let him beat anybody. Billy Kidman was super popular. Probably one of the top two or three babyfaces in the company at certain points, but they never pushed him over the edge. There are guys for whatever reason, get over, even when they are not supposed to get over. If you take advantage of that and push it over the cliff, people will get behind it especially a guy like Ryback because we haven’t seen anyone like that in a long time. We haven’t seen a powerhouse come in and annihilate people. The last time might have been Batista but Ryback is more Neanderthal, more animalistic, more a beast. Batista is very well spoken. Ryback does remind me of Goldberg and like I said it’s not a copy of Goldberg. It’s like saying Jericho is a copy of Shawn Michaels. There are elements and lots of similarities but it’s a different guy and nobody has seen a guy like this in a long, long time. So I think if they do pull the trigger that it will work huge and it will create a superstar instantly. Someone that will be a money drawer, someone that people will tune in who are not watching now to see.”
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