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Chris Jericho On Why He Still Wrestles; Whether He Takes Fan Reactions Personally

After 34 years in professional wrestling, Chris Jericho continues to lace up his boots for one simple reason. He still loves the creative fulfillment in brings him.
Rick Ucchino|
Chris Jericho on AEW Collision
Chris Jericho on AEW Collision | Lee South - All Elite Wrestling

If you're one of the All Elite Wrestling fans who have been wondering why Chris Jericho continues to lace up his boots every single week, his motives after all these years in the ring remain very simple.

He's still physically able to do it and he loves the creative fulfillment he derives from pro wrestling.

The reigning ROH World Champion was a guest Thursday on Insight with Chris Van Vliet and said he always laughs when people ask him if he still loves to wrestle after 34 years in the business.

"If I didn't love it, I wouldn't do it. I'm not doing it for money at this point. It's the creative fulfilment, there's a challenge. Contrary to popular belief, I don't demand to be on every show every week. My boss books me for shows because of what I bring to the table, and is still enjoying it and still really working on how can we make things better, how can we do more storylines, and what can I do this week that was different from last week."

Jericho believes he could be considered public enemy number one as far as pro wrestling heels these days. He's well aware of what fans say about him, even if he isn't as active on X (formerly known as Twitter) these days.

The Nueve says performers have to develop a thick skin to be in pro wrestling, especially with today's fans being so eager to rush online and share their opinions. No matter what is written about him, whether it be positive, negative, or somewhere in between, Jericho doesn't take anything that's said personally.

"Whenever I do a convention or something like that, my lines are down the street. That's not from an egotistical standpoint, but I've been doing this a long time, and a lot of people have great memories from the different eras that I've been in. I'm the Rolling Stones on the Steel Wheel Tour, when all the critics are saying it's the steel wheelchairs tour, Stones need to retire, they're done. Well Mick was 47 years old, and that was 1989. I saw him four times last summer at 81 years old and they're still one of the best bands in the business."

Getting booed is not a totally new phenomenon for Jericho. After three decades of wrestling for just about every major promotion that exists, or used to exist, the 9-time World Champion has elicited a full array of emotional responses from the audience over the years.

Nowadays, it's his job to get people to hate him. If you're among those fans who do, no matter the reasoning, you have to admit that he's very good at getting crowds of people to react negatively to him. Where there's heat, there's money. His goal is not to be the popular bad guy.

"Society has kind of gone the way that they did when I first got to WCW, where they hated all the babyfaces just because you were a babyface. Hated a young Chris Jericho because they loved the nWo. So this blonde-haired, good-looking guy who was like throwing himself in the crowd because he had nothing to do was getting booed out of the building, and now I'm getting booed out of the building or getting chanted at as a bad guy. Isn't that the point?"

Jericho will always put more stock into how the paying customers react to him than the online critics, simply because they are the ones at the shows. If the live crowds continue to react to what he's doing, and if the TV audience continues to pop during his segments, he'll stay his current course.

If those two areas start to fall off, that's when Jericho knows it's time to reassess what he's doing on a weekly basis.

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Rick Ucchino
RICK UCCHINO

Rick Ucchino is the Assistant Editor & Content Coordinator for The Takedown on SI. He also works full-time for 700WLW Radio in Cincinnati, Ohio as a local news and sports anchor, in addition to his time covering the Cincinnati Bengals for Sirius XM. Rick has been on the professional wrestling beat since 2019, having provided coverage for a number of outlets, including Fightful, SB Nation’s Cageside Seats and the Bleav Podcast Network. With an educational background in theater, creative writing and journalism, Rick focuses primarily on the storytelling aspect of pro wrestling, but he’s no stranger to the squared circle himself. He had the privilege of training with former WWE & WCW cruiserweight Jimmy Wang Yang for nearly two years and retired early due to back issues with a perfect 1-0 record in singles competition. Rick is a married father of two incredibly adorable children, who are budding pro wrestling fans themselves. Much to the chagrin of their mother. You can reach Rick at rwucchino@gmail.com

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