Though Chris Jericho is about as AEW as they come at this stage of his career, currently holding the Ring of Honor World Championship in his first reign, “The Ocho” will still freely talk about his time in WWE and how he feels the company is going. From discussing Vince McMahon's final run, which he believed at the time wouldn't result in any punishment, to appearing on Broken Skull Sessions with the incomparable “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Jericho hasn't forgotten about his time in The Fed, where he had 23 different title reigns, and will even complement what his old in-ring foe Paul “Triple H” Levesque put on the table if he likes it.
Fortunately for Trips, one angle that Jericho gave his stamp of approval to – or added to his “Good Things” list, to stick with Jericho's former WWE schtick – is the addition of Logan Paul as a featured player in the WWE Universe, as he detailed to Howie Mandel on his Howie Mendell Does Stuff podcast, as transcribed by Fightful.
“I think it’s great,” Jericho said. “I think it’s awesome. Anytime you can get somebody from the outside world coming into wrestling and put a spotlight on it, it’s great. Logan Paul is good for the business because it gets more eyeballs onto the show for people who might not watch wrestling or boxing. It’s smart.”
If Paul had come into the ring and turned in a gimmick-y effort akin to Johnny Knoxville's Jack*ss-themed match with Sami Zayn at WrestleMania 38 that would be one thing – there are fans who like that sort of thing and fans who don't wouldn't have – but Paul respected the business, came in ready to work, and proved that he's a legitimately talented athlete who very well might have found his sport moving forward.
Chris Jericho doesn't get the hate Paul receives from WWE fans.
Elsewhere in his interview/conversation with Mandel, Jericho addressed the WWE fans who don't “get” what Paul or other outsiders bring to a wrestling card, comparing the concept to booking famous people who can bring eyes to the product to stunt casting.
“If [other wrestlers] aren’t happy with it, they don’t understand business,” Jericho said. “The most important thing is selling tickets. That’s the most important thing. I don’t care if it’s Logan Paul, Howie Mandel, or the return of Steve Austin or whatever it may be. It’s stunt casting. If it works, it’s fine with me. There are always going to be people who are going to be angry that Logan Paul is in wrestling but if it works, you can’t worry about the people who are getting angry because they probably don’t understand. They’re probably younger guys. For me, I understand what it’s like to travel between worlds and the animosity you get from that from some people who will never get it. That’s fine, you just deal with that. You can’t worry about people that don’t like you. All I worry about is people that do like me and making new fans.”
Now, to be far to Jericho, he's taken part in more than a few gimmick-y matches over the years, with his angle with Mike Tyson, the Mimosa Madness Match, the Dinner Debonair. and both Anarchy in the Area and the Stadium Stampede coming to mind just from his current time in AEW, still, even if some fans aren't the biggest fans of these sort of spectical-heavy affairs, instead preferring their in-ring work to be more akin to FTR's preferred product, it's hard to argue that they don't work, as proven by the recognizability of the angles above.
The Bride is back with another Jeri-show-stopping performance.
Speaking of spectacle, how could one write a story about Jericho and not discuss his maybe appearance on The Masked Singer as The Bride, who was at it again on Fox, this time singing a song that was popular during his Y2J gimmick, All Star by Smash Mouth?
I love how Chris Jericho singing on The Masked Singer is the worst kept secret in the history of the show 😂😭 pic.twitter.com/R8UVmb3vge
— Public Enemies Podcast (@TheEnemiesPE3) November 10, 2022
So… yeah, that's Chris Jericho. That's “The Ocho,” that's the “Demo God,” “Le Champion,” “Lionheart,” “The Ayatollah of Rock'n' Rollah,” “The Painmaker,” “The Wizard,” whatever you want to call him, the man born Christopher Keith Irvine is under that mask, and if any of the judges are wise, they'll open up wrestling Twitter and see who is under the mask so they can be right on a future episode.
Yup, you read that correctly; The Bride outlasted both George Clinton and George Foreman on Wednesday's edition of The Masked Singer and will be back for a future episode, where he will surely sing a bit more with his very recognizable voice, and the judges will wonder if he's Jack Black.
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