Chris Jericho may be on hiatus from the WWE, but he’s using the time away to reflect on missed opportunities and scrapped plans from his stellar last run in the company. In a recent interview on Busted Open Radio, Jericho revealed that the original storyline for his exit revolved around plans for him to win the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 33.
According to Jericho, the plan was for him to then drop the title to Brock Lesnar several weeks later at the next PPV (Payback), leading to his departure.
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This was likely before Goldberg was confirmed to return and stay in the title picture as long as he did– in which case, Kevin Owens would have carried the title until WrestleMania instead of dropping it to Goldberg at Fastlane in March. This would have made the Universal Championship the title stakes in the culmination of Jericho and Owens feud, rather than trading the United States Champion belt.
But even the best laid plans of mice and Monsters of Men are subject to change. Jericho says he had also pitched another idea at WrestleMania that would involve a match against Shinsuke Nakamura. Instead, the WWE decided to hold Nakamura’s main roster debut off until the first Smackdown Live after WrestleMania, and havedelayed his first proper in-ring match until tomorrow’s BackLash PPV. As both Jericho and Nakamura are on Smackdown Live, it’s hopefully just a matter of time before we get that dream match.
A six-time World Champion, Jericho also made suggestions on how he thinks WWE could fix the cruiserweight division, including an Enzo Amore vs. Neville feud. He also made comments about working with Kevin Owens, Dean Ambrose and more. Though it remains to be unseen how long until we see Y2J’s return on the product (he’s confirmed to appear at WWE Live events as soon as late June), these ideas certainly prove what an asset he could be behind the scenes in a creative role, in addition to in the ring. Give this GOAT the book!
