I truly can’t recall how it all went down. I don’t know if Chris Jericho got in touch with me while he was at WCW and I was the Head Writer of WWF or if I got in touch with him. I would have to believe that the “phone call” came from Chris to me, being that I didn’t want to get Vince McMahon in trouble with talent tampering, even though it is Fully Legal to talk to a talent from another company to discuss the possibilities once his current contract expires.
But here’s what I do remember with the clarity that even an elephant would applaud—I HAD TO HAVE Chris Jericho in the WWF.
Love me, or hate me, at this point in my journey, I don’t really care. Truth is that with every wrestling company I ever worked for . . . I gave to the best of my absolute ability. There were no shortcuts, laziness, or resting on my laurels EVER. To this day, nobody ever has or ever will outwork Vince Russo. That’s why I was successful. I took Great Pride in EVERYTHING I did.
Critiquing my work is subjective. You can take any segment of any show I ever wrote, and while some may have hated it, obviously, there were many more who loved it—the ratings will clearly tell you that. But one thing I will forever stand proudly on is the FACT that I knew the “IT FACTOR .”I could see it, I could smell it, and I could taste it. And, with ZERO exaggeration at all—I WAS NEVER WRONG.
I could see a STAR. Regardless of where you were on the card, I could see you had “IT,” and it was merely going to be a matter of time. The first time I ever saw Chris Jericho walk down that ramp in WCW and fall back into the arms of the fans on the rail . . . man . . . the guy just OOZED the “It Factor .”And, at this point, Chris was NOWHERE near the level he would soon quickly achieve. The truth is that Eric Bischoff had him as just another wrestler on the card. Eric missed it. CHRIS WAS THE GUY. The women loved him, and every guy wanted to be him . . . some 25 years later—they STILL DO.
Jericho was a ROCK STAR, and he hadn’t even invented FOZZY yet!!! Bro, the guy just REEKED Charisma. In everything he did, every move he made, every word he spoke. I’ve got to get him over here. And I did.
Bringing Chris Jericho to the WWF and giving him the absolute spotlight he deserved was my second biggest achievement in the business, only behind putting the WCW World Title on Booker T. In a business absolutely POLLUTED with Politics when you have the power to give hard-working, blue-collar individuals the rewards they deserved and earned—nothing is better in the world—NOTHING.
Chris’s entrance—the countdown—is still one of the greatest highlights in the history of the business. It was Larger than Life . . . because Chris was Larger than Life. I’ll never forget the last show I wrote for the WWF; I had Chris going over “The Rock .”That victory would have catapulted him to the top of the company. However, once I told Vince I was going to WCW, they changed the finish, and “The Rock” went over. It took the WWE the next 2 to 3 years to get Chris to the same spot he would have been at with that one victory. Yeah . . . that was all done out of spite. Why? Because that’s wrestling.
Man, in today’s game, the “IT FACTOR” is just non-existent. What you have is a bunch of average-looking people, at best, who had a “Dream” of becoming professional Wrestlers, and somehow, some way, they made their way to Prime Time TV. They are not Stars. They couldn’t even sniff the jock of a Chris Jericho. Yeah, man, today, ANYBODY can become a professional wrestler. You don’t need a gimmick, you don’t need a body, you don’t need the gift of gab, you just need the ability to flip, flop, and fly like a Chimpanzee in heat.
The “It Factor” is gone. It died sometime time around the turn of the century. That is why, no matter what, I’ll always have the memory of being able to assist Chris in putting him on the stage where he belonged. He changed the game, and he is still changing it TODAY.
Yes—Chris Jericho still has “IT.”
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