10 Biggest Takeaways From Chris Jericho On Broken Skull Sessions w/ Steve Austin

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The Forbidden Door is open, as Y2J makes his shocking return to WWE programming to dish on the highs and lows his career, and the creation of AEW 10 WrestleMania Moments That Almost Ended In Disaster https://youtu.be/wdNcPMjOzpI  SUBSCRIBE TO partsFUNknown: https://bit.ly/2J2Hl6q TWITTER: https://twitter.com/partsfunknown FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/partsfunknown/

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00:00 Well, here's something you don't see every day. On April 11th, the day of WrestleMania

00:04 37 night 2, the names AEW, Tony Khan, Kenny Omega, Young Bucks and Orange Bloody Cassidy

00:10 were featured in official WWE programming. Hell, two hours into Chris Jericho's appearance

00:15 on Steve Austin's Broken Skull Sessions, they display a picture of Jericho holding

00:19 the AEW title. I mean, sure, the program chapters only ever refer to All Elite Wrestling as

00:24 "a new company", but man, it's something to hear Steve Austin say AEW on WrestleMania

00:30 weekend. While the two hour interview between The Rattlesnake and Le Champion might not

00:34 spill quite as much tea as fans might have liked, there were still plenty of ace stories

00:38 that made it a hell of a watch. I'm Adam Hailing from PartsFarKnown and here are the

00:41 10 biggest takeaways from Chris Jericho on the Broken Skull Sessions.

00:45 Number 1. Another forbidden door opens. While the big story going into this show is the

00:49 proverbial "forbidden door" between WWE and AEW being smashed in, as you might expect,

00:55 it's not the main focus of the show, with Austin Jericho instead taking us on a potted

00:59 retrospective of Y2J's entire career, which makes it all the more amusing that Jericho's

01:03 big break came from the opening of another forbidden door.

01:07 In 1996, boss man of New Japan Pro Wrestling Antonio Inoki organised a World Wrestling

01:11 Peace Festival, an event designed to bring together multiple wrestling promotions for

01:15 a collaborative show. WCW took part, as did New Japan, Mishinoku Pro, WWF did not of course,

01:22 both AAA and CMLL took part, which was surprising considering their rivalry. Lionheart Chris

01:27 Jericho also took part in a triangle match with Konnan and Bam Bam Bigelow. At the event,

01:32 Jericho met Bischoff, who invited him to be a part of WCW, although apparently Bischoff

01:38 then left the show before watching Jericho's match.

01:43 Number 2. Leaving WCW. Gosh, working for WCW seems like it'd be

01:47 hard work. Jericho recounts a number of strange stories, working without a signed contract

01:52 for the first 17 months of his employment, being told he'd be WCW's Shawn Michaels

01:57 before getting locked in the Cruiserweight division, which Jericho compared to being

02:00 low in an Indian caste system, but the most he'd provoke Goldberg, and when the PPV match

02:05 finally came, Goldberg would literally spear him out of his shoes. Despite putting in the

02:10 work, the money match was consistently rejected, which led to Jericho letting his contract

02:14 expire and looking for better things.

02:16 Number 3. Vince McMahon's trust exercise. It seems like everyone's got a 'Vince

02:20 is a really weird dude' story, which makes sense. Look at him. Jericho says that during

02:25 the final months of his WCW contract, he was summoned for a meeting with Vince McMahon

02:29 at Vince McMahon's house. Jericho attended the 'secret meeting', ate brownies with

02:35 Vince, sat in awkwardly on a booking meeting, and then had a brief chat with Vince with

02:39 scary old bastard McMahon, saying nothing to him except 'okay, let us know when your

02:44 contract is up'. A confusing day, then. Jericho only realised later that the entire meeting

02:49 was actually just a test to see if Jericho would blab about it, or if he was someone

02:54 that Vince could trust. Since word about the meeting didn't get around, he was designated

02:58 the right type of human to work for WWE. Not a paranoid place to work, then. At all, I

03:03 see.

03:04 Number 4. Don't hate the player, hate the game. Yeah, it turns out WWE was a super paranoid

03:08 place to join in the late 90s, especially if you were a former WCW guy. Despite a whopper

03:13 of a debut, Jericho recounts a few stories of him struggling during his first year with

03:18 the company. Apparently him and Triple H hated each other. That doesn't help. He was consistently

03:22 being booked to lose. A bunch of WWF guys, the game included, still saw him as a WCW

03:28 guy who wasn't prepared to adapt to the WWF style. It all came to a head in April 2000,

03:33 the month after Mania 2000, for which Jericho was originally on the poster, before being

03:37 replaced by Mick Foley, though Jericho doesn't actually mention that, but still worth thinking

03:41 about. Backstage at the April 17th Raw, Jericho requested a chat with Vince to tell him "I

03:47 want out", but never actually made it to that meeting because he found out "Oh hey, that's

03:52 the night they were going to have him briefly win the world title". Jericho describes it

03:56 as a turning point. He let Triple H lead that match, proved he could play ball with a guy

04:00 he didn't like, they had a great match together, and after he gave up the belt, Vince said

04:04 "Don't worry, you'll have it again someday". And indeed he did.

04:09 5. The Saddest World Title Win Of All Time

04:13 In probably the funniest section of the interview, Jericho ran down everything that happened

04:17 the night he became the first ever undisputed champion at Vengeance 2001, and poor lad.

04:22 First of all, he found out in the least ceremonious way possible, overhearing Vince at catering

04:27 three hours before the show saying to Undertaker, loud enough for Y2J to hear "You know how

04:31 you know the business is going down the toilet, we're putting the title on Jericho, thanks

04:35 boss, in front of everyone". The finish of that main event was so overbooked and Austin

04:40 was so mentally fried by that point in his career he couldn't keep track and told Jericho

04:44 "Just call it to me". There was no one there backstage when he won because everyone used

04:49 the main event as a chance to beat the traffic, and later that night he locked himself out

04:53 of his hotel room getting a pizza, the guy wouldn't let him back in his room, and when

04:57 he finally did get back in he dropped his pizza on the floor. What a night.

05:02 Number 6. I understood that reference.

05:04 It's always fun to see where people get the inspiration for their gimmicks, like Oli Davis'

05:07 current haircut being inspired by the Mayor of Whoville from How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

05:12 Throughout the show Jericho outlined a lot of things he had borrowed or referenced during

05:16 his long career, the whole standing with his back to the crowd entrance thing was inspired

05:20 by Michael Jackson who did it at a concert in Mexico while Jericho was wrestling down

05:24 there, the moss covered three handled family gridonza from his list of 1004 holds was a

05:28 reference to a Dr Seuss song sung by the cat in the hat, the walk to the stage mocking

05:33 Goldberg at Fall Brawn 98 was an homage to Spinal Tap getting lost on their way to the

05:37 stage, his countdown to the millennium debut gimmick was inspired by a similar clock at

05:42 the post office, and his 2008 heel character, possibly his finest work, was modelled after

05:47 Javier Bardem's quiet intensity in No Country for Old Men.

05:51 Number 7. Heartbreak Soulmate.

05:53 It's no small wonder that Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho made magic in their 2008

05:56 feud if Y2J's WrestleMania 19 story is anything to go by. An underrated Mania classic, the

06:01 match between the two at the show of shows was also the first time that both men were

06:05 ever in the ring together. In a weird soulmate level coincidence Jericho had a flash of inspiration

06:11 and wrote down the finish of the match in a sporting goods store on the back of a receipt

06:15 but didn't know how the match would start, meanwhile Shawn had gone away and written

06:18 up the start of the match but didn't know how the finish should exactly play out.

06:22 When both men realised what each other had done they made heart eyes at each other, combined

06:27 their two halves of a match and their Mania rehearsal was done in an unprecedented 10

06:31 minutes. Cute. Cute boys.

06:34 Number 8. An Unacceptable Position.

06:36 Full credit to Chris Jericho, despite working for a rival promotion, a promotion that he

06:40 in fact carried on his back in the first few months based off his WWE generated worldwide

06:46 fame, Jericho actually has few harsh words to say about WWE. However despite such professionalism

06:52 he does tell a similar style of story over and over again which paints a picture when

06:57 taken together that of plans being changed on him at the last minute.

07:02 First was Jericho's departure from WWE in 2005, wanting to leave wrestling in general

07:06 after suffering from burnout. Jericho was repeatedly told he'd be done at SummerSlam,

07:11 so much so that he booked a holiday with his family to Disneyland the day after, only then

07:15 to be told at the last minute "no, we need you at Raw". More egregious, powers that

07:20 be, Jericho didn't name names, tried to change the iconic festival of friendship at

07:24 the last minute to scrap some of the comedic elements which forced Jericho to contact an

07:28 absent Vince to back him up.

07:30 And finally, the straw that broke the camel's back. At Mania 33, Kevin Owens and Jericho's

07:35 match at the show was changed from one of the main events over the Universal title,

07:39 which Jericho would win before dropping it to Brock the next month, to the second match

07:43 on the card for the US title. According to Jericho, going on second was "unacceptable"

07:49 and made him re-evaluate his place in the company.

07:52 9. The Parting of the Ways

07:54 Chris Jericho's final appearance for WWE was part of the greatest Royal Rumble in the

07:58 first ever Saudi Arabia WWE show, and the story behind that show is one of an acrimonious

08:04 breakup. See, Jericho's original deal with New Japan was a match with Kenny Omega at

08:08 the Tokyo Dome for Wrestle Kingdom 12, and it was going to be a one-off, which was approved

08:13 by Vince who told him to "go fly the WWE flag in Japan". Jericho lost, but the next

08:18 night beat up Naito to leave with some heat, but also maybe plant a seed for something

08:23 in the future, who knows, which made Vince ask "hey, what was that? That wasn't part

08:27 of the deal".

08:28 Fast forward to the greatest Royal Rumble, and the original card advertised a casket

08:32 match between Chris Jericho and The Undertaker, however before the show, Jericho told Vince

08:42 that New Japan wanted him back for a match with Naito, and shortly thereafter, Jericho

08:46 was removed from the match again and it reverted back to Rusev. Apparently the Prince wanted

08:52 the change, which Jericho doesn't believe, but he says this moment made him realise,

08:56 ok maybe this New Japan stuff can lead to more, and he became much more open to talking

09:02 with Tony Khan.

09:04 And number 10, make wrestling fun again. Without ever really getting explicit about it, throughout

09:09 the show Jericho paints a picture of a damaged friendship between him and Vince McMahon.

09:13 He talks about how Vince used to trust him, although probably not as much these days.

09:18 He refers to his relationship with Vince in the past tense a lot, but most telling is

09:23 his description of working with Kenny Omega in New Japan, putting together their match,

09:27 he didn't have to approve any of it with anyone, and he said that "wrestling became fun again".

09:33 By contrast, talking about how if he'd made a different choice and gone back to WWE, he

09:37 says "I knew what would happen. I knew the first thing I'd have to do is I'd have to

09:41 put someone on the list". Reading between the lines, it's quite a damning picture, on

09:46 WWE branded programming no less.

09:50 And that's our list, if you liked this video don't forget to like and subscribe to parts

09:54 of unknown for more silly wrestling content, jam that jam.

09:58 [Outro]

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