As many of you all know, the latest Save_Us video aired on Raw this week and pretty much outright said Chris Jericho was debuting next week.
It said 6_DAYS, 23 HOURS, AND 33 MINUTES and which aired at 9:55 p.m., meaning he's scheduled to show up 27 minutes short of a full 24 hours from that moment, which would mean 9:28 p.m. next Monday night.
Are you ready for Y2J? Talk about it now on our wrestling forum.
The latest issue of WWE Magazine prematurely reveals that Chris Jericho is on his way back to the company.
Jericho is featured on the cover with the tagline: "The real story behind Jericho's shocking return."
The photo features a devious-looking Jericho plugging two power cords together.
The wrestler's long awaited return to the ring has been expected for several months. Sources believe he will officially appear on television at next week's edition of RAW.
Is Chris Jericho coming back to a WWE ring?
The superstar didn't answer that question in a recent interview with Maxim, but he did respond to the following topics...
A Lion's Tale:
I decided to write about my journey to realize my goal of wrestling in WWE. It's more of a follow-your-dreams, coming-of-age, stranger-in-a-strange-land story with wrestling in the background. You know, The Catcher in the Rye with a half-naked guy swinging a steel chair. It's 100 percent Chris Jericho. If you like it, I'll take the credit. If you don't, I'll blame it on someone else.
â¦whether young wanna-be wrestlers could follow his path into the business:
A friend of mine recently told me, "The thing about this book is that in an age when all you have to do is write a blog or put yourself up on YouTube to get fame, this is one of the last old-school journeys." When I first started, I had to write letters to people, to send out tapes and pictures, to try to photocopy pictures where I looked cool. Now people just Photoshop everything and send it via e-mail.
The book is really a pay-your-dues type of story, about this kid who probably should've given up a few times, but was too stubborn or stupid to do that. As a result, he ended up achieving his goal. There's not a lot more books like this to be written, because I don't think there are a lot of stories like that to be told. Uh, I pretty much forgot what your question was [laughs].
â¦"enthusiastic" fans:
Somebody actually tattooed my face on his arm. In a couple years, that will be the equivalent of having a Screech tattoo. A woman fan wrote me letters every time I went to a certain arena in Mexico: "I will be your wife someday. You know you love me." A bunch of letters later, she wrote, "If you don't write me back within the next week and tell me that you love me, I will kill myself."
In an interview with The Long Island Press, Chris Jericho recently had the following to say when asked about his WWE return:
You know, I can honestly say that I don't know for sure when, but I will tell you as well that even if I did I'm a magician. I keep my secrets and my tricks to myself, and I like that. I think it's one of the things I've always enjoyed about wrestling.
And once again, going back to the way I was when I was a fan, I don't think it's fair or good for fans to know everything. And as much as it's great to have technology and it's cool that people know [more], I think it's also cool when people don't know, and that's something I've worked very hard to make sure that...it's still good to be surprised.
And I think that everyone will agree with me that in a day and age where people know things before they happen, I don't think that anyone is going to know my story until it happens. And I think people in a vacuum would rather have it that way.
Chris Jericho was interviewed by London's The Daily Star. Below is what he said in regards to rumors of his return to WWE:
"You never know. I did it before and I can do it again. I've been gone for two years and that's a lifetime in wrestling. I seem to be caught in a controversial buzz at the moment. I'm a little confused as there's a lot of speculation but as always in these situations I'm the last to know. These stories seem to swim around every three to four months since I left WWE. It's good to know fans are bringing my name up - there's nothing wrong with people talking about Chris Jericho.
I always said if I were to go back I would only go if I could make a difference and be better than ever. I don't have to come back at all, certainly not financially. I want to have some fun, be different and be better. I walked away on my own terms, so it's good to see I still have as much leeway two years later."
Reliable sources are reporting that Chris Jericho is coming back to the WWE at No Mercy on October 7.
A weird "SaveUs.222" clip played on Raw last night.
Did it signify the eventual return of Chris Jericho? In all likelihood, YES.
The showed the text "7Oct", which is the day of No Mercy. The clip also showed the text "cd_volume4_1.act.". Y2J's theme music is the first track on WWF The Music, Volume 4, which was released in November 1999.
PWTorch.com reports that Chris Jericho received a large, presumably seven-figure monetary offer to return to WWE.
WWE has expressed interest in bringing Jericho back for a while; the two parties have communicated regularly over the past several months. With Ric Flair quitting, and so many wrestlers suspended, it's easy to see why Jericho is in a prime position now to receive lots of dough.
LordsofPain reports that Jericho, who walked away from professional wrestling in 2005, is now reportedly fully willing to return to wrestling. A source close to the wrestler says that he recognizes that his Hollywood aspirations are not going to provide a short-term monetary reward anywhere near that of WWE's offer.
At this point, Jericho's return merely hinges on the two parties reaching a workable arrangement. Once the two sides agree on terms, and it is unknown how long that will take to happen (it could be as short as a few weeks to as long as many months), Jericho is expected to rejoin the WWE roster.
CNN has posted a full transcript of the interview Larry King held last night with John Cena, Chris Jericho and Bret Hart regarding the death of Chris Benoit. Here is the broadcast's opening:
Good evening.
The wrestling world and its fans still reeling from last month's suicide and double murder involving WWE champion and star Chris Benoit. His friends, colleagues and law enforcement are trying to figure out exactly what happened at his Georgia home the weekend of June 22nd.
Benoit apparently strangled his wife Nancy and suffocated their 7-year-old son Daniel and then hanged himself.
We begin with John Cena, the WWE champion and superstar. He knew Chris Benoit professionally.
Bret "Hitman" Hart is in Calgary, Canada. He is the former pro wrestling star, who knew Chris Benoit for several years. In fact, Chris started with Bret's father -- his wrestling company -- in Canada. And in 1999, you remember, Bret's brother Owen died tragically, falling to his death in Kansas City during a stunt for a Pay-Per-View wrestling event.
And here in Los Angeles, Chris Jericho, a very close friend of Chris Benoit, former WWE star. He held six different titles and he's author of "A Lion's Tale: Around the World In Spandex."
John, what did you make of this? How did you hear of it?
JOHN CENA, WWE CHAMPION & SUPERSTAR, WORKED WITH CHRIS BENOIT: Mr. King, we were --
KING: Larry.
CENA: Larry, we were actually in Corpus Christi, Texas getting ready to do our regular Monday night "Raw" broadcast and it really just really caught everyone by surprise. We heard of it about two hours before we went on the air. And it was such sudden and disastrous news that the right thing to do was to cancel the show. And it really, really hit everybody like a ton of bricks.
KING: To your knowledge, was anything troubling him?
CENA: No, absolutely not. And I think, if you ask anybody who knew Chris -- I strictly knew him professionally. But the guy was iron clad. He was real quiet. He kept to himself. He had ultimate respect for his workplace. He was a model employee. I have no idea where any of this came from.
KING: And you're in a violent sport, but I understand he was not a violent person.
CENA: No. He was a great guy. He was a great guy to be around. And that's -- that's the, ultimately, the strangest thing about this whole thing. No one saw this coming.
KING: Chris, you were a friend as well as a colleague, right?
Click here to read the full interview...
The Baltimore Sun recently sat down with past - and future? - WWE star, Chris Jericho. Here are highlights from the interview:
Q: Itâs well known that you and Chris Benoit were close friends. Before getting into questions about your career, I wanted to ask what your thoughts are on the tragic events of two weeks ago.
A: Itâs hard to separate the man that did these terrible, horrible crimes from the guy that I knew who was like a big brother to me, who was a great friend, a great mentor and a great influence on me in such a positive way. Iâll never understand why he did what he did, but all I know is the guy that I knew was just a sweetheart of a guy and one of my best friends, and Iâm going to miss him.
Q: Moving on to something more lighthearted, how much have you missed wrestling since leaving WWE?
A: I was really mentally burned out when I left; I just never realized it at the time. It took me about a year and a half to kind of collect my thoughts. Actually what happened was that I wrote a book on my journey to make it to WWE from being a kid. And once I was done the book, it kind of made me realize how much I love the wrestling business and â not to sound too sappy â helped me find myself as a person and as a professional and to start digging wrestling again.
So, probably about the last six months, Iâve been paying attention to wrestling and getting into it and watching it again. Whereas, for the first year and a half, I really just was so mentally fried, I just didnât have any desire to have anything to do with the business. But now I feel differently.
Q: There has been a lot of speculation about when you will return to wrestling and whether it will be with WWE or TNA. Can you give us any clue as to when you might be coming back and which company you are leaning toward?
A: I havenât really even come that close to getting into specifics of when or where. Itâs funny because I hear those rumors all the time. Iâm usually the last one to know. People will come up to me and say, âHey, I heard youâre going here,â and Iâm like, âWow, I didnât know that. I wish I could help you with that one.â I like both of those companies. I like Ring of Honor as well. I have my favorites in all three of those groups and itâs fun to watch all three of them because, first and foremost, Iâm a wrestling fan.
Thatâs why I wanted to be a wrestler in the first place and thatâs why I think I did as well as I did, because I always enjoyed the product and tried to put myself in the fansâ shoes and ask, âIf I was in this crowd what would I want to see?â And then I tried to deliver that. I really have no time frame or anything like that. But now Iâm lurking in the shadows, so watch out â you never know.
Q: How do you feel about TNA dropping your name a few times on their show? Apparently, Bill Goldberg and Brock Lesnar werenât too happy about it when their names were mentioned.
A: I donât know why they wouldnât be happy about it unless theyâre taking themselves way too seriously. For me, I think itâs great. It keeps your name out there, and who am I to complain if my name has enough value to be used as a teaser for something? I mean, they wouldnât use Funakiâs name or Big Bully Busick. Iâm smart enough to know that if things like that are going on â rumors on the Web and dropping of my name on TNA shows â that just means that people want to see me come back. I find it a real compliment that whenever I do signings, people ask, âWhen are you going to come back?â Or they say, âWrestling hasnât been the same since you leftâ or âwrestling needs you.â Thatâs a lot better than saying, âMan, wrestlingâs a lot better now that youâre not around.â
Q: When you do come back, do you want to work a full schedule again or do you want to be a guy who kind of comes and goes and makes special appearances?
A: No, thatâs not me. Iâm âgo hard or go home.â When I left, I never said I was retiring. I just said I needed a break and I said when the time was right and I could come back better than ever, I would. When I come back, itâs to come back and make a difference and to play the game. I donât really think guys coming in for special appearances and leaving really helps. If you come in for one show every two or three months, itâs a good nostalgia thing, but you really canât make any forward progress. You might as well just come out and wave at the crowd like an ex-president at a parade and then disappear. If I come back, itâs to do what I do best and become one of the biggest names in wrestling again.
Q: You mentioned mental burnout as one of your reasons for needing a break from wrestling. How are you feeling from a physical standpoint?
A: I was pretty fortunate. They used to call me Hockey Puck in the locker room because I never got hurt. I never missed a show in WWE for any sort of injury, so when I left it wasnât for a physical reason. I feel great; Iâm in great shape. But I didnât feel all that bad physically when I left.
To read the entire article, click here.
