Slam Wrestling has an interview up with WWE Unified Tag Team Champion Chris Jericho. Here are some of the highlights.
On WWE returning to Canada more in 2009:
“It’s great. We just did Calgary and Edmonton a couple of weeks ago and now being in Toronto and Montreal. We did Winnipeg in February, so I’m glad that we have more of a presence in Canada this year in 2009 than we had in the past, because it’s a big market, great fans; and a lot of the guys in the crew are Canadian, so might as well exploit that a bit more.”
On first hearing about the concept of Smackdown back in 1999:
“We had Nitro and then they added Thunder to the schedule, which was kind of a bad decision at the time. Because they really didn’t have the brain trust behind it to make it work and Thunder became kind of a red-headed stepchild. I used to watch it just for the pure bad comedy of it, how bad it was. So when I heard about Smackdown, I thought it was interesting, but obviously the WWE is a lot different from the WCW and how the hierarchy is.”
On the success of Smackdown:
“I didn’t know it if it would be a little bit too much. You never know if it’s going to be too much TV. And here we are 10 years later, and it’s just become a common thing, the fact that we have the two major shows being on every week. I guess in hindsight there was enough room and there was enough fan base to have two separate shows. Because when Smackdown first came out, it wasn’t a separate brand, it was just you’d go do Raw and Smackdown, similar to what I do right now. It was just another way to get some exposure, and get your storylines out. I guess in retrospect, it turned out to be a pretty successful thing.”
If he feels the WWE brand extension is still a good idea:
“I think it was a better idea then than it is now. There was a lot more talent when they did the brand extension. You could actually split the rosters in two; create some competition for ourselves, especially after WCW went under. Sometimes I wonder if we should still do that with talent roster the way that it is with a lot of younger guys. It’s a good idea to give them a chance to shine, but for me the way right now, especially working Raw and Smackdown, it shows that some guys should do both shows because we need the diversity on both. But still, week in and week out, they still make it entertaining, build up a lot of Smackdown and they do it more on Raw as well, there’s room for everyone on the show, some just have to kind of grab the brass ring and run with it. I’m happy to be on both shows, I like contributing to both.”
To check out the full interview, click here.
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