After taking an over one-year long hiatus from WWE, Chris Jericho returned to WWE in early 2012. However, he has not been a full-time member of WWE roster at any point since. His stints on WWE television have lasted everywhere from six months to one-off special appearances.
But if fans are looking to see the Ayatollah of Rock N’Rolla on WWE television more prominently, Jericho does not rule out such a possibility.
In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated , the former six-time World champion was asked about his current layout of appearances with WWE. While he does still enjoy wrestling, Jericho mentioned that he is not the one to come calling the company asking to return.
“The invitation is there 365 days a year. It’s not like I’m auditioning for a job with the WWE. It’s the other way around, ‘Give us as many dates as you can. You want to just work weekends? Do it. You want to just work TV? That’s fine, too.’ They leave it up to me, and I like working the schedule I’m on now.”
In fact, Jericho admits to WWE’s invitation consisting of a full-time schedule, if he wanted to work one.
“I like working the weekends. I don’t have time to commit to doing TV. For example, I don’t work weekends when we have Fozzy shows. I’m working the ones that I’m choosing, but I have the invitation to work 300 days a year with WWE if I wanted.”
A-unique thing that Jericho has been doing over the past few months is working strictly live events . They are non-televised shows that many wrestlers refer to as their “bread and butter.” On those events, there are no time constraints, limited storylines, and not a ton of verbal interaction. Rather, live events mostly feature wrestling and give the opportunity for never before seen matches to transpire and for other wrestlers to fine-tune their skills.
That is a huge selling for point for Jericho.
“I’ve been off TV for a year, but I’ve worked 50 shows in the interim just doing live events, which, to me, is a lot more fun. I’m also working with all of the younger guys – I worked with Kevin Owens two weeks ago when Cena broke his nose – and that’s fun, too.”
But if fans are worried about Jericho possibly never appearing on WWE television again, they can rest assured he will eventually return. Trying to balance his band, Fozzy, his podcast, Talk Is Jericho , his WWE appearances, and other outside projects make it hard to commit long-term to just one endeavor.
With that said, there will eventually come a time to return full-time, and Jericho is excited with that idea.
“Anyway I can be involved, I enjoy it. When it comes time for me to be full-time, we’ll figure out what I’m going to do and I’ll come back.”
[Image by Simon Hofmann / Bongarts / Getty Images]
