Chris Jericho Says He Was Originally Supposed to Lose US Title to Lesnar

Chris Jericho was interviewed by “Busted Open” and had an interesting story about WWE’s original plans for him.

Jericho said that he was originally going to finish up his current WWE schedule the Monday after WrestleMania, but Vince McMahon wanted him to beat Owens at WrestleMania then go on to lose the United States Championship to Brock Lesnar at WWE Payback on April 30, so he stayed for an extra month. Plans changed when Goldberg came in, but Jericho was still “locked in” for the extra month, so he ended up continuing his feud with Kevin Owens.

“I was supposed to finish after WrestleMania – that Monday afterwards. About December maybe, Vince called me in. He had a big idea. I can probably say this now… The original idea was for me and Kevin Owens to work at WrestleMania, for me to win the title, and to lose it to Brock in Sacramento at the next PPV, which was April 30. When you get presented with that idea, it’s like sure, of course I’ll stay for that. Then, as things go, the Goldberg factor started, and Vince changed his mind and at that point, I was already locked in for the extra month, doing another month with Kevin Owens, which was the way to do it anyway.

So my plan was not to finish up on SmackDown on a Tuesday and go straight into rehearsals on a Wednesday. It was not supposed to be that, but sometimes that’s how it works.”