Jericho welcomes Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn to the show.
Jericho talks about being recognized as a WWE Superstar in public. He recalls one night when he was eating supper at a restaurant and a lady approached him, asking him if he was Edge from WWE. This lady was convinced that Jericho was Edge. Zayn has a similar story, mentioning that a fan recognized him and asked for a picture one time, and as he put his arms around Zayn for the picture he asked, “Zach Ryder, right?”.
Owens and Zayn mention that they recently watched Survivor Series 1996, and they couldn’t believe how poor the match quality was. They said that a lot of talent on that show were working as if it was a regular house show, when it reality it was one of WWE’s biggest PPVs airing live from Madison Square Garden. Jericho points out that that’s simply how people worked back then, and there’s no doubt that the times have changed.
Owens mentions that his and Zayn’s careers have mirrored each other from the time they were working small indie events together in Canada. When they finally made it to ROH together, they decided that they wanted to win Tag Team Titles. It took them a while, but finally they were able to accomplish that goal.
Jericho asks Owens why he and Zayn don’t have a name for their current tag team in WWE. Owens informs that he hates when two solo competitors pair up and call themselves a silly team name. For this reason, he absolutely hated the JeriKO moniker that was labeled on him and Jericho during their tag team run last year.
Jericho hates those types of nicknames as well, and he particularly hated the “JeriShow” nickname that was used when he teamed with Big Show many years ago. He actually told Big Show to never use that name in promos because he hated it so much.
Zayn admits that he’s had some difficulty transitioning from a babyface to a heel. He doesn’t look like Brock Lesnar or Braun Strowman but he still wants to be in contention for the WWE Title at some point. In order to do that he knows that he needs to be mouthy, annoying heel; the type of heel fans want to see get beat up
Zayn admits that he doesn’t really know what Vince McMahon thinks about him. He’s had a couple of conversations with McMahon, but they don’t have a strong personal relationship. He adds that part of that is his fault, because he should be pursuing that relationship more actively.
Jericho and Owens both agree that the Festival of Friendship segment worked out perfectly. They both credit Kevin Dunn for being the unsung hero of that segment because he produced how the segment was filmed and the shots were great.
Owens admits that he didn’t think he and A.J. Styles had great chemistry during their program last year. Jericho says that they’re both great workers, but sometimes that chemistry simply isn’t there. Owens also wishes that he and Styles had more time to tell a story during their SummerSlam match, but McMahon and the fans liked it anyways so he was happy about that.
Zayn admits that he had knots in his stomach all throughout the day before the Hell in A Cell match between Owens and Shane McMahon. He was very nervous about having to pull Owens off the announce table before McMahon fell on him because if they were off by a second or two that could have been catastrophic. He points out that this was a Hollywood elite-level stunt and they’re not professional stunt men, but they managed to pull it off.
Owens speaks about head-butting Vince McMahon during the buildup for that Hell in A Cell match. He informs that he wasn’t really worried about the spot in advance, but it was a crazy experience to be in the ring with McMahon. Right before Owens head-butted him, McMahon was “talking so much s***” to him and he couldn’t believe it. He was legitimately taken aback by how many curse words McMahon was directing at him.
Owens points out that nobody could accuse him of taking it easy on the boss. McMahon took an educated risk by putting himself in that situation, and it’s his company anyways so nobody was going to tell him no. Owens knew that he would have been in big trouble if he didn’t lay that head-butt in, so that’s exactly what he did.
He thinks this interaction with McMahon put him on another level in WWE. It was only a few months prior that McMahon wasn’t happy with the way Owens was working and portrayng himself on television. Owens did whatever he could to give McMahon what he wanted and needed, and he thinks McMahon was happy with his effort. He knows that McMahon wouldn’t have put him in that spot if he didnt have faith in him.
That sums up today’s episode of Talk is Jericho. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!