The Chris Jericho Rock n Rager at Sea cruise has become a force of nature. Wrestling fans flock from everywhere to spend some time in a living, floating city built on the strange world of professional wrestling. Major stars compete and make personal appearances on the cruise.
Now, we know that the venture didn’t start out that great for Jericho. On his Talk is Jericho podcast, Le Champion talked about how much money he lost on the first cruise. The number is not for the faint of heart.
“Huge success from a critics standpoint, huge failure from a financial standpoint. I lost a lot of money, six figures, but you’re building your business, right? Anytime you build something, you have to be prepared to spend money to make money.
That’s what we did. I lost a lot of money and we put hours and hours of work into it and I did something I said I would never do, which is become a promoter. I’m in charge of booking all the talent and paying the talent, especially the first cruise, I paid all the talent. It’s not easy because everyone wants to get a great pay off and I also want everyone to get a great payoff, but I’m also going over what my budget is.
The second cruise, the financial deal was reconfigured to where I recouped my loss and made money on top of that.”
The second time was a charm, and Chris Jericho was able to make the wrestling cruise a profitable endeavor. He has a fourth edition scheduled for March 14, 2022. The most recent cruise was well-received by attendees, other than a bit of a rough start.
Would you ever go on a Chris Jericho cruise? Let us know in the comments!
Thanks to Fightful for the transcription!