Chris Jericho discusses Dynamite on the 'Jericho Cruise', Marko Stunt, wrestling Cody at Full Gear and Randy Orton using AEW as leverage (Exclusive)

Chris Jericho spawns the greatest catchphrase

Did you have any idea how big ‘A little bit of the bubbly’ was going to become? Tell me your thoughts when that started taking off?

Jericho: No, of course not, you never know what people are going to get into and what people are going to get excited about. It’s just one of those things. I said it in passing, kind of out of the corner of my eye so-to-speak and then, like I said, you watch what people are saying and doing and the videos that people were making for that were just completely ridiculous, there were so many of them and so creative and I was like [pauses]. You never know, people just super got into that and it became this huge catchphrase

It’s like asking Metallica if they knew ‘Enter Sandman’ would be the biggest song of the generation. You’ll never know for sure what’s going to hit with people and what people are going to get into and I don’t analyse it, I just go with it. I’m smart enough to see that this is a thing, let’s promote this, let’s keep this moving and see how far we can go with it and ‘A little bit of the bubbly’ became one of those late, career, number-one hits for Chris Jericho just like ‘The List’ was or any of those things. You just say it and if people get excited about it and latch upon it you just continue with it.

All of the videos and memes were hilarious and to think they all came from the news of you winning the title and the title being lost, can you tell me more about that?

Jericho: It wasn’t lost, it was stolen. I’ve been in wrestling for 29 years; I’ve had fifty titles everywhere and I’ve never misplaced and lost a belt for three seconds so, the belt was stolen. And I still don’t’ know exactly what happened, if you had another hour I could tell you the whole story. But it’s just one of those things, it just added to the legend of the title that it was stolen 24 hours after it was first won and then found on the side of the road by a driver. If you drive down the highway or down the street everyday would you pull over if you saw a non-descript velvet bag on the side of the road?

I probably wouldn’t.

Jericho: “Nobody would, because it’s bulls*** it’s not a real story. I don’t know exactly what happened. It’s almost like it was the Wicker Man with the whole town was involved with this conspiracy. But it gave us ammunition for some great social media coverage. It’s like Bruno Sammartino in ’75 when somebody stole the title from the dressing room. S*** happens sometimes and it’s not the fact that it happens, but what you do with it when it does happen and we made something great out of it.

Well, that is one of the things that was very impressive with AEW’s response to that was just how quickly they turned it into something the fans could follow, that the fans could…

Jericho: [Interrupting me] Well, once again it wasn’t ‘they’ it was me and that’s the great thing about AEW. I don’t have to ask permission, I just go with it. I knew that we had to acknowledge it, we had to cut it off at the pass, own it, and make it into something great and I think that’s what we did. I think in light of that circumstance, how weird it was, how ridiculous it was, we got something great out of it. It’s kind of what professionals do, you take the circumstances that you’re given and you work with it and you make it great.