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Former WWE Superstar Chris Jericho has revealed Vince McMahon's initial plans for his match against CM Punk at WrestleMania 28.
Jericho faced off against Punk for the WWE Championship at the Shows of Shows in 2012. That year, the card consisted of two other huge matches: The Rock vs. John Cena and Triple H vs. The Undertaker (Hell in a Cell).
In the match for the world title, Punk successfully retained his gold after Jericho submitted to the Anaconda Vise. The bout lasted over 20 minutes and was generally well-received by fans. But according to Jericho, that wasn't supposed to be the case.
Speaking on the latest episode of Talk Is Jericho, Y2J explained that Vince McMahon wanted the match to last for just two minutes:
"I think that match [CM Punk vs. Jericho at WrestleMania 28] is a little underrated because of that [Rock vs. Cena along with Undertaker vs. Triple H being on the show] and I’ll also tell you one last little thing about it is Vince [McMahon] wanted that match to be two minutes long. Punk and I had visions of being Savage/Steamboat for the modern age."
Chris Jericho went on to shed light on the Chairman's reasoning, stating that Vince wanted Punk to lose his head over the immensely personal matters between him and Jericho. The original idea for the match was a brief disqualification, but Jericho intervened:
"Vince did have a point looking back in retrospect because if you remember, I was calling his father a drunk, I poured alcohol down his mouth, I hit him with bottles, I did a lot of really sh*tty things and he wanted Punk to just get me in the ring and just go nuts and he wanted to do the terrible, kick the guy in the corner, ref counts to five, DQ. I said, ‘Vince, we can’t do that at WrestleMania.’ " (H/T to Post Wrestling)
CM Punk remained WWE Champion for the rest of 2012
After defeating Jericho at WrestleMania 28, Punk held onto the WWE Championship for the rest of 2012.
The current AEW star’s championship reign ended 434 days after he'd won the title from Alberto Del Rio at Survivor Series 2011. He lost it to The Rock which marked the latter's first WWE Championship win in 10 years.
During the now-infamous reign, "The Straight-Edge Savior" was part of 13 pay-per-views and wrestled the likes of the Brahma Bull, John Cena, Chris Jericho, and Daniel Bryan, among others.
Did you enjoy CM Punk's 434-day-long WWE title reign? Sound off in the comments below!
