We Go Again

[Ben M]

OOC: I did the classic Ben trick of spending too long on my first scene and running out of time for my promo. Ah well, I did my best so here goes... good luck Dohko!

Three years. Had it really been that long? Chris Jericho knew it had, but the more he thought about it, the less he could believe it. Three years had passed since Chris had won King of the Ring, it had been almost three years since Chris had last been World Champion... and what had he done since then? To say Chris could count the matches he'd had since then on one hand would be an exaggeration, but he could probably just about count them on two hands. The Royal Rumble and King of the Ring were really the only times Chris was guaranteed to wrestle; apart from that, over the last three years, his only matches had practically been booked as special attractions - one off showings against the likes of AJ Styles, Bret Hart, Dean Ambrose. Of course, before all that had happened, there was supposed to have been another match - Jericho/Ikeda III. The match that would have been a match of the year candidate, the match that would arguably have reinstated Jericho as the top wrestler in the company... the match that never went ahead, and instead was marred with tragedy. For a long time, Chris had hidden behind the Fanniversary shootings as his reason for not wrestling more, but in reality that was nothing but an excuse. Wes had been getting more and more involved in the day to day running of the EBWF for months, to the point where now he was doing almost as much now as he had been before he'd been shot. The truth of the matter was this; since the turn of the year, and possibly even earlier than that, Wes and the rest of the EBWF board had been doing enough to enable Chris to become an active wrestler again. The ball had been in Jericho's court for months, and he hadn't done anything with it. Even after he'd lasted over an hour in the Royal Rumble. Jericho's performance at the Rumble had probably been his best in-ring performance for since he'd last been World Champion... and yet here he was in the King of the Ring tournament, his first round match being billed as his return to the ring after another six month spell on the sidelines.

"Uh... Chris? Are you still there?"

Chris was giving a telephone interview to Ring Rust Radio, to promote the special "King of the Ring edition" of Total Recall, and he'd gotten lost in his thoughts. Without realising, he'd spent about a minute in silence, which had prompted the show's host, Donald Wood, to ask after him.

Chris Jericho: I'm still here... sorry, there was a problem with the connection. What were you saying?

Donald Wood: It's okay. I said, you won your last World Title in September 2011, defeating CM Punk. CM Punk has recently returned to EBWF after a six month hiatus, and as you've already pointed out, this will be your first taste of in-ring action since the Royal Rumble. Does it seem fitting that you've been drawn against Punk, one of your old rivals, in the first round of the King of the Ring tournament?

Chris Jericho: Well to be honest, I think it would be more fitting if we faced each other in the final...

It was obvious from Jericho's tone that he was joking, and the three hosts laughed.

Chris Jericho: But no, in all seriousness it's great to be working with Punk again. He's one of those wrestlers that brings out the best in me, and I'm sure we'll tear the house down this Thursday night on Total Recall.

Mike Chiari: While we're talking about the draw, I have to say... you seem to have drawn the toughest bracket in this year's tournament. If you beat Punk on Total Recall, you could have to face "The Viper" Randy Orton in the second round, another of your old rivals, in the next round. There's even the possibility of you facing the Royal Rumble winner, Dolph Ziggler, in the quarter final. Compare that to the EBWF Chairman, your best friend Wes Ikeda, who has to beat Austin Aries and then Chris Sabin or Diego to make it to the quarter finals. I know you probably can't tell us, but I'm going to ask it anyway... in a world where so much is scripted, is the King of the Ring draw really as "random" as you make it out to be?

Chris Jericho: It's funny you should mention that actually, it's something I've taken up with Wes very recently... but I can promise you, hand on heart, that draw is one hundred percent random. Anyone that's followed my career in the wrestling business will know I'm a sucker for tradition, and when it comes to the King of the Ring tournament, we literally still pull the names out of a hat. Wes likes to call it the sorting hat. In fact, when I called the integrity of the hat into question, Wes said the draw came out that way because I'm a Slytherin!

Mike Chiari: I'm surprised Wes even knows what a Slytherin is... or a sorting hat for that matter... is he a secret Harry Potter fan?

Chris Jericho: I'm pretty sure he hasn't read the books, but he's not an idiot. He has a basic knowledge of Harry Potter, just like everyone else. Between seven of the most read books in the world and eight very lucrative films, it's hard not to.

Brandon Galvin: Okay, I think that's enough about Harry Potter... let's get back to wrestling. Chris, if anyone in the wrestling business matches the description "jack of all trades", it's you. You're still acting as the interim CEO of EBWF, and in that role you've helped EBWF to continue as the number one wrestling company worldwide. Outside of wrestling you've got your band, Fozzy, your podcast, Talk is Jericho, along with a number of acting and television roles. Not to mention that it's clear from your Twitter and Instagram that you're a big family man. Do you still have the desire to wrestle full-time, or would you rather continue to focus on your various side projects, as you are at the moment?

Chris Jericho: With all due respect, I think it's unfair for you to say that I'm focused on my side projects. As you said, I'm still acting as the interim CEO, and that takes up most of my time. Obviously I love my wife and kids very much, so I try to spend as much time with them as I possibly can... we actually moved to St. Louis not long after I was appointed interim CEO, and we're still living there now, which makes it a lot easier for me to spend time with them than it would be if they were still based in Florida. The podcast is one or two shows a week, so that doesn't take up too much of my time... Fozzy is still high on my list of priorities, but the amount of time I spend on Fozzy still depends on everything else. I'm flying over to England this weekend to be part of Download Festival, and we've got the new album, Do You Wanna Start a War, coming out in July. And you didn't even mention my writing - my third autobiography, "The Best in the World - At What I Have No Idea" comes out in October. So yeah, I'm a very busy guy, but that's the way I like it. Going back to your question, do I still have the desire to wrestle full time? Absolutely. Wrestling was my first love, and it will always hold a big place in my heart. But do I have the time to wrestle full-time? That's another question entirely...

Brandon Galvin: Okay, but as you said yourself, you're a traditionalist. Regardless of how many matches you wrestle throughout the year, you always seem to enter the Royal Rumble, you hold the record for appearing on every WrestleMania in EBWF's 13 year history... you have a habit of appearing in Survivor Series elimination matches most years, and of course you're always part of the King of the Ring tournament, which is why we're talking right now! At the risk of stating the obvious, you wouldn't enter the Rumble and King of the Ring unless you wanted to win. And since the reward for winning the Rumble of King of the Ring is a shot at the World Title, I think it's safe to say you want to be World Champion again. If you've got the desire to be World Champion, surely you have to be willing to make the time to be more active as a wrestler?

Chris Jericho: Of course I want to be the World Champion. In my opinion, if there's a wrestler out there that doesn't want to be the World Champion - or the Women's Champion if you're a diva - then quite frankly, he or she shouldn't be wrestling. I know I need to wrestle more to become World Champion again, and to be honest, I keep planning to be more active in the ring... but something always seems to come up. I guess really, it's down to me to make the time. Maybe my match with CM Punk on Total Recall will be the start of that. If I can go on to win King of the Ring, I'll get a World Title shot at Summerslam. If I can't, I'll have to find another way to earn a World Title shot. And like you said, the best way to do that is to become more active as a wrestler. I might be the interim CEO, but I would never be conceited enough to hand myself a World Title shot. I'm a firm believer that you get what you earn, and if I'm going to win the World Title again, I want to do it the right way. Given that I'm going to have to beat Punk, and then probably Randy Orton and Dolph Ziggler, just to get to the final four of the King of the Ring tournament... I think it's safe to say that if I go on to win my eighth World Title at Summerslam, I'll have earned it one hundred percent.

Donald Wood: Chris, you mentioned just now about winning an eighth World Title... that brings me onto my next question. Anyone that knows their EBWF history will know that only two wrestlers have held the EBWF World Title more times than you - Christian and Raven, who've held the title eight and nine times respectively. You've said numerous times over the years that you want to break both of those records. In order to become the EBWF's first ten-time World Champion, you'd need to win the title three more times. Even if you wrestle full-time, that could take several years. Do you think you'll be able to break that record before you retire?

Chris Jericho: Whoa Donald, don't use the R-word... that's practically a swear word around me! The real question is this - will I be able to retire without breaking that record? Like I said earlier, I love wrestling. I've been wrestling for 24 years, and if I could, I'd love to wrestle for another 24 years... but I know I can't. I have to think of my body, I have to think of my health, and I have to think of my family. In 24 years, I'll be 77 years old; I don't want to be wrestling then. Really, I don't want to be wrestling when I'm 50 years old. Everyone knows that I've retired once before, and I guess you could argue that I've been in a state of semi-retirement for the last few years... but I don't think I'll be able to hang my boots up without breaking that record. If I have to, I will, but I know that if it comes to that, I'll feel like I've failed. I've always said that when I retire, I want to be able to do it in a way where I leave everything in the ring. To me, that means achieving everything I set out to achieve in this business, and having nothing left to prove.

Mike Chiari: I think we've probably only got time for one more question, so Donald, Brandon, if you don't mind letting me do the honours... When CM Punk left the EBWF towards the end of last year, there were rumours that he was going to retire. I know most wrestling fans were surprised when he came back, given how little he'd spoken about wrestling while he was gone from EBWF. Given your history with CM Punk over the years, you know him pretty well. Do you think he's like you in the sense that he won't want to retire until he "has nothing left to prove"?

Chris Jericho: I do know Punk pretty well, and while we aren't friends, I sure as hell respect him. As for when he'll retire, it's hard to say. I know when he left EBWF, he was feeling pretty burned out, and the time of has helped him a lot. I watched his match with Randy Orton at Death Before Dishonor, and you could see from his performance how refreshed he was. But I don't think CM Punk is motivated by breaking records in the same way I am. He's driven by a desire to be the Best in the World, and I think he'll retire when he no longer feels he can be the Best in the World. For me, it's different... I call myself the Best in the World at What I Do, but the fact that I haven't been World Champion in almost three years suggests otherwise. I want to retire when I'm proved that I am still the best, and beating Punk would be a good way for me to get that mission back on track.

Donald Wood: Well Mike, you were right, we're out of time. Chris, as always it's been a pleasure.

Chris Jericho: The pleasure's all mine, Donald.

Donald Wood: Hopefully we'll have you back on in a few months to promote your new book, but for now good luck in your match against Punk, and for the rest of the tournament. Thanks very much for listening to Ring Rust Radio!

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Since this week's Total Recall was the first Thursday night TV show EBWF had presented for almost a year, they were desperate to promote it as much as they could. So when Chris Jericho asked the production team if he could film a short vignette about his match with CM Punk, they were more than happy to oblige him. Technically speaking, as interim CEO, Chris didn't really need to ask for permission... but after more than 18 months in charge, Chris still didn't want to be the type of guy who threw his weight around, so he asked for permission the same way he always did. He recorded his vignette Wednesday morning, so that it could be posted on EBWF.net later that day. Jericho wanted to do something simple, so the scene opened in a somewhat generic setting. The only thing that stood out was an enlarged copy of the King of the Ring brackets, which was stuck to a wall that Jericho was stood in front of. The camera zoomed in on "Jericho - CM Punk", then cut to Jericho, who began to speak.

Chris Jericho: Well, Punk... here we go again. After our intense rivalry concluded, we both went our separate ways... but here we are more than two years later, and fate has drawn us back together. The luck of the draw has drawn the 2011 and 2012 Kings of the Ring together in the first round of this year's tournament, and only one of us can go on to try and regain our crown. CM Punk versus Chris Jericho... it's a match that has main evented pay-per-views. It's a match that could be the main event of WrestleMania; it's a match that, on a grand stage, would be almost certain to win the Match of the Year Slammy. Instead, we have to settle for main eventing a Total Recall, King of the Ring special. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.

Jericho smirked to himself before continuing. Stephanie and some of the other board members probably wouldn't be too happy with him "sandbagging" Total Recall like that... but it had been too good of a line not to use it.

Chris Jericho: It's been two years, nine months since I beat you for the World Title... that was the last time I won the title, and we've only had a handful of run-ins since then. That title reign was short-lived - I lost the belt to your buddy Brian Kendrick just one month later, at Fanniversary. For almost three years, I've been waiting on the sidelines for another World Title reign... I've had to watch the likes of Miz, AJ Styles and Dean Ambrose become the champ. And I've had to endure your era of greatness, Punk. Before Ambrose beat you at WrestleMania last year, you were the EBWF's top guy, Punk. But since then, you've never been able to regain the momentum you lost, have you Punk? You feigned your way through the rest of 2013, asked for your release, and after six months off you're back, and you're already on the Path to Glory. You probably think you're regaining that momentum, but trust me from experience Punk... it isn't as easy as you might think. When you lose on the grandest stage of them all - the WrestleMania main event - it's hard to bounce back. I know I struggled after I lost to Randy Orton at WrestleMania IX... it wasn't until I won King of the Ring 15 months later that I thought to myself, I'm back on track. There were a few false dawns before then; I'd think I was on a roll, then suddenly I'd suffer a loss, and I was back to square one. When you've had the sort of momentum you need to be the EBWF's top dog, it's a lot easier to lose that momentum than it is to win it back. What I'm trying to say, Punk, is this - congratulations on beating Randy Orton at Death Before Dishonor. It's a great achievement, believe me, and I'm sure you can't wait to get your shot at the PTG Title. But tomorrow night, on Total Recall, the fact that you're the number one contender won't matter. All that will matter is that yours truly, Y2J, is standing between you and a place in the second round of the King of the Ring tournament. And if I beat you, all the momentum you've gained over the last few weeks? It will be gone.

Jericho made a gesture with his hands to signify Punk's momentum disappearing, then continued to speak.

Chris Jericho: To be honest with you Punk, I don't really want to dwell on what's happened between us in the past. It was a long time ago, and a lot has changed for us since then. All that matters is where we are right now. Like I said before, you're a guy who's been back in EBWF a few weeks, and you've already earned yourself a title shot. And then there's me... I'm the interim CEO, and I'm returning to the ring after an absence that was almost as long as yours. And if the EBWF universe looks at our recent history, they're going to have eyes on you, Punk. They'll see you as the favourite, they'll expect you to win. But don't you forget for one second that in January, after you'd taken your ball and gone home, I was in the Royal Rumble match. I lasted over an hour, I made six eliminations. I showed both the fans and the EBWF locker room that just because I've had to switch my focus to being a businessman, doesn't mean I can't still cut it as a wrestler. I still have the same desires I've always had. The desire to be the best. The desire to be World Champion. The desire to be King of the Ring.

Jericho's face was a mixed of pride and determination as he considered what it would be like to be crowned King of the Ring for the second time in his career. After pausing for a moment, Jericho continued speaking.

Chris Jericho: There's a reason we both call ourselves the Best in the World, Punk. And that's because when we step into the ring, not only are we do of the best pure pro wrestlers in this business, we can back up our performances with results. We're both multi-time World Champions, and we've both been King before. But only one of us gets a chance to earn that accolade for a second time, and we'll find out tomorrow night which one of us it will be. Punk, after tonight, there can only be one "Best in the World" who'll advance to the next round of the tournament... and I'm telling you now, junior, I'm going to give everything I have to make sure that the person advancing, is me.

Jericho looked into the camera with a hard stare as the scene faded.