On Sunday November 15th, WWE-Superstar Chris Jericho and his band Fozzy made a tour-stop in Vienna. Ahead of their concert at Szene Wien, Heute.at-reporters Phillip Platzer and Markus Miksch met Chris to talk about his music-career and some wrestling-things. Here's the full interview.
On Sunday November 15th,-things. Here's the full interview.
Q: Hi Chris! How has your tour been so far?
A: It's our third show in three countries in three nights. We started in the Netherlands, then Germany and now we're in Austria.
Q: So it's kind of a hard schedule?
A: No, not really! Our schedules are normally pretty full. On this tour we do 21 shows in 24 days. That's our work and what we're enjoying. We try to miss too much days off, becauce we're still paying for the expenses. We like to be active, on the days off, you just get in trouble.
Q: How often have you been in Austria?
A: It's our third time. We've played twice at the Szene and once at the Flex, down by the River. We always have great shows here and it's always fun. The crowd is always excited and loud, so we're always happy to be here.
Q: Did you have a chance to do some sightseening?
A: Last time we were here, we took a look at the city. But we have lots of stuff to do. We've got to meet the press, do some VIP-Stuff. Then after the show it's always very late. When we left from Augsburg last night to come to Vienna it was 2 a.m. in the morning, but you are still awake and have lot's of energy left. When we came here, I didn't wake up before 1:30 p.m. and then there's not a lot oft time left. I think I've wrestled in Vienna also. But for me walking around to see a castle or something, that's not what Vienna is all about. To me, to understand the city is to play the show! You see the crowd, you see the reactions, you see the people. To me it's the people, that make up the city and not the castles, that have been there for 400 f*cking years. Show me a picture of a castle and I don't care, show me a picture of a great crowd, that is chanting Fozzy, that's what I like about Austria and Vienna. The food is also amazing, the best on our tour so far!
Q: Do you know any famous Austrian musicians?
A: There are a lot of classical ones right? Tell me some! Is Mozart from Austria? I don't always know if those are from Austria or from Germany. Isn't Beethoven from Austria too? Anyway, is there any famous Austrian Rock'n'Roll-Band?
Q: Maybe you could know Falco...
A: Oooh yeah! Der Kommissar!
Q: What are your musical rolemodels?
A: We in our band have a lot of different influences. We all love Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. If you listen to our music you'll see, that we also love Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Queen, but also bands like Journey and 70ies-Bands like Cool and the Gang. For me, my favourite bands are The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Queen, AC/DC and The Police.
For the second part of the interview, switch to site number 2:
Q: If you would have to choose between you music-carreer and wrestling, what's you pick?
A: I don't have to choose. I was once like your fellow Austrian Arnold Schwarzenegger: When he was a kid, he told people, that he wanted to be the biggest bodybuilder in the world and the biggest actor too. People laughed at him. When I was a kid, I said, I want to be in a rock-band and I want to be a wrestler, people laughed at me. But here I am 30 years later and doing both, just like I said, that I would. Okay, as time goes on, I do less wrestling and more with Fozzy, because that's just life. My days as full-time-wrestler are over, but I still come back from time to time, because it's fun and I enjoy it.
Q: Music is also very important for wrestling-shows. Have you ever considered using a Fozzy-Song as your entrance-theme?
A: No not for my entrance! My entrance is very much like an evergreen and very synonyous with me. There were a couple times over the years, when we started tinking. When I came back in 2007, I wanted to use a Black Label Society-version of my song, but it didn't really fit. In 2012 I considered using 'Nightmare' by Avenged Sevenfold, but we always decided to keep 'Break the Walls down', because the people always know, that it's me. When they here those words, they know Chris Jericho is coming out. But we had several Fozzy-Songs used as PPV-Sountracks.
Q: How much of say do the wrestlers have in picking their theme-songs?
A: I have a say on pretty much everything of what I do on this point. It doesnt' mean that I have the final say, but still I have a say. But I can't tell how it it for the new guys, because I'm not one of them. I think today some guys are just given their themes, some may have a say, but that's all about individual circumstances.
Q: When you look some years into the future, how do you thing the wrestling-business is going to look like?
A: I don't know! It always changes. Being at the tail-end of my carreer it changes, but it's still based on the same things. You have to be a good performer, you have to connect with the audience. It's very similar to being in a band, you always have to have a relationship with your audience and feel it. If you have a great crowd it always makes your show better, a shitty crowd makes it worse. If you have a perfect match, every move works out great or a perfect concert and every song is good, when the audience is quiet it really sucks. On the other hand, if you go out and f*ck up a hundred things and there are mistakes all over the place, as long as the crowd goes wild, it doesn't matter. It is all about the reaction of the crowd. In wrestling it's just the same as in the music-business. Wrestling is not what it was ten years ago, but as long as the guys understand those simple things, it will always be good. The biggest thing for the future of the business ist probably the WWE Network. There will be more focus on the company and not on specific superstars. 'The Face' of the company won't matter, the WWE ist the 'Face'. There will be no more need for a new John Cena, The Rock or Hulk Hogan. I don't think, that there will be such as a number one face in the future, there will always be four or five guys to carry the company.
Q: So which one of the new guys is your favourite to lead the WWE in its future?
A: It's very hard to say, because I like all of them. All of them are working very very hard. Nowadays it's hard for the guys, because you are basically been told what to say and given interview-scripts. But of course Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins are very good, but who will take the chance to be a Paul Heyman, Steve Austin, John Cena, Rock or a Chris Jericho we'll find out, when some guy does things his way, because he knows his way is the right one. Unfortunately it's becoming a rare thing, because everyone is put in a box and is told to do things this and this way.
Q: With Seth Rollins being injured for nine months, how dramatic will this be for WWE?
A: Something like that that happens. If somebody goes down some guy has got to pick up his spot and move forward. Who is going to be the one who steps up, we'll find out in the near future. Okay it's bad, that the champion went out for nine months, but wrestling is real! Obviously it's showbusiness, but something like that is a very real injury. You can be sad about it for five minutes, but then you'll have to move forward. It happens all the time in sports, in football, in hockey. For example in NHL: Edmonton Oilers prospect-player Connor McDavid scored five goals in two games and boom, he's out for the rest of the season.
Q: Will you be a WWE-Champion again?
A: I've been champion about thirty times in my career. I've done it all. Everything is just great, but if it's nine time, ten time or thirty-seven time doesn't matter, because I made my point in wrestling. I still do it, because it's fun and what ever happens, that happens. Five years ago I'd say 'YES', but now I say, that I've had all of those titels. Of course to win one again would be great, but if not, it really doesn't matter.
Q: Alongside with you, Paul Heyman is one of the best talkers in the wrestling business, what's your relationship with him?
A: He is my friend and i always enjoy talking to him, he for sure one of the alltime greats. He was kind of a pioneer, when he started ECW and made this product very cool and very revolutionary. Paul is somehow very similar to me, if he wanted then he cool take over the booking of the whole business. But I don't think he wants to, at the moment he's just happy in being Brock Lesnars advocate and that's okay, because everytime you see him, you know that something great is going to happen. When you have a lifetime commited to the wrestling-business, then it's very much likely, that you sometime switch to part-time.
Q: One last question: How many of your 1004 holds do you really know?
A: I know about seven. It's all showbusiness. It was all a funny thing to say, there were seven moves plus 993 armbars.
Authors: Phillip Platzer and Markus Miksch
