QUICK QUOTES: Chris Jericho on who he originally wanted to face at WrestleMania, how the Kevin Owens alliance began, the way his recent run was supposed to end

Chris Jericho was a recent guest on Busted Open Radio and shared some insight as to how his latest run in the company was going to end. Here are the highlights:

Why he ended up sticking around longer in his latest run:

“I was supposed to finish up after WrestleMania, that Monday afterward. At about, December, maybe, Vince called me in and he had a big idea, I can probably say this now…the original idea, things change all the time, an exclusive for Busted Open, was for me and Kevin Owens to work at WrestleMania, for me to win the title and then to lose it to Brock in Sacramento at the next pay-per-view, which was April 30th. And so when you get presented with that idea you’re like ‘well, sure, I mean of course I’ll stay for that.’ Then as things go, the whole Goldberg factor started, Vince changed his mind and at that point I was already locked in for the extra month, doing another month with Kevin Owens, which was the way to do it anyways.”

How soon he knew he had magic with Kevin:

“I remember we did a TV taping in London after WrestleMania last year…for a random pairing of Jericho and Owens. After the match was done, you know, you do a little bit of pomp and circumstance, and we had won the match and we were celebrating just as a random tag team. And he ran down the aisleway and ran and jumped into my arms. I remember thinking ‘this is a big dude. Holy s**it. I better plant myself.’ And he jumped and I caught him, and he was like ‘We’re the greatest! We’re the greatest!’ And then walking out he’s like ‘You’re the G.O.A.T.!’ and I’m like ‘You’re the donkey!’…it was just this funny interplay and Vince thought it was hilarious. And that’s when I thought ‘there’s something with this guy.’ He’s super funny as a guy, very sarcastic and dry, a lot like me. So I just kept an eye on it. And then I remember going to talk to Vince before SummerSlam and one of my ideas was to work with Nakamura at WrestleMania, because I worked with him in Japan. I said ‘this guy is great. He needs to be at WrestleMania and I want to introduce him to the world. And then about two weeks later I said ‘I think we can do Jericho and Owens at WrestleMania, I think we’d have enough steam.’

For the full audio, check out Busted Open Radio.