Chris Jericho Explains Professional Rivalry With Triple H, Vince McMahon Subtly Encouraging It

Chris Jericho and Triple H will always be tied together as they main evented WrestleMania 18 in Toronto. But their rivalry on-screen had a real-life element to it as the two men had a professional rivalry behind the scenes.

With The Last Dance highlighting Michael Jordan’s career and many rivalries, Chris Jericho was asked by Rich Eisen on the Rich Eisen Show who he had a rivalry with during his storied career.

“There were guys in the past that I had issues with. Triple H was one of them, he’ll tell you the same. In the early 2000s, we didn’t have much like for each other. But we always had great matches and I think that might be one of the reasons why. We had a professional rivalry, maybe a little bit of a personal dislike. But fast forward four, five, six, seven years and you get to be a little bit older and wiser. You think back like ‘why did we have so many problems? why did we hate each other and not like each other?’ Now, we’re friends. There’s a lot of professional rivalries when you’re young and full of vim and vigor. There’s always that animosity that drives you to become better and if you have a case like Jericho and Triple H, our matches were always great because there was a little real-life animosity between us. ‘I’m gonna show him.’ I think that’s good in a certain way and I would suggest that back in those days, Vince McMahon would subtly encourage that because he knew you would get better results inside of the ring,” said Jericho.

Jericho and Triple H seem to be in a better place now as Jericho congratulated Jericho on his 25-year WWE anniversary. You can find Jericho’s full comments by clicking here.

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