Chris Jericho Reveals How Pat Patterson Talked Him Into Losing To Heath Slater

In 2010, during the original season of NXT, Heath Slater scored a big victory over Chris Jericho.

Heath was part of the NXT rookies while Jericho was more than established as a top act in WWE. When Vince McMahon originally suggested the idea to have Jericho lose to Heath, he was not happy. It wasn’t until he talked to Pat Patterson that it made sense to him.

“We were doing something where I had to work with Heath Slater and Vince wanted me to put him over,” Jericho recalled on Talk Is Jericho. “I usually don’t (care), but I flipped out and was like, ‘What? This guy is like a nothing. Why do you want me to put him over?’ Whatever the reason was. I went straight looking for Pat and was like, ‘Can you believe what [Vince] wants me to do? He wants me to put over Heath Slater. Can you believe that? What should I do?’ Pat goes, ‘Do it!’ He was basically telling me that, ‘everyone knows you’re going to beat this guy, but you’re a heel. If he beats you, you can flip out and you’ll get way more over by losing and have much more of a bone to pick and meat to chew on for a promo. No one is going to remember if this guy beats you next week. They don’t know what his name is and they still don’t. This gets you more over as a heel to lose to this opening match jobber.’ If Vince could’ve described it that way, it wouldn’t have been a problem, but Vince did not speak like Pat. Pat could speak wrestler-talk.” 

Jericho noted it would have been a different outcome had Pat not been there. 

Patterson passed away on December 2 following his battle with cancer.

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