Chris Jericho has revealed that a meeting with TNA Wrestling played a key role in helping him negotiate a better contract with WWE.
Speaking during a Dark Side of the Ring Q&A event in New York, Jericho recalled how he used WWE’s perceived competition from TNA as leverage while negotiating his return to the company in 2007.
“We met at the Cheesecake Factory in Tampa, Florida. I was talking about going back to WWE. I’d been off for a couple of years. I think this was around 2007. At the time, Vince [McMahon] had the magic number for a salary. I won’t say what that number was, but it was the highest you could get, no matter who you were.”
Jericho explained that while top stars could earn significantly more through bonuses and main event opportunities, WWE had a salary ceiling that Vince McMahon initially wasn’t willing to meet.
“At that time, if you headlined and were a main eventer, you would make more money and so on, but there was a certain base number he wasn’t coming close to. I thought, ‘Well, let me see if I can arrange a meeting with Double J and have a conversation with TNA and see what happens.’”
Jericho also admitted he intentionally made sure news of the meeting would find its way into the wrestling media. “My cousin was in town at the time, and I said, ‘Just go sit over there and comment on what you see. And here’s the email address of someone in the wrestling dirt sheet world who might be interested in what you see.’”
While Jericho said he wasn’t completely ruling out TNA, he acknowledged that the strategy had the desired effect. “I’m not saying I wasn’t entertaining the idea, but two days later, guess who came back with the magic number?”
