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WWF Legend Reveals How He Almost Wrestled At WrestleMania 34 As A “Backup”

WrestleMania

During a recent edition of Talk Is Jericho podcast with Daniel Bryan as the guest, Old School WWF Legend Chris Jericho and SmackDown Live wrestler Daniel Bryan discussed the whole situation where Jericho almost replaced Shane McMahon as Bryan’s partner at WrestleMania 34.

Daniel Bryan told that despite being part of the match, the “backup” (Jericho) wasn’t revealed to him.

Below are the highlights:

Chris Jericho on Vince McMahon contacting him to possibly replace Shane O’Mac:

“A few weeks before WrestleMania, maybe 2-3 weeks, I get a call from Vince [McMahon]. He’s talking about Shane McMahon and his diverticulitis, and he had an infection in his hand, and he had staph infection, a hernia, and he told me that he doesn’t know that I can do WrestleMania, and he had somehow got someone to look at my schedule.

We had a Fozzy show [in New Hampshire] that day, and originally the idea was to combine it and have an earlier show and let the venue buy WrestleMania and I can watch WrestleMania with all the fans. So, he’s like, I know you are doing a WrestleMania show and afterwards you are going to watch WrestleMania with all of the fans. He goes, what do you think about coming to New Orleans if Shane McMahon won’t be able to do it?”

Daniel Bryan on despite being part of the match, the “backup” (possible partner, Jericho) not being revealed to him:

“It’s weird, because we are in this stage now where they don’t tell the boys anything. They keep all the secrets from the boys because they are afraid that the boys are talking to the dirt sheets and all of that kind of stuff. I asked, because Shane called me and told me that he was in the hospital now, ‘I got diverticulitis when I was in Antigua, and when they put me on IV’s I got a staph infection from the IV’s and then I have this hernia that is coming out of my stomach,’ but he’s like, ‘don’t worry, I will be ready for WrestleMania.’ What? How? That doesn’t make any sense.

So, I was on my way to TV and was going through security when he told me to call him. We started talking and he said that, and when I got to TV the next day, I thought, ‘what are we going to do? Certainly he’s not going to be wrestling?’ They said, ‘well, he says he is wrestling, but we have a backup, and we think it’s a pretty good backup.’ I asked who it was, and they said that they couldn’t tell me. I thought, ‘wait, you can’t tell me? I’m in the match! Shouldn’t I know?’

I had assumed, I had kind of assumed that you [Jericho] that makes the most sense with your history with Kevin [Owens] and stuff. Shane McMahon is just fearless, and it’s weird because he had that helicopter crash, and the pilot was more shaken than he was. He was keeping the pilot calm. It’s like, what? You’re going down in a helicopter!”


        
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