Jericho Tells Critics to 'F--k Off'; Undertaker Wants 2-Hour Raw; McIntyre Hypes HHH

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe and AEW.

Chris Jericho Dismisses Retirement Talk

A few months away from his 54th birthday, Chris Jericho has no desire to retire from professional wrestling.

During an interview with the Daily Star (starts at 28:00 mark), Jericho made a point of saying "f--k off" when fans were chanting "please retire" at him earlier this year.

"To me, when the 'please retire' chants were going, I was laughing because I have zero intentions of that. I've got a six pack, I can do a moonsault, and I know exactly what I'm doing in the ring. I know how to write storylines. I like the company I work for. I like my boss. I like the guys and girls in the company. Why would I want to retire? What's the point because someone told me to? F*ck off. I remember the (Rolling) Stones in '89, when they did the Steel Wheels Tour, they were calling it the Steel Wheelchair Tour. 'The Stones are too old. The Stones should retire.' I just saw The Stones two months ago and they were amazing. They didn't care. You retire when you know it's time and you know it's right. It's not the right time right now. Until that moment where I feel, 'This needs to stop,' I have no intentions (of retiring). There is no time limit. It could be this week. It could be five years from now. I don't know. I just know that as of this moment, I'm having a great time. I love going to work. I love contributing. There is no reason to stop doing that."

There was a moment when it seemed like Jericho was receiving go-away heat. The "please retire" chants occurred during his match with Hook at Dynasty that saw him win the FTW championship.

As has happened throughout his career, Jericho managed to use the fan response to his benefit. He adopted his new character of "The Learning Tree" in the wake of it and is leading a new stable that has helped elevate Big Bill and Bryan Keith into featured players on AEW television.

Jericho has used his profile in AEW over the years to help elevate new talent. He gave Action Andretti a clean win in Andretti's first AEW match in December 2022. You can argue that AEW fumbled the ball with Andretti after that moment, but it's not Jericho's fault.

Next up for Jericho is a rematch with Hook for the FTW title at All in on Sunday. This will be the third singles match between the two this year, with each winning once.

Undertaker Prefers 2-Hour Raw

Even though Raw has been a three-hour show since the 1,000th episode aired in July 2012, The Undertaker thinks it's too much television to run on a weekly basis.

On the most recent episode of his Six Feet Under podcast (starts at 1:07:53), Undertaker recalled a time he was sitting in the guerilla position with Triple H and Bruce Prichard during a Raw show and making a joke that it's too long:

"The whole time I sat up at Gorilla Position with Paul and Bruce Prichard, and then myself, we're sitting up there. I was like, 'This show's really three hours long?' I know it is, but I was just like, when you guys go to Netflix, is this show gonna cut back down to two hours? Three hours, why three hours? [Laughs] It's been three hours forever now, but I was just kind of trying to stress the point of three hours is a lot of wrestling on a Monday night."

While the third hour of Raw does give more time for superstars to establish themselves and storylines to play out, the simple reason why it remains three hours is because of money.

More hours of programming means more television money for WWE. USA paid $265 million per year on a five-year contract to retain Raw in 2018, nearly doubling the previous annual price of $150 million.

Raw will move to Netflix in January on a deal that could be worth $5 billion over 10 years. This will actually make the show longer for television viewers subscribed to the streamer's ad-free tier because they won't get commercial breaks.

Fortunately, WWE is in a very good spot with more talent on the roster than it has ever had before. This makes it much easier to watch a three-hour weekly broadcast compared to 2019 when Miz's dad was fighting Shane McMahon on television.

Drew McIntyre Praises Triple H's Leadership

There has been no shortage of praise heaped upon Triple H since he took over the creative in WWE, with Drew McIntyre being the latest to commend the job he's doing.

Appearing on The Masked Man Show (h/t Julien D'Alessandro of Wrestling Inc.), McIntyre explained that one benefit of Triple H's tenure is the creative freedom provided that allows wrestlers to find their characters:

"The creative environment with WWE, Triple H kind of leading the charge, there's this freedom that feels like I've never felt before ... to truly go all the way now and you see so many different people, guys and girls across the board finding themselves — and we got so many superstars now. The show doesn't revolve around the same two or three people."

Among the many criticisms of WWE's previous creative team when Vince McMahon was the constant start-stop push given to wrestlers. It was impossible to get invested in any storyline because a superstar who was being pushed one week could just as easily get buried the next.

The Triple H regime has clearly made a point of prioritizing the development of new stars without sacrificing old ones. Rhea Ripley, Damian Priest, Tiffany Stratton, Liv Morgan, Jade Cargill, Solo Sikoa, Jacob Fatu, Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa are among the wrestlers who have been pushed as top-level stars in the past year or so.

McIntyre has been in WWE for years and was already established as a top guy, but he's in the midst of the best run of his career during this feud with CM Punk. The Scottish Warrior is playing a variation of the Bret Hart heel character from 1997 by telling the truth in a way the fans don't like.

The vibes have been great in WWE for a long time now, and there is no indication things are slowing down anytime soon.

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