The original plans for Chris Jericho's cruise looked much different than the final product.
On a recent episode of Talk Is Jericho, Jericho took fans behind the scenes and detailed how the cruise came about.
Jericho first had the idea for the cruise back in 2015 after he was part of the KISS Cruise. At the time, Jericho was still in WWE and it was just a small idea. Over the next two years, Jericho began planning the cruise and, because he still had a close relationship with WWE and wasn't yet appearing on other wrestling shows, Jericho wanted to work with NXT on the cruise. Jericho approached Triple H about using NXT talent, but after six weeks of waiting for an answer, he was finally told "no." Jericho revealed that Vince McMahon is not a fan of cruises because he once read a story where everyone on a cruise ship got food poisoning.
Jericho divulged that the initial idea was for him to wrestle Rey Mysterio as the headlining match on the cruise.
After WWE/NXT turned him down, Jericho partnered with ROH for the cruise, leading to commitments from Kenny Omega, Cody, the Young Bucks, and more ROH talent. Another idea was for Omega to team with the Young Bucks to take on Jericho, Lance Storm, and Mysterio. But Storm could not make the cruise for undisclosed reasons and Jericho was worried he could not offer Mysterio enough money for a wrestling appearance. Jericho and Mysterio settled on the latter making a special guest appearance and doing a live Talk Is Jericho episode.
"He is going to be on the cruise. He re-signed with WWE but one of the caveats was this was one of his dates, which I'm sure Vince is THRILLED about," said Jericho.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer reports that WWE did try to keep Mysterio from going on the cruise, but were unable to do so. Mysterio is being advertised for SmackDown Live on Oct. 30. The cruise is set to run from Oct. 27 to 31. Originally, Mysterio's podcast appearance on the cruise was scheduled for Oct. 30, but things were re-arranged and Mysterio will now do the podcast appearance on Oct. 27.
Mysterio is expected to depart the cruise when they arrive to the Bahamas on Oct. 29 in order to appear on SmackDown Live in Georgia.
