Chris Jericho

Hi Chris how are you? Good, you?

Good, very good in fact. Now, let's get straight to the point. Is wrestling actually a sport? No.

Right. So why is it always on the sports channels then? Well it is a combination of the two things. First and foremost it's entertainment, but it's still very athletic, it's still a contact sport. Or at least a contact exhibition.

Your father, Ted, used to play professional ice hockey. Did you ever play? Yeah, I played hockey until I was about 17, and then I stopped because it was interfering with my wrestling training.

So why did you choose wrestling? I wanted to wrestle since I was eight years old, and I wanted to wrestle for the WWE since I was about 12.

How important was the prospect of wearing lycra trousers to work every day in that decision? That was very, very much a positive. I'm wearing spandex right now as a matter of fact.

Bang goes the question about what's in your pockets. We see you're currently the WWE's Intercontinental champion. What exactly is intercontinental about that title? That means I am the champion of all of the continents. As far as the water and skies go I don't have any jurisdiction, but if it's on land then I'm pretty much in charge.

Right, so what's left for the actual WWE champion? Well the WWE champion's in charge of boats and planes and stuff like that. If you're a pirate, the WWE champion is pretty much in charge. If a pirate comes up to me I really can't do anything about it.

We won't ask about the European champion. You were voted the most hated wrestler of the year in 2002. How does one go about achieving such an accolade? Well when you're a bad guy that's pretty much the highest accolade you can get. It's like the Oscar for bad wrestlers.

How much say do you get in whether you're going to play a bad guy or a good guy? Is that a decision for you or for your bosses? Pretty much the fans decide that. You just ride the wave. The most important thing about being in wrestling is that you have to connect with the crowd, connect with the fans, and you either want them to love you, or to hate you. Either way, so long as they're reacting to what you're doing.

You're just back in wrestling after taking a break – why did you need the time off? I was wrestling for 15 years straight, so I just needed to take a step back and there were a couple of other things I wanted to work on. I have a band, Fozzy, and we did a lot of touring, especially in England as a matter of fact, and then I wrote my book - A Lion's Tale. But I knew that in a matter of time I'd be back, and I'd be better than ever, and that's kind of how it worked out.

So are Fozzy going to be big in England? Yeah, I think so, I think music fans in the UK like what they like, whereas in America there's very much a radio influence, an MTV influence and people go in for trends all the time. We toured the UK five times in 2005 because we sold out 90% of our shows, because people were into the music and that's very cool.

Do you get heckled by wrestling fans at your gigs? Not really, no. It started out that wrestling fans came to check it out - my fans are very loyal, so whatever Chris Jericho does they come to check it out. And every band has a gimmick - Kiss have make-up, we have Chris Jericho. But that can only take you so far, the music has to be there for people to come back and that's what happened for us in the UK. We sold out the Astoria three times in 2005 and those people were there to see Fozzy, they weren't there to see Chris Jericho the wrestler.

Which is your favourite UK venue? Probably the Astoria. That was great. And the Mean Fiddler, which is the other side of the Astoria. All the shows we had in London were really cool.

You've also did some acting while you were away. We're looking forward, in particular, to seeing your star turn in next year's box office smash Albino Farm. Why would someone want to farm albinos? Well yes, they grow very nice, they're very tasty … No, it's based on a legend, from the early 1900s in the Missouri area of the United States, that there used to be this compound where they would put all the very strange, inbred people. It actually did exist, but it's a legend that's been expanded upon. It'll probably be the greatest movie of all time [laughs]. It'll probably win Oscars for everything.

What's your favourite non-albino themed movie? Well, I mean geez, if it doesn't have an albino in it I don't really want to watch … I really dug No Country For Old Men, that was probably the coolest movie I've seen in a while.

Brooke Hogan or Torrie Wilson? Brooke Hogan.

What's the strangest request you've had from a fan? To sign a tattoo they had of my face. I mean getting that in the first place seems about as smart as getting Ricky Gervais tattoo. In five years time you're going to be asking: "What the hell was I doing?"

Can you tell us a joke? I'm not really much of a song and dance joke man, I'm more of an improv joker, the time has to be right. For you to ask me to tell you a joke right now, it's a little bit rude actually [laughs].

Thanks very much for your time Chris Alright man, appreciate it.

Chris Jericho's book, A Lion's Tale is available now