You don't get to be the lead vocalist of a successful rock band, bestselling author, reality show star and sports entertainer by not keeping you name in the headlines, and Chris Jericho has proven to be a master of all of those things over the years.
Yesterday, he spoke to Rodolfo Roman of The Roman Show about real life brawls at a time when pro wrestler's shoot fighting abilities are a hot topic due to the announcement that UFC has signed CM Punk. You can check out a video of their chat below, but here are some highlights.
On if he'd ever considered mixed martial arts, something Punk says a lot of pro wrestlers wish they'd done:
Hell no! Not even close. I am in show biz. I would never even consider it. I am not a tough guy. I just play one on TV.
Jericho did have a bit of a reputation as a guy who could hold his own, largely off of tales about a fight he had with Goldberg when the former National Football Leaguer joined WWE in 2003. Either big Bill was mouthing off about Y2J or Chris still had beef from Goldberg not wanting to work with in WCW or both, but the Fozzy front man allegedly stepped to Goldberg and ended up taking him down.
Roman asks him about that:
It was a different world then. Things happen all the time. When everybody is holding on to their position like I got to do this, I got to do that, Goldberg and I saw wrestling from both sides of a different coin. But both of us were very successful. There wasn't a lot of interest on his end to work with me in WCW. There was a little animosity between us that transferred to the WWE. We had a scuffle it wasn't what everyone says where Jericho took him down and tied him in a knot. I stood up for myself and held my ground. It was what it was. It was unfortunate for Bill, it was on his first day, so he kind of got labeled right off the bat.
While he doesn't deny that he should be scored the winner of their first fight, a rematch would follow under his "hell no" response to UFC:
If you want to score it, OK, Jericho - 1, Goldberg - 0. There will never be a rematch, ever. If it ever happens, I'll run away screaming because... I'm not going to say I got lucky, but I'm glad the outcome was the way it was because I thought he was going to tear my head off. Bill's a good guy man, I have nothing but love for him, nothing but respect.
Check out the interview, and let us know what you think, Cagesiders.