How close was Chris Jericho to returning to WWE recently and is he coming back at all?

Back on October 4, my colleague Keith Harris brought word of Chris Jericho's contract negotiations with WWE coming to a standstill and ultimately breaking off altogether. The word then was that the company had little interest in working with Jericho if it meant catering to his whims regarding his touring status with his moderately successful rock band, Fozzy.

Considering WWE's history with its performers, this sounded about right at the time.

Now, in an interview with Wrestling Voice Radio, he reveals a few details about his talks with the promotion:

"It wasn't that much detail about it really, it was just (that) I called them to say I would be willing to do some shows over the next few months or whatever and they were interested in it, but then it just didn't really work out, we just couldn't really come up with anything scheduling wise. I really can't commit to anything. It would be more like if I had two weeks off I would call them, which I thought would be a great idea but they need to plan and figure it out too. So it's one of those things where when you have a lot of stuff going on it's hard to kind of plug yourself in and out of the WWE schedule because it is very, it goes by... it's like a river. You jump in the river, you float down the river, and then you get out and the river keeps going. It's hard to jump back in and jump out and jump in. I'm not opposed to going back to the WWE, there's just no plans of it right now."

This is one of those instances where it's hard to blame Vince McMahon and company for taking a stand. Sure, performers should be able to do more outside of wrestling but popping in and out every few weeks makes an already taxing job even more difficult for the writing team. At the very least, Jericho understands this and accepts it for being what it is and realizes it's how it has to be.

Then again, Jericho has always said he feels like he's missed out on a big party when WrestleMania rolls around and he's not there. A few months ago, he said it was 50-50 he would be back for the big show but recent scheduling conflicts have arisen since then that cast doubt upon his being able to make it back for "The Grand Daddy of Them All."

But with Monday Night Raw ratings sagging further and further, don't count out WWE doing something drastic. And remember, we're dealing with Chris Freaking Jericho, so he could always just be working us all, always in anticipation of his next return.