Chris Jericho On Punk Leaving, WrestleMania, Following The Product

Chris Jericho recently spoke to FOX Sports.

FOXSports.com: WrestleMania XXX is on April 6. Are you excited to watch it or do you not have much interest since you're not part of the WWE at the moment?

Chris Jericho: Kind of half and half. I'm not wrestling because I choose not to. I have other things going on. I don't see myself wresting five years from now, so now is the time to make that transition. I follow the shows more online than anything. I don't really watch wrestling because there are too many other things I like to watch. If I were at home for a couple of days, I'd rather watch "True Detective" or "Walking Dead" or "House of Cards" than wrestling. WrestleMania, I might check it out if I'm home. But my house isn't really a wrestling house. My kids don't care for it, my wife's not a fan. If I do watch it, it's more like I have to tape it and watch it later.

FS: The big story in the WWE right now is the status of CM Punk, who walked away from the company a couple of months ago. Did you walk out on the WWE? And what is your opinion on what Punk did?

CJ: No. I've never done that. When I felt the way that Punk did in '05, I just waited until my contract was done, and then I left for two-and-a-half years. I never walked out in the middle of a contract, nor would I. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing that Punk did because that's his decision. I don't know anything about it. I know as much as everyone else. The thing is, the wrestling business goes on. There's never been one guy who has ever left and caused the business to shut down. Hulk Hogan left. Bret Hart left. All these guys have left and guess what? They get replaced.

FS: Jim Ross told me that Punk is leaving a ton of money on the table.

CJ: Then, he must have made a s---load of money. I walked away from WCW when they offered me a contract, but I had enough. They could've paid me $3 million or $5 million or $10 million, and I still didn't want to be there. If you don't want to be there, the money is irrelevant. Yeah, you could look at it like he's walking away from a s---load of money, but he's also walking away from a situation where he's saying, "I don't care what they pay me, it's not enough. It's not worth my sanity, and I'm leaving." It's easy to play armchair quarterback with this situation, but no one knows what's going on except Punk, and he's not talking, so it's all speculation at this point. The bottom line is, life goes on, the business goes on, and Punk doesn't seem to worry about it too much because he's not there.

FS: Do you keep up with what's going on in the WWE?

CJ: I follow what's going on, but I don't really sit down to watch and analyze it. I need to follow what's going on. It's part of what I do. Whether it's my podcast or just being Chris Jericho. I never understood the guys who would come back into wrestling after being gone for five or six years and have no idea who all the characters are, and what's what. I'm kind of in the middle. I still follow along, but I don't really watch a lot.