Chris Jericho has been in the wrestling business for more than 30 years, so he has wrestled numerous matches. Needless to say, he has a deep understanding of the business and the crowds who attend wrestling shows.
Speaking in the True Geordie podcast, the former AEW World Champion shared his thoughts on botches and the way fans often consequently chant, “You f—– up” at the performers. Jericho made it clear that he doesn’t think there’s such a thing as a botch because mistakes happen. He noted that wrestlers, unlike actors, only get one take, so they don’t get a redo.
“Things happen in the match. The f—— word I hate the most that fans use is botch. ‘Oh you botched that one.’ Shut your f—— mouth. There’s no such thing as a botch. This is a live show. Mistakes happen because why? Because we’re human beings, and we’re live. If it’s a movie, I bet you there’s a million mistakes in every movie, and take two, take five, take 20, take 50. We have one take. So if someone falls down, ‘You f—– up’? F- you, I’ll punch you in your f—— face for saying that. Yeah, people made a mistake. But it’s not like embarrassing. Yeah it sucks. We wish it didn’t happen. But it’s live.”
Jericho went on to contrast the fans’ reactions at sports games or Broadway plays by noting that crowds don’t chant, “You f— up” there. He then described how fans can walk the border of being disrespectful, and he brought up the way they booed the Bushwhackers at the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony as an example.”
“If you watch a hockey game, I’d a football game, guy’s skating down the ice and takes a shot at the open net and misses the net, how does that happen? You think that guy doesn’t wish he had another chance at it? But it’s done. If it happens in a hockey game, the fans don’t all start chanting in unison, ‘You f—– up. You f—– up.’ If you go to a Broadway play and someone fumbles their lines, people don’t start chanting, ‘You f—– up. You f—– up.’ You go to a wrestling match and miss a hip toss, people start chanting that. It’s bulls—. It’s f—— disrespectful.
“And wrestling fans walk the line of being disrespectful. And it’s like Mike Tyson said, everybody’s got a f— opinion on social media, but you would never say that to somebody’s face. And the same thing sitting in a crowd. Hall of Fame, WWE Hall of Fame and people are f— booing the Bushwhackers for being in the Hall of Fame. F— you. People are making fun of those guys for getting in the Hall of Fame at the Hall of fame ceremony. How dare you? How dare you? They’re chanting and saying s— or whatever it was. So that to me is, yeah, I love wrestling fans. If there were no fans, there would be no career for Chris Jericho, but you gotta keep it in check sometimes and show some respect. X so botch, botch, there is no botch. There is mistakes that happen because it’s a live performance.”
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