On this week’s The Kurt Angle Show on AdFreeShows.com, Chris Jericho talked about a wide range of topics including getting heat early in his WWE career for expressing his opinions.

This is where he recalled having to convince Vince McMahon to let him put over John Cena early in his career:

“They were like, ‘If we tell Jericho something, he might question it’, meaning, well, if we want to do it this way, maybe try it this way, and it might work better, and they didn’t like that.”

“Some guys didn’t like that at the time. So I really got hammered a lot at first because of that. But it was also because of that quality that I was able to make it as far as I did, and probably the reason why I’m still here today, why we even started AEW because I always spoke my mind and stood up for what I thought was right,” Jericho said.

“I called Vince one night when Cena was first starting our first Pay-Per-View and I said, ‘Vince, you have to let me put this guy over’. He said, ‘Why? He doesn’t mean anything.’ I said, ‘He could mean something, but if you just put him on this big Pay-Per-View and I win, then what’s the point?’ because he had just done the big match with you, Kurt, and it was great, and you beat him as you should have. But if we keep fu*king beating him, it doesn’t matter.”

“So he did a great job with Kurt, and Kurt beat him. He’ll do a great job with me. And what if he beats me? Oh my gosh, he’s starting to rise. So it wasn’t ever about, I have to win or I have to do this, it was what’s best for the show, and what’s best for the match. Because I had an opinion and never cared about expressing it, that got me heat at the beginning, but then that got me respect in the end.”

H/T to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription