It’s My Wrestling Podcast sent out the following:

In a recent interview with It’s My Wrestling podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Larry Zbyszko discussed several topics, including filing a lawsuit against Chris Jericho and the WWE, plans for an NWA/AWA invasion where he would face Ric Flair, working with Vince McMahon Sr and more.

The interview is available in full at this link, with highlights of the interview below:

Filing a lawsuit against Chris Jericho and WWE: Even though WCW just ended I was still using the “Living Legend” to do independent wrestling, TNA stuff when they started, so I was still using the living legend – that was my trademark. And then he (Jericho) started using the living legend. I kind of was talking to some WWE people, I was actually trying to like maybe work something out where I come in and wrestle Jericho – but then it didn’t work out so I wound up kind of filing a lawsuit against them to make them shut up. We filed it but then it was just kind of like a double knockout and nothing happened. Okay, we won’t use it, okay good. I mean there really wasn’t much I could do, I could come in and do broadcasting, I was getting too old to wrestle. I mean, there’s no hard feelings against the WWE or anything.

Why he never wrestled Ric Flair, plans for an NWA/AWA invasion angle, NWO: Well, here’s the story because it was supposed to happen. In 1985, I was in AWA and Flair was in the NWA, you know, and TBS with the Crocketts. And Vince was way ahead of both those organisations and territories were trying to hang, but it was over with the pay per views and the cable nationwide. So my first action figure came out, I think 84/85 and if you look at it it’s the NWA collection, and all the AWA collections had AWA wrestlers in, but mine had a doll of me and a doll of Flair. Flair wasn’t in the AWA, he was in the NWA. They were putting together a scenario of an invasion, where the NWA was gonna wrestle the AWA guys, and I was supposed to be having matches with Flair. I even did a couple interviews one day in Minneapolis for ESPN, you know calling Flair out and challenging him because I’m the living legend. I retired Bruno I retired Kawowski, and then Flair was going to come back and bad mouth me on TBS saying he was the Nature Boy, he’s the greatest you know, the man gimmick. So then one show someone would invade the other group on one of their shows. But at the last minute, the Crocketts and the Gagnes, it fell apart. The interesting thing is that was the exact same idea when Eric Bischoff and Greg Gagne were in the office of WCW. That invasion idea, the same one we were supposed to do with me and flair started what became the NWO where we had Hall and Nash invade WCW and made it look like the WWE guys were invading WCW. That’s where the idea came from. That’s why me and Flair were in the same pack but we never wrestled each other. That’s the situation that became the NWO which became the hottest thing ever. It was supposed to happen with me and Flair 10 years earlier.

His dealings with Vince McMahon Sr: He was an approachable and very smooth character. I mean, if you watched movies from the 1930s and 40s and 50s, Mr McMahon Senior was like the perfect promoter from an old movie. I mean, he’d be walking down the back of the garden and even have his cashmere long, light brown jacket on. He had this habit of always having like four or five quarters in his hand, and he’d like move them around a little bit. So you get here a little jingling and you know Vince is coming. But he was a classy guy, grey hair, always looked good. If someone had a good idea he’d to it. If somebody had a bad idea you know, he had agents like Gorilla monsoon, and obviously some of the guys if they kept bugging him too much and Vince knew that this is not a great idea he’d say you know what, that’s a good idea, I’m gonna go think about that. Then later that night, he go into one of the offices and see Gorilla Monsoon there and go – Gorilla. Fire that guy. So then it wasn’t Vince that was the bad guy it was one of those agents. One of the middlemen, but that’s the way the business had to go in those days.