Chris Jericho shares a wild behind the scenes story.
Fans may recall a November 2002 episode where The Dudley Boyz stole Chris Jericho and Christian’s clothes, which led to them walking around in their towels throughout the broadcast. As it turns out, that wasn’t the original plan. Jericho shared with Inside The Ropes that Vince McMahon had a different vision for how the angle would turn out.
“I know exactly what it is, and there were some crazy ones, but this was it. We had a tour of India, and when we came back, everyone was sick. Regal almost died from a heart parasite, and Lance Storm was sick, and Tommy Dreamer was sick, and everyone was going down with injuries. Because we were losing guys, they were going to build the whole show around Christian and Jericho against Booker T and Goldust. What was going to happen was they were going to go into the dressing room and steal our clothes. And then the rest of the show, Christian and I would be looking through the arena in towels trying to find our clothes.”
Jericho shared that the idea saw he and Christian go out to the stage while Booker T and Goldust were in the ring throwing their clothes around. While standing in front of the crowd, someone was supposed to come up from behind and steal Jericho and Christian’s towels so that they would be naked.
“We would be standing there in front of ten thousand people naked. I’m like, ‘So how do we disguise this?’ He’s like, ‘You don’t.’ I said to Michael Hayes, ‘Are you f***ing kidding me?’ He goes, ‘Well, you don’t want to do it?’ I said, ‘Do you? I’m not a Chippendales dancer. There’s kids in the crowd. I’ll get arrested for being a pedophile.'”
Jericho refused, and Christian was scared to back down because he was just starting to get pushed. Ten minutes later, McMahon summoned Jericho to his office.
“I go in the office, he’s like, ‘Hey, heard you have a question about today.’ I said, ‘I don’t have a question. I have a statement. I’m not doing it. I am not standing naked in front of a crowd on Monday Night Raw.’ He’s like, ‘Dammit, what are we supposed to do then?’ Jericho brought up getting kicked off the air for showing their genitals. Alternatively, he pitched to Vince that the seamstresses could make skin-toned thongs and they could put a blurry censor over their midsection on TV.
After McMahon agreed to that idea, they began discussing ideas for what would be found in their gear bags. Ideas included wrestling boots, tape, lingerie, and high heels. Jericho expressed his displeasure with McMahon’s ideas of them portraying transvestites, so ultimately they settled on using “ass cream” for the segment.
“We’re in the first segment because we’re having a match against Booker and Goldust, they’re going to beat us, which led us going for a shower, which led to them stealing our clothes, etcetera. Like ten minutes before Raw starts, Booker T is getting wheeled out on a stretcher. ‘What’s going on?’ ‘He just collapsed from dehydration. He has to go to the hospital.’ ‘What? He’s got a match in ten minutes? He’s gotta pull out the ass cream.’
With Booker T out, it was switched to The Dudleys with only a ten minute’s notice because the whole episode was slated to be centered around the stolen clothes angle. Jericho recalled freaking out while everyone else involved was calm and ready to execute it. In the end, Spike Dudley stole their towels to set up Jericho and Christian running to the back while the camera was wide-panned.
McMahon recently returned to WWE’s Board of Directors. More information is available here.
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