Chris Jericho has had some excellent theme songs throughout his pro wrestling career, and that doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon.
All Elite Wrestling’s Chris Jericho recently sat down with Alex McCarthy of Inside The Ropes to discuss a wide variety of subjects. When asked about going from his WWE theme song, “Break Down the Walls,” to “Judas,” Jericho went in-depth regarding the history of both songs and their importance to him.
“‘Break the Walls Down’ was written by Jim Johnston,” Chris Jericho began. “With some input from Kevin Dunn and myself. Because I wanted something much more kind of dated, almost like an 80s thing, and Kevin Dunn was like, ‘No, you need something contemporary, something like a Rage Against the Machine.’ And I was like, okay, and Jim came up with that and when I first I heard it, it’s got a real good groove to it. I remember just saying I want more guitars on it, like put another five tracks of guitars on it. And he did. So yeah, it’s one of those classic themes, and then obviously, when I left WWE to go to the New Japan, I couldn’t use it and maybe I could have tried but I didn’t want to; I wanted something new.
“Judas was — the reason why I used ‘Judas’ is because ‘Judas’ was at its peak as a radio hit at the time. And we have been trying to tour Japan for 22 years that we’ve been in a band and we just can’t get booked there for whatever reason. I thought, Well, f*ck, if I’m headlining the Tokyo Dome, maybe if I come to the ring to a Fozzy song, at least 50,000 people will hear it and maybe one of those people will be a f*cking promoter that can get us over there, and it didn’t work out that way. But it did work out to be an amazing song. I remember the first time I used it was against Kenny [Omega] at the Tokyo Dome, and just like, holy shit, this vibe is so good. So cool. And then, a few months after that, people started singing it on my cruise, and that was just a magic moment that still exists to this day; it was organic. And that’s what I always look for as an organic reaction.
“Then when I started the JAS and turned heel, I had a remix with Rich Ward that we did that was a little bit less of a sing-along. Tony [Khan] didn’t want to do it. I was like, ‘I’m a heel. I don’t want people to sing.’ He’s like, ‘Why? It’s an organic moment that people know as part of our show. Why would we want to cut off our nose to spite our face? Okay, so you use a different song, it gets you heat for one week and then you just have an entrance? Why? Let’s f*cking use it and it’s part of the show,’ and he was right. People sing along, and then after that, it’s my job to be a heel and this is entertainment. Right? So when you have that moment where people are singing on their own organically, why mess with it? And we didn’t and as a result of all of those things, we just got a gold record for ‘Judas’, which has, you know, 500,000 units sold, or a streaming equivalent of, and from what I understand, it’s still steamrolling towards probably going to go platinum in the next four to five years. So who am I to argue with that?”
READ MORE: Chris Jericho Comments On AEW Backstage Meeting: I Always Want To Remind People To Stay On Course
What do you make of Chris Jericho’s comments? Are you happy that they didn’t change his Judas theme song in All Elite Wrestling? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit Inside The Ropes with a link back to this article for the transcription.
