Chris Jericho has a different take on how he views nostalgia and wishes to do things with an extra little twist.
Ring of Honor World Champion Chris Jericho was the latest guest on AEW Unrestricted with Tony Schiavone and Aubrey Edwards to discuss a wide variety of subjects. When asked about fans wanting him to bring back gimmicks like “The List of Jericho”, he explains that it’s just something he doesn’t feel anymore.
“[When people say] I wish Jericho would bring back The List. Like no, it’s a point in time where it was awesome. That fucking list was so over,” Chris Jericho said. “And that’s another reason why if I go back to WWE, they’re gonna want me to do The List… I don’t feel it anymore. It’s like DX crotch chopping, It just doesn’t work anymore.
“The Painmaker is something I really liked because I did it in Japan because the first match I had with Kenny [Omega], the match was great, but the look didn’t fit. It was list Jericho, and I was ehh Japan’s different, and I feel more like Bruiser Brody.
“I gained weight because I know Japanese people respect blockiness and if I’m gonna headline the Tokyo Dome, which I did three years in a row. I want to adopt a different character. Like Robert De Niro in Raging Bull, right? And I just didn’t feel like a list guy and a light-up jacket guy. I feel like a killer; what would a serial killer look like if he was a wrestler? What would that be?
“And I don’t know why I was just like maybe a little Alice Cooper? Maybe a little Clockwork Orange? Maybe a little just f*cking like, I don’t know, some shitty makeup here and some shitty makeup there where it kind of trails off. I remember when I brought it here. I think it was one of our makeup girls was like, do you want me to do that? No, I don’t wanna professionally. It’s some f*cking lunatic who’s just painting. Like, [Buffalo Bill from Silence Of The Lambs] ‘it puts the lotion in the basket.’
“Maybe it’s a hat, and there’s a Jack the Ripper, and there’s a jacket with spikes, and I don’t know. I just liked it. And it worked. It felt better as that character, and then when we were finished with the New Japan run, well hopefully not finished forever, but the first match I had with Darby [Allin], he wears paint well I got a painted up guy, it’s a street fight. Let me do The Painmaker. I did it with Nick Gage. I did it with Eddie [Kingston].
“It’s the hardcore deathmatch version of Jericho that I’m now taking to the NFT universe. We’re doing an NFT Painmaker graphic novel. We did two Painmaker NFTs that sold very quickly. So I want to take this character into like — there’s only so many Spider-Man, Batman, Superman movies I can watch. Sooner or later, someone has to create a new superhero. And I created this Painmaker. So that’s the guy I like to bring back for these crazy death matches or whatever.”
Chris Jericho then went on to drop a bombshell that he’s never had a match with The Icon Sting and hopes to add it to his resume before it’s all said and done.
“Whenever there’s a Sting/Jericho match, which there has to be. Sting and I have never been in the ring together ever, except for when Keith Mitchell retired and we had that after-ceremony,” Chris Jericho revealed. “Never been in the same ring ever, ever, ever, ever! There has to be a Sting/Jericho match in whatever way we decide to do it, and that would be a great time for Painmaker.
“Lionheart was Mox’s idea. Because we were trying to think we had this title match because everybody was hurt this summer. [CM] Punk was hurt. [Bryan] Danielson was hurt. Samoa Joe wasn’t available, Kenny [Omega] was hurt, freakin Adam Cole was hurt. Someone’s got to hold down the fort, and this summer, it was Mox and Jericho. If he wasn’t in the main event, if his story wasn’t the main event, my story was.
“So it was perfect for us to have a rematch. We never had one since February of 20. He said we need a gimmick match. I said no, we don’t. We just did this barbed wire thing. Let’s just have a f*cking wrestling match. That’s the gimmick. And he came up with the Lionheart, and I was like, that’s really cool. We can really sink our teeth into that. I went to the storage unit to try and find the old Lionheart tights, I could not find them.
“So I’m like, why would I? I found the kick pads; they smell like a storage unit. But I’m like, if KISS was going on tour in 2022, wearing the costumes from the Love Gun tour in 77. They wouldn’t dig them out of the mothballs. They’d have a new updated version made. So that’s what I did with the Lionheart tights. Then after the pulmonary embolism, I finally dropped the weight that I gained for The Painmaker. And I said I’ll just do a couple of little wacky Mexican submissions and get the White Zombie theme song, and we’ll see what happens, and it was one of the best matches of my career.
“And Tony loved it, and he’s like, we got to do the Lionheart again, and he really pushed for The Lionheart versus American Dragon, and it fits. It really, really worked well, and listen, I mean, Barbed Wire Everywhere. I broke my nose. A week after Wheeler Yuta, my big toenail fell off. Moxley, I got gashed open, and I have a bruised larynx. We just had to postpone our Fozzy tour because I have no top range from that match. It happens.
“It’s part of what we do, but it also shows the intensity and how well these matches are working. And I think people enjoy the extra little twist. Painmaker with Eddie. Lionheart with Mox. Lionheart with Bryan, let’s do it. And what is it really? It’s all me; it’s all David Bowie. There’s just little different window dressings and maybe something different to the setlist that you haven’t done for a while. Let’s bring it back. That’s what I like about — it’s not nostalgia to me. It’s taking it into the modern era. So that’s why I like to do that and delve back into that.”
READ MORE: Tony Khan: It’s Scary How Good Chris Jericho Is Right Now, He Has Found The Fountain Of Youth
What do you make of Chris Jericho’s comments? Does it better help you understand his views on nostalgia? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit AEW Unrestricted with a link back to this article for the transcription.
