AEW star and pro wrestling veteran Chris Jericho recently appeared on TMZ Inside the Ring to discuss a variety of topics.
He talked about moving away from his Y2J character and said he had spoken with WWE commentators, asking them to stop referring to him as Y2J.
Jericho said, “If you go back to Y2J and then suddenly when I became — we’re talking about the Shawn Michaels era, 2008 when I’ve got short hair. I’ve gone from long tights to short tights, the countdown is gone. And I said to the commentators, ‘You are not allowed to call me Y2J anymore. Never say that word again.’ Because you have to make people understand this is a new guy. This is a new version. When Kiss took off their makeup in 1982, you knew that. ‘What happened to Kiss? They’re the makeup guys!’ Not anymore. This is a new thing. So, you have to subtly let people know that this is a new era, a new force to be reckoned with, a new style, you know? And the more drastic you can do that, the better. If it’s shaving your head, that’s fine.”
On his character evolution:
“Sometimes you have to do something drastic to let people know it’s a new guy. And I’ve always done that. And whether it’s a catchphrase or a look, or a style of music, or the Tron behind me, or the wardrobe I’m wearing in the ring, you got to keep it different and make each era specific. So that people know, ‘Okay, this is a new guy.’ Now, the Jericho era, people will know that, or they’ll see a picture and know, ‘Okay, that’s the Jericho era.’ And that’s always what I wanted to do.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
