Chris Jericho is involved in probably the most hilarious and entertaining segments on Monday Night RAW along with the WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens. Jericho threatens to put anyone, who disrespects him and his best friend, on the ‘List of Jericho’.
Chris Jericho recently made an appearance on Fight Network’s ‘The Law’ and discussed the origins of the concept. He revealed that it wasn’t him, but WWE writer and former ROH wrestler Jimmy Jacobs, that first suggested the idea of a list. He said:
“I wish I could take credit for saying I came up with it but Jimmy Jacobs, who has become a writer in WWE, his name is Chris Scobille but his wrestler name is Jimmy Jacobs, no stranger to anybody who is a fan of Ring of Honor or any of those big independent companies.
He said I’ve got this idea of the List of Jericho and you put a couple names on it. I said ‘Oh yeah, that’s a great idea!’ and we did it.”
Jericho further explained how the concept developed and evolved over the period of the next few weeks as they persisted. He also highlighted the contribution of The New Day to help ‘The List’ get over and in particular praised Xavier Woods for his impeccable reaction to being put on ‘The List’:
“Of course, you do it once and it was kind of funny, that’s pretty funny, let’s do it again. So we do it again the next week, it gets a little bit of a buzz and then I go to the props truck and say can you make me big, thick list in case I want to use it to hit somebody over the head with and engrave something on.
Then, they just put a red piece of paper on it that said the List of Jericho. Meanwhile, this thing is growing. Then, the one week where I said you just made the list and people cheered, it’s like holy (expletive) this is not what we expected.
Then, the week we were in there with New Day and I put all three of them on the list, I said the secret is when I put you on the list, you have to sell it like it’s a horrible thing and Woods was great.
If people are laughing at it, then it doesn’t get over but because it’s a serious thing, to be on the list is horrible then suddenly we have this whole new world of stuff to deal with.”
Chris Jericho also revealed how he joked with Vince McMahon about how the popularity of‘The List’. Jericho also stressed the importance of spontaneity and natural progression that some of the best gimmicks have to undergo.
“I was talking to Vince the other day and I said the list is more over than half the roster and he said yeah, I wish the list could work. The entity of this thing that doesn’t even exist and is now a character on the show. The best gimmicks and best things that work always happen organically.
You can’t shove something down people’s throats. It just happens and it becomes a thing. The only thing I can compare this to is the angle I had with Shawn Michaels back in 2008. That was supposed to be just a one-night thing that turned into a 7-month angle, culminating in a battle for the World Heavyweight Championship.”
Chris Jericho is consistently one of the most over performers on the WWE roster and a lot of that has to be attributed to his creativity and ability to reinvent himself in each of his successive WWE runs. This has to be one of the best stints of his career.
Also read: Chris Jericho opens up about his real life feud with Goldberg
It takes a special kind of performer to get over words like ‘it’ and ‘stupid idiot’ and silly things such as ‘The List of Jericho’. It’s just a testament to the greatness of the former nine-time Intercontinental Champion.
Each week, the fans in the arena are visibly waiting to erupt after hearing the four magic words ‘You just made the list!”. The following video shows how the world first got introduced to the ‘List of Jericho’:
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