What’s the story?
WWE United States Champion Chris Jericho recently spoke to Busted Open Radio while accepting their 2016 Comeback Of The Year award. He spoke in detail about ‘The List of Jericho’, revealing who came up with the idea, the changes that he made to the list and Vince McMahon’s reaction to all this.
In case you didn’t know…
‘The List of Jericho’ made its first appearance on the 19 September episode of Raw and has been a regular feature on the show ever since. Since its inception, Jericho has been using the list to make a note of the names of people who bother him and the reason for it.
His ‘best friend’ Kevin Owens tried to use it as a weapon in the Survivor Series men’s elimination tag match between Raw and SmackDown but ended up being disqualified and was eliminated. Raw general manager Mick Foley, apparently, was the first name to make it to the list because ‘Y2J’ felt that he has been screwing him up.
The heart of the matter
During the conversation, Jericho credited his co-writer for most of 2016, Jimmy Jacobs, for coming up with ‘The List of Jericho’. Since it was received well on the first night of its use, the United States Champion thought of coming up with a proper list. He approached the WWE’s props department and asked for a ‘list’ made from steel which would be thick enough to hurt people when hit by it.
Chris Jericho stated:
“The List came up and that was really my co-writer for most of the year, Jimmy Jacobs, he actually came up with The List Of Jericho. We were like, 'Oh let's give it a try' and after the first night it really worked. After that I was like 'Let's actually get a list.'
If you see the first couple of weeks it was just a clipboard, and then Vince was actually off for a few weeks because I think that's when he tore his quad or something along those lines, so I went to the props department and I said, 'can you make me a list but I want it made out of steel, I want it to be thick like a tablet. So if you hit somebody with it, it'll knock em out’.”
When Vince McMahon returned after a brief injury layoff, the 6-time WWE world champion showed him ‘The List of Jericho’ and revealed his intention to use it as a foreign object. However, McMahon suggested to Jericho that he should use it as a separate entity and soon enough, it became more popular among fans than a large percentage of the roster.
This is what ‘The Ayatollah of Rock ‘n’ Rolla’ had to say:
“When Vince came back I kind of told him, 'here's this list that I got and I had it made so I can use it as a foreign object.' He thought it was great. The first idea was for me to take it to the ring and use it for finishes, but he didn't want that, he just wanted it to be this entity. Next thing you know The List Of Jericho is more over than 80 percent of the roster.”
What next?
From the time ‘The List of Jericho’ has come into existence, the veteran superstar has never used it as a weapon. However, it will be interesting to see if he does bring it into play during the Royal Rumble match.
Sportskeeda’s Take
‘The List of Jericho’ is certainly one of the most creative ideas to have come out from the WWE in a long time. A lot of credit for its success, though, must go to Chris Jericho for executing it so brilliantly.
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