Chris Jericho explains why he dropped the “Y2J” persona in WWE
While speaking with Dan Marston, Chris Jericho was asked about the biggest risk he ever took when it came to his wrestling characters. Here was Jericho’s response…
“I think it was probably when I dropped the whole Y2J persona and the countdown.
There was a time when I came back [to WWE] in 2007 where I was kind of—not going to say a diluted version of Chris Jericho—but it wasn’t the same. I had shorter hair, and times had changed. So I thought, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to be a nostalgia act.’
I cut my hair and switched from long tights to trunks. I dropped the Y2J name and told the announcers, ‘Don’t ever call me Y2J ever again.’ We did a whole new video package that had none of that. And the countdown was so synonymous with Jericho. Get rid of the countdown. It’s done.
That was kind of the first time where I really took a shot because I was like, you know, it’s almost like when Kiss took off the makeup. You’re doing something very drastic here, and you want people to understand we’re doing something different.
Whether you like it or don’t like it, that’s not for us to decide, but here’s where we’re going. Here’s the path that we’re taking. Come on board if you want to.
That was a big risk, but not for long. It’s something that I had to do. That’s when I realized I can reinvent myself whenever I start feeling a little stale. People will like some of it and not like some of it, but I can’t worry about what people think. I just have to worry about what I can do to be the best personality I can be.”