Chris Jericho Reveals Other Songs AEW Tried To License
AEW's Chris Jericho sat down with the Two Man Power Trip Of Wrestling podcast to promote his new book, 30 Years Of Smashes, Matches & Hits: The Complete List of Jericho. Prior to that Jericho talked about the term G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time), a term he started using years ago and one he got from a rap song he had heard.
"G.O.A.T. is such a thrown around word right now," Jericho said. "It's funny because I started using that in 2016 when I came back, and no one even really knew what it was. I got it from a rap song. I remember Vince saying 'why are you calling yourself a goat?' I'm like 'it's the greatest of all time.' I wish it was a better name like a bear, or the rhino, but the G.O.A.T. kind of sounds dopey. Now of course, everyone uses it. That's not for me to say that I'm the G.O.A.T. but if other people say it, it's much appreciated. Thank you. What I think I am one of the G.O.A.T.s of is longevity and always keeping relevant. Also, just always evolving. The G.O.A.T. of evolving. Like David Bowie might not be the greatest singer of all time, but he is the G.O.A.T. of always changing his character and keeping it fresh, and evolving into something different, but still being David Bowie at the root of it. I think it's the same for Chris Jericho in that I always do change things.
"I saw something the other day of like 12 different Jerichos in a picture. It's like if you want to dress like Jericho on Halloween, you have 12 different options, at least. I don't think too many wrestlers can say that, so if you want to talk about a G.O.A.T. in my opinion, that's one of the things that I've done almost better than anybody else, is constantly evolve and change, to never being a nostalgia act. I never wanted to be that. I always wanted to have a new album to go out and tour on, and not just keep relying on the stuff that I've done in the past. I always knew when it was time. I knew when it was time to diss Y2J in '07 when I came back. It just didn't work anymore. I knew it was time to switch things up when the Pinnacle beat us down. You get rid of the sunglasses and the flashy sequined jackets. We come back in black, and now it's more of a dark based black type of a look. It's subtle, but it's something that people know that this look is different from this look. This attitude is different from that attitude. I think it's something that people pick up on, but you have to lead them down that path, and let them know that this is a different guy. This is now a babyface. This is now a heel. This is now somebody who's gone to another company, or someone who's gone to a different country. There always has to be something a little bit twisted and different about it to keep people's attention, and to keep yourself relevant."
Changing things up is exactly what Jericho and the Inner Circle did when they turned face, coming back all dressed in black. Jericho once again told the story of AEW trying to license AC/DC's "Back in Black" song for the occasion, and also brought up another attempt by AEW to license a song from a well known band.
"We actually tried to get 'Back In Black' for our return promo after we attacked The Pinnacle in our dressing room, and they wouldn't even give us the time of day," Jericho said. "There's been other ones. We wanted Van Halen, right after Eddie died, we wanted to use 'Running With the Devil', they came back with '$500,000'. Well that's just a polite way of saying 'no f*cking way.' AC/DC didn't even come back with that. Then I see them on an Applebee's commercial using 'Back In Black', so I guess they're fans of the baby back ribs or something like that. I thought the whole concept of Back In Black fit. It's a saying that everybody knows. It rolls off the tongue, and it fits the mindset of what we're doing. We're coming back more focused, serious, and darker. That's kind of how it's been throughout this whole return."
Later Jericho got into his latest book. After having the host pick out a match from the book, Jericho went through how he put it together, as well as the binder of which he kept all the information in.
"I can go through and find out every match I've ever had, where it was, when it was, I gave it a star rating every night and I kept track of the money for the first probably 600 of them or so or 800 of them until I started making guaranteed money to where it's the same every week," Jericho said. "And it's just, I don't think there's ever been anybody that's done that before, especially with the career that I had of going 30 years around the world. So it really is a journal, a handwritten journal that basically, I mean if you haven't seen the book you can see right here. At the very front cover that's the actual page right there, that's my actual writing. That's the first page ever, and that we kind of trend, you know, made that part of the book as well in my actual handwriting, etc."
One thing Jericho hasn't been shy about while promoting the book is that his usual publishers weren't keen on backing this effort, despite four previous best sellers on Jericho's part. As such, it led to him doing it all on his own.
'The publishers that I've been working with were like 'that's too specific. And too soon,'" Jericho said. "I came in with this too direct of a- of a book or whatever. I said 'you guys don't know my fan base and don't know wrestling fans. You should know this after four New York Times bestsellers.' I mean, all of my instinct here, and they weren't into it, and I thought 'okay great, I'll do it myself. 'And here I am, in just two weeks today I think it is, we've already sold out half the first printing. You know, thousands and thousands and thousands of books and it's like they're already talking about a second printing and once again it's like 'I know when I'm right and I knew this will work and I knew it was right, so.'"
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Two Man Power Trip Of Wrestling and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription