Chris Jericho has never been afraid to change things up, but one of his boldest career moves came when he decided it was time to kill off the Y2J act.
While speaking to Dan Marston, Jericho was asked which version of himself was the biggest risk he ever took. Jericho pointed back to his 2007 WWE return, when he realized the old Y2J presentation no longer felt right for where he wanted to go.
Jericho admitted he did not want to be locked into the same version of himself forever. That meant changing his look, dropping the old entrance elements, and telling WWE’s announcers to stop using the Y2J name altogether.
“I think probably when I dropped the whole Y2J persona and the countdown, there was a time when I came back in 2007 where I was kind of, I’m not going to say a diluted version of Chris Jericho, but, you know, it wasn’t the same. I had shorter hair and times had changed, right? So, I thought I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to be a nostalgia act. So, I switched from, you know, I cut my hair, like I said, and I switched from long tights to trunks, you know, dropped the Y2J. I told the announcers, ‘Don’t ever call me Y2J ever again.’ Did a whole new video package that had none of that. And then the countdown was so synonymous with Jericho. Get rid of the countdown. It’s done.”
Jericho compared the change to one of the most famous reinventions in rock history. To him, moving away from Y2J was not a small tweak. It was a major shift designed to show fans that he was taking his character somewhere new.
“And that was kind of the first time where I really took a shot cuz I was like, you know, it’s almost like Kiss when they took off the makeup. You know, 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. And that was kind of the, it was a big risk, you know, but not for long. It’s something that I had to do.”
That gamble helped Jericho understand that reinvention could be one of his biggest strengths. He said he learned that he could keep changing whenever things started to feel stale, even if not every fan loved every version.
“And that’s when I realized I can reinvent myself whenever I start feeling a little stale and people will like some of it, 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.”
Jericho’s choice to drop Y2J was a serious turning point in his career. Instead of living off the same entrance, catchphrases, and look, he pushed himself into a new lane and proved he could still keep fans watching without the old package.
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