Talk is Jericho Recap w/ Conrad Thompson – Discussing Jericho’s WWE Debut, Who Came up With the Countdown Clock? How Did the Locker Room Treat Him? More!

Jericho informs that he wore lifts in his boots in WWE two times in order to enhance his physical presence. He notes that WWE was the land of the giants at that time, and he felt like he needed to do something to compete with them. He quickly realized that he didn’t feel right wearing the lifts and he stopped. He adds that wearing those lifts could have been really bad for him because he was public enemy #1 in the WWE locker room anyways, and if his peers saw that they’d never let him live it down.
Jericho notes that Jim Johnson is one of the unsung heroes of the attitude era. He spoke with Johnson a month before his debut in order to discuss his theme music, and he brought some ideas that were really rock-based similar to AC/DC. WWE wanted Jericho to be a cooler, more contemporary character which required a more contemporary sound, and Johnson came up with “Break The Walls Down”.

At first the song had more of a rap element but Jericho asked for their to be way more guitars, and Johnson agreed. The version they agreed on is the same one he uses to this day. He notes that McMahon calls his theme “evergreen”, and as long as he’s working in WWE that’s the song he’ll be using. McMahon loved the theme, even head-banging to it when he was showing it to Jericho, and Jericho liked it right away.
Jericho recalls a meeting with McMahon prior to his debut. He told McMahon that he wanted to call his finishing move the “Y2J”, but McMahon told him that “Y2J” would actually be his name. This was McMahon’s way of making Jericho’s character his own. It turned out to be a great nickname that fans could chant along with.