Throughout his decades-long career in professional wrestling, Chris Jericho has learned the art of getting crowds to react to him with a single gesture. Prior to his signing with AEW, the star spent the majority of his wrestling career in WWE, where he took on a number of different personas in a constant quest to keep evolving as a character.
In 2016, Jericho introduced WWE audiences to The List of Jericho, a list where he wrote the names of his enemies. The List would prove instrumental in the friendship and later breakup of his alliance with Kevin Owens, and audiences became accustomed to seeing him raise a pen to add more names to the list on a weekly basis.
On the most recent episode of AEW Dynamite, Jericho made reference to The List for the first time in years, raising his pen to sign the contract and make official a match between himself and Ricky Starks for AEW Revolution. Starks had initially declared that he was issuing an open challenge, but tricked Jericho into accepting the challenge himself.
Chris Jericho Learned The Art Of Silently Controlling A Crowd From Vince McMahon
Speaking on the latest episode of Busted Open Radio, Chris Jericho spoke about his ability to control a crowd with a simple gesture such as a pen click, and he said he learned the art of creating that tension directly from Vince McMahon. He went on to illustrate the importance of timing when it comes to eliciting strong reactions from a crowd.
“When you bust something like that, it’s the first time I’ve done it since those days … if you know, you know. If you don’t, it’s a ridiculous thing — a guy just sitting there with a pen, so angry at everything and he’s just going to click it,” Jericho said. “It’s timing. It’s history. But when I first started doing it, it was just more of a challenge. ‘Let me see if I can get a clicking of a pen over.’ Simply [put], it’s timing.
“If you have good timing in wrestling … or anything you do in front of a live audience, you always get them,” he continued. “You have to have the confidence to know ‘I don’t have to say a word.’ It’s like those great promos … where you don’t even say anything. You just come out and stand there. You’re about to talk, and you don’t, either the boos swell or the cheers swell. That’s the true essence of wrestling.”
h/t WrestlingInc