Chris Jericho On the Origin of the Jericho Appreciation Society, Original Name For The Group

Chris Jericho discussed the origins of his idea for the Jericho Appreciation Society, the stable’s original name and more on his latest podcast. Jericho sat down with the group on the latest Talk is Jericho and talked about how the sports entertainment stable began, crediting it to a promo Eddie Kingston did. You can check out the highlights from the discussion below, per Wrestling Inc:

On the origins of the group: “I would never cut a promo like Eddie Kingston. He throws up so many red flags in my mind of what a promo is, but it’s brilliant. He’s so good at it. I could never do what he does because I’m like ‘No one would ever say that.’ But he does, and he gets over. And he was like ‘I don’t even know why I’m here. I don’t want to be here. This is pro wrestling. If you want sports entertainment, go down the street’ … The people started booing and I was like ‘Oh, that’s interesting. Sports entertainer gets heat in our fan base.’ I called up [attorney] Mike Dockins. ‘Hey dude, is sports entertainer trademarked?’ I’m sure it is. It’s not. ‘Oh my god.’ Now I’ve got another phone call to Tony. I go ‘When are you available? I’ve got something to tell you.’ I’m waiting for like three days. I’m like ‘Dude, I’ve got this thing. It’s pretty crazy. What do you think?’ And he loved it. And it was like ‘We’ve got it.’”

On the original name of the group: “The original idea for this whole plan, the name of it was going to be The Citadel. I thought ‘The Citadel is great.’ And then I said it to Tony, and there was no pop whatsoever. I was like ‘The Citadel sucks. I need something better’ … He didn’t say anything, but I know him.”

On coming up with the current name: “I was looking at the Art Appreciation Society, or something like that. Some weird email that I got of ‘If you like this, then maybe you should check out the Art Appreciation Society in downtown Detroit, February 6 at 3 p.m.’ I’m like ‘what the f–k is that?’ But then, the Jericho Appreciation Society!. I was like ‘Oh. That’s just cheesy enough … It’s pretentious. And now the Inner Circle is based around five guys, these personalities. What if I do one where I’m so sick of the Inner Circle, everyone having their own opinions, that I just put together the Jericho Appreciation Society? And everyone appreciates me. Everyone f**king loves me, cause I’m Jericho.’ So that’s kind of the whole genesis of this thing.”