The Best in the World

by Chris Jericho

  “UNSKINNY BOP” (POISON): This is the song I used for the first dozen or so matches of my career. About a week after I arrived in Calgary to start my training, Poison’s new album Flesh & Blood was released and I loved it. I was always more of a Maiden/Metallica type guy, but I had a soft spot for some of the better hair metal bands and they were one of them. I liked the groove of “Unskinny,” especially the drum/bass intro, and thought it would be a good representation of the swagger I was showing at the time. I stopped using it after it inexplicably starting playing backward during my entrance one night in Strathmore, Alberta. Instead of the bass/drum intro, I came down the aisle to the sound of weird echoey loops and a slow voice saying, “I buried Paul.”

  “TEASE ME PLEASE ME” (SCORPIONS): I’m a big believer that an entrance song needed to have some sort of intro, a few bars of instrumentation that would build the anticipation to the big reveal. This song had that, and I remember on numerous occasions a nervous community center stagehand trying to push me through the curtain saying, “GO! GO!” while I dug in my heels, insisting, “It’s not time yet!!”

  “OVERNIGHT SENSATION” (FIREHOUSE): Lance Storm and I used this on our first tour of Japan, in 1991, when I decided our team, Sudden Impact, needed something heavy to hit the ring to. I have no idea why I settled on Firehouse, as they weren’t exactly Venom, but the song started with a heavy riff that led into a long, high scream, which was our cue to run out from backstage slammin’ and jammin’ all the way. I accidentally left the Firehouse cassette with the FMW sound guy at the end of the tour and forced the bus driver to go back to the arena to retrieve it. We almost missed our flight home and everyone was pissed at me, but I didn’t care. . . . No cassette is left behind, dammit!

  “SILENT JEALOUSY” (X JAPAN): When I made my grand return to Japan in 1992 I had these delusions that the fans were going to go crazy to see me. I figured since they’d been waiting for my return for so long (less than a year), Jerichomania would be running wild. I wanted to give them something special to let them know I’d missed them just as much, so I figured if I came to the ring to the biggest Japanese metal band of all time, it would ingratiate me to the culture and I’d be loved even more, right? Wrong. The song played to veritable silence as I ran to the ring before an apathetic crowd. When I jumped on the second rope and screamed, “Watashi Wa Modottekita!!!” (“I’m back!”), nobody gave a shitsu.

  “YOU’RE INVITED (BUT YOUR FRIEND CAN’T COME)” (VINCE NEIL): I made my first “Highlight Reel” to this song from the sound track of Encino Man (sweet Pauly Shore, where are you now?), by assembling the highest flying moves in my repotoire to the driving beat of the tune. (Should I post it on YouTube? Hit me up on Twitter at @iamjericho and let me know.) The heavy-ass riff, froot singing, and total guitar wizardry from Steve Stevens made this the perfect (albeit slightly out of fashion, thanks to the onslaught of grunge) ring song for me at the time.

  “ENTER SANDMAN” (METALLICA): Seems a little too obvious a choice, doesn’t it? Well, that’s because I didn’t choose it. This was used during my time in Mexico and I guess the office figured, since I was the “rocker guy,” they would use the biggest “rocker song” they knew for my theme. But it wasn’t the best song to come down to the ring to as it builds for about a minute before it kicks in, and it only took me forty-five seconds to get to the ring. But it was a fuck of a lot better than “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)” by C+C Music Factory, the song they used for me when I first got there.

  “ROCK AMERICA” (DANGER DANGER): Another song that I had no involvement in choosing and my least favorite ring song of all time. Jim Cornette picked this squeaky-clean tune to represent his squeaky-clean new babyface team, The Thrillseekers, and it couldn’t have been cheesier if it came in a bag of Cheetos. Super polished with a horrible a cappella early ’90s vocal intro followed by a keyboard heavy pop metal hook, it was the exact opposite of what was happening musically at the time and the image I wanted to portray. I felt like a right wanker whenever the song started and wanted to hide when it played, which was the exact opposite of what I needed from an entrance song. But Cornette loved it and wouldn’t consider changing it. While I like a lot of other songs by Danger Danger, this one was Shitty Shitty.

  “THUNDER KISS ’65” (WHITE ZOMBIE): When I started working full-time in Japan, I wanted to change my song to something dirtier and with attitude, something that better represented the evil side of Jericho. I loved this track since the first time I heard it on KLOS in Los Angeles during the summer of ’92 (I originally thought it was by Pantera) and started using it when I was working for WAR in ’94. It was the quintessential track for me until Paul Heyman nicked it and started using it as the theme for his ECW TV show. Not to be outdone, I moved on to another White Zombie song called . . .

  “ELECTRIC HEAD, PT 2” (WHITE ZOMBIE): This tune worked even better as it started with a sample of some BMF proclaiming, “I just said up yours, babay . . .” which was the perfect slogan for my attitude. I wanted to use it when I moved over to WCW, but unless you were Hulk Hogan (apparently the company bought the rights for his “Voodoo Chile” music from Jimi Hendrix’s estate for a hundred thousand dollars), I was told they didn’t use outside music.

  GENERIC JOURNEY RIP-OFF SONG (GENERIC JOURNEY RIP- OFF BAND): The story of this song was told in A Lion’s Tale, my book of Russian philosophy (available at a university bookstore near you), but as a recap, let’s just say that this was an awful tune that fell as flat as Miley Cyrus’s ass. I hated it, as it sounded like castrated Journey. Not something rad like “Escape” or “Any Way You Want It” but a song so weak it made “The Girl Can’t Help It” sound like Cannibal Corpse.

  “BASKETBALL HIGHLIGHTS #12”: This song’s story was also told in ALT and was a huge improvement over its predecessor. But it was still pretty lame. I’d gone from nutless Journey to rip-off Pearl Jam . . . but at least this had some attitude. Years later I found out the name of the song was “One Crazed Anarchist,” which was such a froot title that I stole it for a Fozzy tune.

  “BREAK THE WALLS DOWN” (JIM JOHNSTON): Not only is this my most famous entrance theme, it’s also the best one I’ve ever had. Perfect vibe and feeling for who I am as a performer, with the classic opening line (“Break the Walls Dowwwwnnnn!!”) to let people know exactly what’s up. I’ve used it since my 1999 WWE debut and I can’t imagine coming to the ring to anything else, even though I’ve been forced to use a few different variations since.

  “BREAK THE WALLS DOWN” (SEVENDUST): This was a remake of Johnston’s original by a pretty damn good band. I thought it was pretty froot and used it a few times, but nothing could match the intensity of the original.

  “BREAK THE WALLS DOWN” (ZAKK WYLDE): I asked Zakk to redo my song prior to the 2007 return and he worked hard to create a suitable remake. I really dug his version but, sadly, Vince did not. I still have this on my iPod, but since I listen to music almost exclusively on my iPhone nowadays, I never hear it. Maybe I should put this one up on YouTube as well?

  “KING OF MY WORLD” (SALIVA): Nothing against Saliva—they’re a good band—but this original song they wrote for me didn’t work. I was asked what I thought of it during an on-camera interview and said I didn’t like it, which made it back to them. It was nothing personal; it just didn’t have the vibe or bite I needed to get into character. I never wanted to ditch “Break the Walls Down” but was asked to use this a few times for business purposes, and I did once or twice before reverting back to the original.

  “NIGHTMARE” (AVENGED SEVENFOLD): When I pitched Vince the idea to come back at the beginning of 2012 with the End of the World promos, I wanted to once again change my character and my music. I thought the intro of this song (with some editing) would be perfect for the tone I was setting, with the creepy vignettes and the evil warnings of my arrival. I spoke to their singer M. Shadows about it and he was totally down with my idea.

  B
ut Vince wasn’t.

  He said my original ring song was evergreen and would be my WWE music until the day I left the company. In retrospect, I believe he’s right.

  I’m the Joker

  Meanwhile back at the ranch, when I found out I was going to be starting an angle with Rey Mysterio in May of 2009, I flipped out. Not literally, as that was Rey’s job, but we’d been working in the same company together for basically the last fourteen years from WAR to WCW to WWE, and I’d only wrestled him a few times. We’d never done a full-blown program and I was stoked, because due to my time in Mexico and Japan, I really understood what he could do with the right partner.

  It wasn’t like he hadn’t wrestled dozens of amazing matches during his time in the WWE, because he was one of those rare perfomers who could kill it with anybody. But I wanted to do something different that he hadn’t been able to do yet. I wanted to tell a story that people could sink their teeth into, like I had done with Shawn Michaels and his wife. Something that went above and beyond the norm. I had an idea to do something involving the most important element of his character . . . his mask.

  He’d been in the WWE for years, but during that time, nobody had ever gone after his mask and exploited it fully. It was the crux of his very existence in wrestling, a symbol of courage that he and his family had worn proudly for decades. It was the perfect reason to start a story line . . . but only if Vince agreed.

  I met with him in his office before a Raw in Pittsburgh and pitched my idea.

  “Rey has been in the WWE for seven years and we’ve never explained why he wears a mask. Why it’s so important to his family, his legacy, his dignity. We should make our fans aware of the history of the mask in Mexico and how it means everything to a luchador to hide his true identity. And after we explain it, I want to take that mask away from him.”

  Vince looked at me and rolled his eyes, “Nobody cares about the mask.”

  I was surprised by his response and disagreed.

  “If nobody cares about his mask, then why do we sell them by the thousands? Kids are wearing those things all over the arena at every show.”

  Vince was still hesitant. “He wears a mask, so what? What does it really mean? Why would you feel so compelled to take it away from him?”

  My response was quick and to the point.

  “Because I can.”

  McMahon looked intrigued and I knew I’d hooked him . . . ever so slightly . . . but this was my chance to reel him in.

  “Nobody wants to see Batman without his mask except The Joker— and I’m The Joker. I want to take his mask the same way a bully takes a kid’s milk money, whether he likes milk or not. He takes it because he can. What he does with the money afterward is irrelevant. It’s the act of taking something from someone that turns the bully on, and taking Mysterio’s mask turns me on.” Vince was looking at me with a contemplative face and I knew I had him. “I want to take his mask to embarrass him and steal what’s his. I’m gonna push him around and laugh at how small he is because for pretty much the first time in my WWE career, I’ll be bigger than my opponent. I’m the bully, Vince . . . and I’m gonna take what I want from him.”

  Vince thought for a few seconds and said, “OK, let’s do it.”

  I suggested we build up the signifigance of the mask by flying to Mexico to do vignettes. Get footage of Arena Mexico and Rey’s neighborhood; interview his family and fans; really tell that story. But Vince wasn’t interested in the history of Rey’s mask. All he cared about was my desire to bully it away from him. That was fine since I’d already gotten his approval to fight for Rey’s mask, and that was all I needed. Now the rest was up to us.

  Rey was the Intercontinental Champion and I built up our first match by doing a promo questioning why Rey wore a mask in the first place. What was he hiding? Was he scared to show his face? I ranted that the only people who insisted on hiding their faces were criminals and cowards. And if he was a criminal, why was he cheered by the WWE Universe? In my mind, Rey was another complete hypocrite just like HBK, and I vowed to take his mask and reveal his guilty face to the world.

  Finally, at the Judgment Day PPV in May 2009, we had our first match, with the title at stake. Much like my initial match with Shawn in our 2008 program, this one was more straightforward in order to set the stage for what was about to come. Rey and I had always had stellar chemistry, and we jam-packed the contest with froot reversals, false finishes, and all of the mask-removal teases that were commonplace in Mexico but had never been seen in the WWE. I pulled his mask half off, exposing the bottom of his face until he was barely able to pull it down. I slammed his head into the turnbuckle and tried to rip his mask off his face, only to have him hold on with the tips of his fingers or his teeth. Then I shot him into the turnbuckle chest-first, and when he hit, he took his mask off for a split second, then adjusted it back into place quickly. Eventually, he won the match with a beautiful 619–top rope splash combination and retained his title, which of course did not sit well with me. I demanded another shot, which Rey refused, and I vowed my revenge.

  A few days later I got it.

  Every time I worked with Rey, we had amazing matches and did moves that defied gravity. This is a picture of me spiking him on his head from the top rope.

  Rey had a great relationship with his fans and every night as he walked down the aisle toward the ring, he lightly head-butted the kids lined up at the guardrail, who were wearing his souvenir masks. Halfway down, he would stop and give one lucky fan the ornamental mask he wore over his ring mask. Kids went nuts for this and it was a big part of his unique appeal.

  Years earlier, when I was a nameless, faceless babyface in WCW, the only thing I did that got me any reaction at all was to throw my back against the guardrail on the way to the ring and let the fans slap me on the chest. I was just trying to do something different and while it might’ve been a little homoerotic to put myself in the position to be caressed by a slew of guys, good or bad it helped me stand out a little. When Masa Chono and I were building up our match for the nWo Souled Out PPV, he hid in the crowd and attacked me during my ritual. Harkening back to that angle, I wanted to do the same thing to Rey, except I’d add the twist of disguising myself in one of his own masks before ambushing him.

  We were doing SmackDown at the Staples Center in Los Angeles and it was time for Rey to come out. I was waiting behind the massive stage set, wearing a Mysterio mask, large baggy Rey T-shirt, and black baggy sweatpants. His music started and I was led through the crowd to a row of seats about halfway down from the ring. I didn’t want it to be obvious and have security clear a path for me, so at this point it was up to me to push my way through the fans and get to the front of the guardrail on my own.

  “Excuse me, pardon me,” the overgrown kid with the Rey shirt and matching Mysterio mask said as he elbowed his way through the excited glut of kids jockeying for prime pole position to get the nod from their hero.

  He walked down the aisle, tapping heads with one young fan, then another. It was obvious they were kids as they were the same height as he was. For the first time ever in my career, I was too tall, so I spread my legs apart to appear shorter and remain inconspicuous. I waited my turn as Rey made his way down the line, until he got to me and we lightly butted noggins. As soon as he walked past me, I grabbed him from behind and smashed his head into the guardrail.

  “Hey, what are you doing?” I heard a little kid say as I jumped the rail and further attacked my fallen pRey. I stomped him a few times, then ripped the mask off and continued to beat him down as the crowd screamed in outrage when they recognized me. My attack was a legit surprise, and there was a buzz in the arena as I walked up the ramp. But when I walked through the curtain, Vince motioned me over.

  I checked the monitor to make sure Rey wasn’t bleeding, wondering what I’d done wrong this time. “You rushed that,” Vince said simply. “You should’ve
taken more time for the reveal.”

  I thought he was just nitpicking but when I watched it back, he was right as usual. Instead of ripping my mask off after a few quick stomps, I should’ve beaten Mysterio down longer and forced people to guess who it could be. Then I should’ve faced the camera and slowly revealed my face, like a burlesque stripper peeling off her evening gloves. Vince’s comments put me in my place and made me realize that even though I was on a roll, I wasn’t doing everything perfectly. Plus, it was a good reminder that the boss was always watching me.

  The situation between Rey and me got even crazier at the Extreme Rules PPV, where every match on the card had some sort of gimmick. There were quite a few choices thrown at us, including Falls Count Everywhere and a hard-core match. I wasn’t happy with either of those, since I didn’t want to throw away the technical aspects of the match that Oscar (Rey’s real name) and I could display like no other. We had such good timing that I wanted to do another fairly straight match, and suggested a No-Holds- Barred stip because I knew in that scenario we could do whatever we wanted and not sacrifice the integrity of the bout in the process.

  Vince agreed but only if we could think of an interesting finish, something where I would go over for the title but protect Rey so we could have a rematch. I needed to figure out a way to unmask and pin him quickly to take advantage of the distraction. I wondered if it was possible to rip off his mask as he was executing his famous 619 finishing move. As I always do when I need to figure out if an idea can work, I went into a dark corner of the arena by myself and closed my eyes to try and visualize it in my mind. I envisioned lying prone on the second rope as Oscar swung through the ropes and aimed his knees at my head for the 619. I knew if his mask was loose enough and we timed it perfectly, I could pluck it off of his head like a fly’s wing just as he rotated.