During a recent edition of his “Talk Is Jericho” podcast, AEW Superstar Chris Jericho commented on bringing back his Painmaker gimmick against Nick Gage, a potential Painmaker vs. Malakai Black match, and more. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On bringing back his Painmaker persona against Nick Gage and the idea behind using mist in the match: “I never had a full-fledged deathmatch before, and I’ll never have a full-fledged deathmatch again. But that night, we had a great one. It culminated with kind of a cool spot, which is funny because it’s now been appropriated and used by someone else in AEW, which opens the door if I ever wrestle him. I’m talking about Malakai Black. I was thinking of something towards the end that would really turn the tide because Nick was using the light tubes and all the other stuff. I thought, ‘What if I blow mist?’ I hadn’t seen any mist in years. Talking about the Great Muta, it’s a Muta classic and vintage trait. Tajiri did it in WWE for a while. I thought it would be really cool if I did some sort of mist. I told Tony [Khan] about it and he goes, ‘What color is it going to be?’ I said it was going to be black and he’s like, ‘That’s great. Muta used the black mist once in 1987 and it was even worse than the green.’ The reason I wanted to do black is because the Painmaker is a black, dark character. We did the whole thing and Nick was beating the crap out of me. It just made sense to me that the Painmaker would blow mist because he’s a mysterious character.
On a potential Painmaker vs. Malakai Black match in AEW: “Then, of course, Malakai Black comes in and starts using the mist and doesn’t realize the Painmaker had done it. Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t. I’m not using the mist as Chris Jericho anytime soon, so until the Painmaker comes back, the mist is all his. Who better to face Malakai Black and his dark character at some point than the Painmaker? Maybe we’ll have a mist off or something like that [joking].”
On his future plans for the Painmaker in wrestling: “I’d like to do the Painmaker a few more times in AEW and a few more times in New Japan. Like I said, I would love to do Painmaker vs. Malakai Black. That’s a no-brainer. I would love to do Painmaker vs. Sting. That’s amazing. Bat vs. bat. Are you kidding me? Think about that for a bit. Painmaker vs. Shingo [Takagi].”
(h/t – 411 Wrestling)
