Chris Jericho Says His Wrestling Name Was Almost Jack Action

Chris Jericho was a recent guest on The Rich Eisen Show, and the All Elite Wrestling star gave some interesting insight into his earliest days as a wrestler.

In a segment titled "Celebrity True or False," Jericho was asked about how he picked his wrestling name from the German metal band Helloween, which had an album called Walls of Jericho. He said it was true, but it was only after his first choice for a wrestling name was denied.

"True story. Yeah, I was going to call myself Jack Action...," Jericho said.

"First name Jack, last name Action," he continued. "I thought it was going to make me a million dollars. And then I told somebody that and they were like, 'You can't be Jack Action. That's stupid.' I'm like, 'Of course, it's stupid. I would never do that.' 'What's your name?' I was like, 'Uhh.' I saw the Helloween album and said, 'Chris Jericho,'"

Jericho told a number of other stories throughout the segment, including one time where he was working as a bouncer when a bar's roof collapsed just as a fight was about to break out.

The former Undisputed Champion made waves back in January when he chose to sign a new exclusive contract with All Elite Wrestling.

"It's a little bit hard because I've worked for WWE for 19 years, love the WWE," Jericho said on an episode of Talk Is Jericho shortly after his signing announcement. "But I put myself into Chris Jericho's shoes from back in 1998 when I was contemplating leaving WCW and thinking, 'How much further can I go in WCW under these rules? Under these conditions?' And I realized I probably can't go much farther.

"After some introspection, the answer was 'Yes I can do this.' Because what AEW is doing is they're showing me respect, and they're showing me that they have a lot of expectations for me. The cart is on my back, I have to do great work and I have go the extra mile to make this work," he said. "In WWE, it doesn't matter what I do, it's still going to be WWE. In AEW, it does matter what I do and I have to be my best. An dI have to really use my 29 years of experience to help build this company. And that was exciting to me."

Jericho will take on Kenny Omega at AEW's first event, Double or Nothing, on May 25 in Las Vegas.