Sometimes when a heel turn occurs, wrestling promotions try to strip away every likeable quality they have.
This particularly occurs a lot in WWE, where a star will have a complete overhaul regarding gimmick, theme music, move-set’s and general attitude in and outside the ring. We have heard the reports over the years of Vince McMahon in particular being fond of this way of generating heat. However, AEW seems to have a much more lax approach to developing heels.
While speaking with Spin, Chris Jericho revealed that he and Tony Khan agreed not to change his entrance theme song despite his heel turn. Judas is a theme that is sung no matter what city AEW are in as it is a fun moment for the live audience and it sounds amazing on TV. Jericho stated he didn’t want to take it away from fans:
”Well, the thing about ‘Judas’ is, it was a hit before I started using it [as entrance music], right out of the gate. We did the video, it did 1 million views in a week. Why? I don’t know. Whatever reason, people gravitated toward that song. That’s why I started using it as my ring music. I needed a new song because I had switched from WWE to New Japan [Pro Wrestling]. I thought, well, let me use “Judas,” and maybe there’ll be a promoter who hears the song and brings us over to Japan. Then I realized, this is a great entrance song!”
“So, when AEW started, I brought ‘Judas’ over there, and then it became part of the show. For whatever reason, people just felt a real inspiration from that song and wanted to sing it as I came to the ring. Now, I did just change my character, I went from being a good guy to being a bad guy. We thought about not using ‘Judas’ anymore. But then I thought, why? Why change it? My boss [AEW president Tony Khan] agreed because we have a very unique, very cool moment in our AEW presentation, in that people love singing this song. As a bad guy, I could take it away but then you’re losing this really special moment. People singing ‘Judas’ transcends being a good guy or a bad guy in AEW, it’s just something cool that’s part of the show. It’s like going to a KISS concert and they don’t play ‘Rock and Roll All Nite’ because they’re trying to be creative. It’s like, f***, we don’t care, that’s the song we want to hear!”
Chris Jericho to Spin
Clearly the decision to keep Judas for Jericho was a good one. The theme has also been modified to have an intro, giving fans the chance to boo the initial beginning of the theme while keeping the Judas sing-along intact.
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