Wrestle Pedia
Chris Jericho is widely known in the wrestling community for being able to reinvent himself all the time and he did so once again with his ‘The Learning Tree’ gimmick and now he has explained how he came up with the gimmick.
At AEW Dynasty, Chris Jericho defeated Hook to become the new FTW Champion, adding another accolade to his storied career. Right after that, he officially started his ‘Learning Tree’ gimmick.
On the Kevin Karius Show, Chris Jericho shared insights into his latest wrestling persona and explained the thought process behind creating this gimmick. Jericho mentioned that he recently started using the “Learning Tree” gimmick and described how wrestling allows performers to evolve and adjust their characters based on audience reactions.
I just started doing this Learning Tree gimmick a few weeks ago. That’s the best thing about wrestling, when people start to get mad at you, you turn into a bad guy and when people like you, you turn into a good guy. This is the start of this whole new persona as we continue the story. That’s the most important thing about wrestling, the story. The matches are important, but the characters and the storylines are what really draws people into watching you and draws people into following what you’re doing. To me, that’s always been the most important thing.”
When asked about the meaning of “The Learning Tree,” Jericho explained that it’s based on the role of a teacher or mentor in wrestling. As someone with extensive experience, Jericho sought a way to portray this aspect of his career while generating audience reaction.
”The teacher. I’ve been doing this for a long time. I thought, what’s a cool way to personify that and make people mad? I’ve been doing this at a high level, I thought, I’ll adopt this persona of being the seasoned vet that teaches the rookies the ways of the game. That’s how it started, and the way we’ve portrayed it, people get really mad at me for it. That’s what you want. By being the seasoned vet who knows everything, that makes people mad at me. That’s wrestling for you.”
Nevertheless, Le Champion is currently focused on his upcoming tag team match with Big Bill on this week’s episode of AEW Dynamite, so we’ll have to wait and see how the match turns out.
Are you a fan of Chris Jericho’s new gimmick? Let us know in the comments section below!
