Chris Jericho: Vince McMahon Didn’t Think You Could Be A Face And From Canada In Mid-2000s

Chris Jericho shares a fun Vince McMahon story.

Appearing on the Rich Eisen Show, Jericho spoke about a variety of subjects, including Jack Action (the name Jericho originally wanted to use in wrestling), his love of the NFL, and Fozzy. But on the subject of wrestling, it was a Vince McMahon story that caught Eisen’s attention. 

“In the mid-2000s, Vince McMahon decided that you couldn’t be from Canada and be a babyface in the WWE, for whatever reason. ‘No one would cheer a Canadian’ was his mindset. I’m not kidding,” recalled Jericho. “I was told that ‘You can’t be from Winnipeg anymore, you’re from Tampa.’ I only live in Tampa. I’m not from there. ‘Where were you born?’ Manhasset (New York). ‘Ah, sounds too country. You’re now from Manhattan, New York.’ There was a whole bunch of us that were Canadian. Edge, Christian, Val Venis, a bunch of other guys. He just decided one time, you can’t be a babyface and be from Canada. For people to really cheer you, you have to be from the United States. It probably lasted about six months.”

According to an article in SLAM! Sports, the hometown change and Vince’s opinion that Canadians could not be good guys, happened in 2004. Jericho won his record-breaking seventh Intercontinental Championship that year when he defeated Christian in a ladder match at Unforgiven.

You can listen to the entire interview with Jericho in the video above.