Chris Jericho Adopted The Learning Tree Gimmick To Personify ‘The Teacher’ And Get Fans Mad At Him

Chris Jericho says The Learning Tree character was a by-product of the fans turning on him in recent months.

All Elite Wrestling‘s Chris Jericho was a recent guest on The Kevin Karius Show. When asked about his thought process behind his new “Learning Tree” character, Jericho said he started doing it a few weeks ago when he started reading the room that the fans of AEW have been turning on him as a character.

“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,” Chris Jericho said. 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 what The Learning Tree means, Jericho said it’s about him being a teacher to teach the younger wrestlers based on his past experience, which is something he admits he does to make the fans angry.

“The teacher. I’ve been doing this for a long time,” Chris Jericho said. “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.” [H/T: Fightful]