Chris Jericho: West Ham United love, Iron Maiden & Cockney rhyming slang

Guests do not get much bigger and better than the man who joined Carlton Cole at the Carpenter’s Arms for the very first episode of ‘Carlton Up The Carpenters’ – professional wrestler and rock band frontman Chris Jericho!

Click here to watch the full episode now!

The iconic performer, most widely recognised for his near 20-year spell as a main-eventer and six-time World Champion in WWE, has been the leading figure for All Elite Wrestling since the promotion’s inception in early 2019.

Jericho is also the lead singer for heavy metal band Fozzy, who have released seven studio albums and enjoyed significant success with their most recent release, Judas, in 2017. 

A wrestler with many monikers – ‘Le Champion’, ‘Y2J’ and ‘The man of 1004 holds’, just to name a few from his illustrious career – Jericho revealed another than can be also attributed to him: he’s a West Ham United fan!

I finally found out, after asking and asking, that West Ham was an English soccer team, and from then on, I was like ‘I love West Ham. They’re now my favourite team!’

Chris Jericho

“The reason why I’ve also been attracted to West Ham is because of Steve Harris, of Iron Maiden,” Jericho told Cole. “Steve Harris always had a West Ham sweatband on his wrist or, more importantly, he had a West Ham guitar strap. It was a big, cushioned and thick, and it said ‘West Ham United’ on it.

I was always like ‘What is West Ham?’ I finally found out, after asking and asking, that West Ham was an English soccer team, and from then on, I was like ‘I love West Ham. They’re now my favourite team!’”

In recognition of Jericho’s love for both West Ham United and Iron Maiden, Cole presented him with his own official West Ham x Iron Maiden collaboration shirt, which can be purchased from the Club Store here!

Despite being born in Manhasset, New York, and growing up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Jericho revealed to Cole that he has a good understanding of Cockney rhyming slang, with wrestlers using it as a secret language to communicate during their matches!

Jericho said: “I’ve known Cockney slang for almost 30 years. I learned it in Germany in 1993, because when I was wrestling there, they would do tournaments and a lot of guys from England were in the tournaments. 

“There was a guy called Boston Blackie, who was from London, and I learned all the Cockney rhyming slang from him.

“In fact, one of the reasons many wrestlers used it was because it was like a secret language that you could use! There’s another secret language we use called ‘carny’ but now Snoop Dog has taken it, and he’s taken our secret wrestling language and turned it into a rap thing!

“They were our two secret languages in the wrestling business, and Cockney rhyming slang was a big part of that.”

One of Jericho’s most famous, signature moves has always been the ‘Walls Of Jericho’ – a submission that has served him well through over 30 years as a professional wrestler. 

The Fozzy frontman was shown a clip from West Ham training where goalkeeper Darren Randolph put the iconic move on Michail Antonio, before video-calling the pair to discuss the execution.

Jericho told the duo “I saw your amazing application of the Walls Of Jericho on the pitch. Amazing technique but you tapped out very quickly!” 

Antonio reasoned back: “I tapped out because I realised he’d got it locked in, and I’ve been caught in a few of these growing up, by my older brother, and I’m going to tap out before it starts hurting me!

You can check out the full video feature with Chris Jericho and Carlton Cole in the video player above, in which Jericho also discusses his decision to leave WWE and ‘change the wrestling business’ with AEW, and his plans to see West Ham United play in the very near future.