10 Main Event Wrestling Gimmicks That NOBODY Liked
9. Painmaker Chris Jericho
Chris Jericho is a genius 300 days out of 365, but to be reductive, the 'Painmaker' is Chris Jericho with face paint.
It is meant to be a darker and more violent alter-ego, and to his credit, he was smart enough to realise that the Great Muta gimmick was begging to be ripped off, particularly since WWE botched Finn Bálor's Demon so spectacularly - but it just doesn't work. For starters, the origin story wasn't anything special. He made a pun at Kazuchika Okada's expense, and their Dominion 2019 match was underwhelming measured against the peak NJPW standard. Jericho has since dusted off the persona in AEW matches against Darby Allin, Nick Gage and Eddie Kingston to very uneven results. The Allin match was a very good brawl, the Gage match a shockingly violent war, and Barbed Wire Everywhere was an overbooked disaster.
It was probably a reinvention too far. Jericho had already successfully evolved into a convincing, unhinged brawler before opening the make-up bag. It's redundant, and because fans have been very familiar with Jericho for decades, the Painmaker lacks the mysticism associated with the aesthetic.
Jericho doesn't work a different style or tweak his entrance. He just puts spikes on his jacket and paints his face.