AEW star reveals Kevin Nash's role in bringing his iconic wrestling character to television
AEW star Jay Lethal was a guest on Chris Jericho's podcast, Talk Is Jericho, earlier this week. During the interview, he opened up about the origins of his legendary Black Machismo character and Kevin Nash's role in convincing him to do it.
Lethal said that the Macho Man voice was something he had always been able to do from being a wrestling fan since childhood, and he had often done it backstage in locker rooms. However, when Nash heard it backstage in TNA, he convinced Jay Lethal to bring it to television:
"Macho Man was someone who always drew me in. I've always been able to do the voice so there have been several times where we just have some down time in the locker room and I would bust out my Macho Man voice and it wasn't until Kevin Nash heard it and I was like, 'wow I'm working with Kevin Nash' and he goes, 'That voice, why aren't you doing it on TV? That's entertaining."
"We're doing all these silly skits and you can do that voice' and right away, I like to think that most of the people got into the wrestling in my generation, we all wanted to be the badass world champion. We didn't want to be the imitation guy. I explained that to him and he goes, 'The sooner you get over that and realize there's a spot for everybody, not everybody can be that baddass world champion. The sooner you realize that the better you will be as a wrestler and have a lot more fun,'" said Jay Lethal.
AEW star Jay Lethal on pitching the idea to TNA management
Jay Lethal also opened up about how he had reservations about doing the character because he felt like it may be offensive towards Macho Man.
However, Nash convinced him that it was a tribute to the legendary wrestler, adding that nobody was talking about Randy Savage at that time, and Lethal's character could help get fans to start talking about Macho Man again.
Jay Lethal said that it took Kevin Nash an hour to convince him to do the character and revealed how they ran to Jeff Jarrett afterward to pitch the idea:
"It took about an hour of him talking to me but I was 100% convinced. We ran to Jeff Jarrett and I was like, yeah I want to do this and they pulled me into the room and made me do all these lines in the Macho Man voice. Then they played it back for me and I was like, 'Whoa, that really does sound like Macho Man,'" added Jay Lethal.
.@TheLethalJay is here in #AEW! #AEWFullGear https://t.co/Ah2Swx4AAh
Lethal is now signed to All Elite Wrestling, making his debut at the AEW Full Gear pay-per-view.
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