"The Empire Strikes Back is my all-time favorite because it's so well-written and exciting," Jericho adds. "Of course, having Han end up in carbonite at the end was so unthinkable that it kind of scarred me for life -- but in a good way. I learned that things don't always end up the way you expect them to, but if you stick with it will end up okay. Even when I was wrestling we'd be working on a storyline and I'd say, 'This is The Empire Strikes Back part of the story where everything goes wrong and everybody's in trouble but then I'll have a Return of the Jedi ending where there's a big finish and it ends on a good note."
The saga not only sparked Jericho's imagination as a child, but also influenced him as a professional wrestler, helping him build a character worth rooting for. "The Star Wars saga is an overall six-part morality play and that's kind of what wrestling is as well," Jericho says. "It's the good guys versus bad guys, there's an up and a down, a climax and an end to the story. Sometimes the good guy wins and sometimes he doesn't, which mirrors real life. The whole legend of the Star Wars story theme of the movie works the same way as the wrestling matches. You start it with one goal in mind and sometimes it takes you six months to reach that goal with all the twists and turns you put in it to get there. When you have the basic skeleton of the story mapped out it's easy to fill in the blanks and that's what Lucas did as well."
"What makes a very successful movie character, or professional wrestler for that matter, is their connection to the audience," Jericho continues. "You have to make people care about what you're doing and what's happening to you as a character. There can be the most impressive CGI in a movie, but if there isn't a good story behind the action, it won't make an impact. Same goes for wrestling. You can be all muscle, do fantastic flips and flops, but if you can't connect with the crowd some way so they understand and care about why you're doing it, it doesn't mean a thing."
Other characters that made an impression on Jericho run the gamut of lethal to lethargic. "In Episode I, Darth Maul is so unbelievably cool looking and a really great character," Jericho says. "But I think having him die in the first prequel film was such a mistake. He would have been perfect as the Count Dooku role throughout the whole trilogy. He was so much more interesting and cool with the double lightsaber. Also when he said something half-way through the movie -- it would have been cooler if he didn't talk at all."
"I also think Porkins was completely underrated," Jericho adds. "The fact that his name is Porkins -- what chance did he have of being a muscle head? The moment he was born he was meant to be a chubby guy. I like characters like Wedge and Biggs. I always want to know the stories of the guys in the background."
As an adult fan, Jericho says he still gets goosebumps when he sees someone dressed in stormtrooper armor. "When I did the Spike TV Video Game Awards two years ago I freaked out when I saw the battalion of stormtroopers that showed up to present an award," Jericho recalls. "And last year, my band Fozzy played a show at the Astoria in England, and later DJed at a club where some stormtroopers were promoting Episode III and I was so excited to get my photo taken with them. I still have that photo on my wall. For guys from my generation, whenever we see characters upclose, it's really an incredible experience."
Although Jericho's never been to any sci-fi or comic conventions, he might be persuaded to attend Celebration IV next year in Los Angeles. "I would love to check it out to see the extent of the fandom," Jericho says. "Wrestling fans are so loyal and intense. And I imagine Star Wars fans are the same where they completely embrace this whole special culture of fantasy that's become their reality. It's quite cool to see something like Star Wars that can influence so many lives in a positive way."
"When you are a rock star or a professional wrestler you live in a state of arrested mental development so when you see guys dressed up as stormtroopers it's way more exciting than meeting anyone else," Jericho smiles. "Stormtroopers could be anyone under the mask. It could be your Aunt Frida, but it doesn't matter, because if she's wearing a stormtrooper mask it's the coolest thing ever."
To find out more about Jericho visit his official site here. Also check out his MySpace here.
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