Chris Jericho revealed a scrapped plan from his 2012 feud with CM Punk, which involved tattooing his initials, “CJ,” onto Punk’s body as part of an angle.
The idea was to have Jericho knock Punk out, handcuff him to the ropes, and perform the tattoo himself after being trained by a professional artist.
Initially, Vince McMahon dismissed the concept, questioning its impact since Punk already had many tattoos. Jericho argued that an unwanted tattoo would feel invasive and humiliating, convincing Vince to approve the idea.
However, it was later canceled due to concerns about tattoos bleeding excessively on TV, which Jericho disputed based on his own experience.
Despite preparations for the angle, it was ultimately abandoned after someone influenced Vince’s decision, citing graphic concerns.
Here’s what Y2J said during an interview with Inside The Ropes:
“The original plan for the opening angle to get that rolling was, I was going to tattoo CM Punk. What do I mean? I was going to do an angle where I knocked him out, handcuffed him to the ring ropes, took out a tattoo needle, and tattooed my initials onto his body; I even planned to get a tattoo artist to show me how to do it properly and make it a ‘CJ’.
I remember pitching that idea to Vince, and he was like, ‘Who cares? He’s got so many tattoos; what difference does it make?’ I said, ‘The difference is I’m tattooing him.’ And he replied, ‘Well, so what? He’s got so many already.’ I tried to explain: ‘It doesn’t matter if someone has one tattoo or a thousand. If it’s unwanted, it’s a violation, something permanent they always have to look at. It’s very embarrassing and invasive’.
Finally, Vince went for it, and we had it all planned out. We even brought in a tattoo artist to show me how to do it earlier that day. Then, Vince came to us and said, ‘We’re not doing the tattoo thing.’
I asked why, and he said, ‘Because tattoos bleed too much.’ Now, those of us with tattoos know they don’t really bleed that much, especially small ones. There might be a little blood, but it’s not like buckets of it.
Someone must have gotten in Vince’s ear, convincing him the tattoo idea was too graphic and might get us thrown off the air.”
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