Plans for his “The Painmaker” persona have been revealed by ROH World Champion Chris Jericho.
As seen in the video below, Jericho appeared on “Howie Mandel Does Stuff” and revealed that he is working on a graphic novel based on the Painmaker character, with the goal of turning it into a film.
“I have this character that I play called The Painmaker and I invented the character when I was wrestling in Japan because I wanted something a little bit more violent, like what would a serial killer look like if he was a pro wrestler,” Jericho said. “The character is really cool and I thought, okay, I have seen so many Spider-Man, Batman, Superman movies, how many more characters are there any these universes? They’re just making the same ones over and over again. Somebody somehow is going to have to create a new superhero, so, that’s where The Painmaker came in.”
Jericho went on to discuss the character’s future plans.
“The idea is to make it into a movie at some point. That’s my overall goal,” he continued. “We’re just writing and illustrating the graphic novel now. So, the idea is that the Painmaker is an intergalactic former serial killer. He’s changed his life and he’s not a serial killer anymore but now he travels the galaxy hunting down other serial killers in different galaxies, different planets, so you could have like a giant scorpion serial killer, whatever. But the flaw is that he still has to kill innocent people from time to time because it’s just in his DNA. So, he’s a flawed character.”
“What if the Painmaker falls in love and then can’t help himself enough to kill the one he loves? Who knows? The possibilities are endless.”
Jericho compared the plot to the Showtime series Dexter. On the Painmaker project, he has collaborated with the NFT company Semkhor.
While feuding with “The Rainmaker” Kazuchika Okada in NJPW in 2017, Jericho introduced “The Painmaker.” In July 2021, he debuted the character in AEW at Fight for The Fallen for his No Rules victory over Nick Gage. Jericho then wrestled as “The Painmaker” at Fyter Fest in July, where he defeated Eddie Kingston in a Barbed Wire Everywhere Deathmatch.
