If there are two things we like here at With Spandex, those would be the heyday of WCW and the brilliance of weird heel Chris Jericho. So hold onto your hats, because we’re about to go behind the scenes on one of Chris Jericho’s most memorable and weirdest heel moments: His list of 1,004 holds.
Eric Bischoff, who was in charge of WCW during the bulk of the Monday Night War (and was of course at the helm during the “1,004 holds” promo) has just begun doing a special column called “The Nitro Files” over at Sports Illustrated, where he will share little tidbits from the WCW days. This, of course, interests us. In his first installment, he spilled the beans on who exactly we have to thank for the moss-covered, three-handled family credenza … besides the man who delivered the timeless promo, of course.
“That idea originated with Glenn Gilbertti, aka the Disco Inferno. I just spoke with Chris Jericho, and he told me it was really Disco’s idea to come up with that segment and to roll through the commercial break.
“The credit behind ‘The List’ goes to Disco Inferno, Terry Taylor, Raven, and Mark Madden from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, as well as, of course, Chris Jericho,” said Bischoff. “They knew the storyline, they knew the angle, and they knew what we were trying to get across. Throughout the day, during pre-production, they were bouncing around ideas all afternoon, and they created a great way to position Chris against Dean Malenko.
“Dean is a great guy, by the way, and people who don’t know Dean do not understand that he really is a dichotomy. He’s really two different people. At the time, Dean was the stoic, traditional wrestling move wrestler, but he also had an amazing sense of humor. Dean Malenko billed himself as ‘The Man of 1,000 Holds,’ because he really was a technically-oriented wrestler. Chris Jericho, being the character that he was – and still is, to this day – took that to an entertaining and comedic level. So the group of guys got together during the day and asked, ‘How can we really cut a promo that contextualizes and frames that match-up?’ And they came up with ‘The Man of 1,004 Holds,’ and that was really Glenn Gilbertti.”
Yes, the mastermind behind the whole dang thing was Disco Inferno. This Disco Inferno:
The Disco Inferno, who once pitched the idea of there being an invisible wrestler to the WCW higher-ups. Although … it turns out that idea is pretty awesome, too. We’ve long been outspoken admirers of Disco here, but now it might finally be time to admit that the man is a covert genius. Well done, Disco. We owe you the next dance.
