When get eight years from now,
August 13, 2029,
you can have me back on the show and we'll see how big is the Chris Jericho NFT brand.
I expect it to be just as big as the Talk Is Jericho brand is.
Hey, everybody! Today, I'm happy to be joined with one of my childhood heroes actually,
Chris Jericho, a wrestler.
He's putting out some NFTs. And, Chris, how are you doing today?
- Childhood hero. That's awesome. Thank you. - Yeah.
I hope I inspired you to eat your cereal and all that good stuff.
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I've got to tell you.
I am wearing my Austin 3:16 shirt here, but I was a huge WCW fan.
I really liked it when you were over there. You had the Liontamer.
That was actually-- in my neighborhood, that was my finishing move.
- I wiped all the kids out with the Liontamer. - Wow.
I'm glad it worked for you because it doesn't work very well for me all that much.
Well, cool.
Well, what is going on in the world of Chris Jericho these days?
That's pretty much the broadest question you could ever ask because I have so many things going on,
but if you asked me, "What's going on in the world of NFT, Chris Jericho?"
that's today where we launched the very first ever Jericho-related NFT with the Painmaker character
that I started doing in Japan a few years ago, and I used it on AEW a few times,
and we thought that was kind of the best way to jump into this whole new realm
with something because, to me, I mean, and then we can expand on this,
but NFT seems to lend itself to more of a comic book type vibe and a fantasy type vibe.
- At least in my opinion. - Absolutely.
I thought the Painmaker would fit into this world perfectly.
Yeah, I think-- I'm checking it out right now.
We'll make sure we put this on the screen so people can see the actual NFT drop
and the Painmaker character.
Looks like it's priced at like $650, limited series of 48.
So, I think it's pretty cool that, you know, you mentioned kind of the fantasy,
you know, aspect to everything because we're really moving to a world that is extremely digital.
- You know? Like, we're used to growing up in the world that where everything's physical, - Sure.
but everything is moving over to the world of digital.
What kind of sparked your interest
to kind of understand the way that things are going right now in that regard?
I think in your question lies the answer.
I wanted to learn about what NFTs are
because there's still so many people that have no idea what it is and what the concept of an NFT is.
And obviously here on your channel, there's million people that understand it.
but the majority of the layman don't, and I was one of those people where
what exactly is NFT?
When you first hear like a non-fungible token,
- it sounds like some sort of like fungus that grows on cheese. - It does.
Or something. You know what I mean? Like, when someone mentioned it to me,
I felt like, "Ooh, NFT. Non-fungible token. Like, what is that?"
"Is that something organic? Is it food?"
And then you realize it's got this whole universe behind it,
but it's very much ahead of the curve.
It's ahead of the wave of what's going on.
And when you delve into it-- obviously, you know all this stuff,
but I'm talking from a guy who's just learning.
And you can probably help me with some of this.
Is that when you're talking about moving things to digital platforms,
it really is, you know, the "wave of the future",
- but it's the wave of now. - Yeah.
And I wanted to get involved in this here in 2021 so that in 2022, in 2023, et cetera, et cetera,
when everybody has NFTs,
and everybody is releasing, I don't know, movies as an NFT like Kevin Smith is
or music as an NFT like Joe Bonamassa is,
people will say, "Oh, I remember hearing about an NFT from Chris Jericho back in 2021."
So now was the time to get involved in it, even though I'm still learning as well,
but I'd rather learn on the fly with both feet jumped into this NFT pool
than standing by the wayside going, "I don't understand it. It doesn't work for me."
- Yeah. - 'Cause pretty soon it's going to work for everybody
because that's just the way of the world.
Well, and, you know, being a person who's been in entertainment for a long time,
you know, the audience is constantly changing and evolving,
and the things that worked in wrestling, for instance, today,
you know, are much different than the things that worked, you know, 30 years ago or 20 years ago.
- Sure. - And I think having that understanding
is one reason why you've probably had so much longevity in this business.
I really think it's cool what you said that it's not the future. It's now.
- Yeah. - And that's such a beautiful description
because we are in the transition right now, and you're going to be on the cutting edge of that.
Yeah, it's very hard as an artist to accept changes.
And the longer you kind of are reticent towards that,
the more roadblocks you have.
I've been open to this for 25 years, of learning how things change and move.
I mean, when I first started, wrestling magazines were very important.
Rock and roll magazines were very integral to finding out the information
in which you wanted to promote your band or promote yourself.
You know, if somebody puts you in the cover of a magazine, it was huge.
You know, here we are 20 years later, and being on the cover of a magazine,
it's almost the novelty to like, "Oh, look at me. I'm on the cover of a magazine."
- You stick it on your wall. - Yeah.
Nobody's really reading them.
You know, it's all online and seeing kind of, you know, what you can find on websites.
And it's like that for everything else.
Movies, music--
Music is all streaming now.
There's still people like, "This is bullshit.
I want to listen to a CD or a vinyl record, whatever,"
and you can, but if you're not on Spotify, for example, or Apple Music or streaming,
your music really doesn't exist.
And you-- like I said, you have to stay ahead of this curve,
so when NFTs started becoming a thing, like you just mentioned,
I have to get involved with this because sooner or later, things will transfer over to this.
And I know there's already talk of entire catalogs of music
- going into the NFT world. - Yeah.
You know, and so let's get involved with it now
where-- and once again, BitBoy, if I can call you BitBoy, Mr. Boy,
it's something that I can explain to people--
I get it when I'm advertising and promoting, you know, the Painmaker NFT,
"Why should I even bother this?
I could just, you know, record this screenshot, and just I'll have it, and I can just look at it."
I'm trying to explain to people you can look at the Mona Lisa as well and take a picture of it,
but there's only one that you can buy and own, and that's the one that's worth millions.
And that's probably the best way to try and explain NFTs to the uninitiated.
Think of it as a piece of art.
Now, the old school piece of art is something you can hold in your hand.
Here's my art. I can hold it. I can see it. I can feel it.
The new way of art is looking at it on the digital screen, you know.
And I think that is the way that things are going to progress.
- And you'll still have guys painting and creating all that sort of stuff, - Yeah.
but I think kind of the digital NFT is something that will be very much the norm in 3-5 years.
But here we are now still kind of explaining it to the world.
And like I said, like, I will always remember this interview with you,
my first NFT, you know, involved interview,
where I'm sure I'll be doing many, many more over the years to come.
Yeah. Well, let's go over me, too, because I always love people that I know
and people that I followed growing up and,
you know, I say that like I'm 78 years old.
I mean, you know, I was watching wrestling,
- you know, maybe 15, 20 years ago pretty well, - Right.
but definitely, you know, been a highlight to have you on.
I was very excited when I found out about this because I said I was--
I went to WCW Nitro, you know, back in the day like several times and, you know.
I was a little sad the way things happened with WCW because,
well, I'm an Atlanta guy. I'm from Atlanta.
- So obviously this was the home of WCW, but-- - Right.
I want to get to something else that you said that I thought was very insightful.
And it's something I'm--
I'm actually wanting to maybe start a movement to kind of come up with a new name for NFTs
because NFT, non-fungible token, it just sounds way too technical
- for the average person to understand. - Yes. It's scary. You're right. Yeah.
Yeah, it's intimidating.
And I think, like I said, the word "fungible", you know, it's not an everyday word.
- You know? - Right.
It's just like, you know, cryptocurrency. The word "crypto" makes it sound mysterious
because I'm into cryptozoology,
which is the study of creatures that don't really exist, or do they exist?
And Sasquatches and lake monsters and that sort of thing,
so when I hear "crypto",
I'm automatically thinking, "Well, this, maybe is this real?"
- "Is it a myth?" - Yeah.
So sometimes the monikers that are placed on it,
and like I said, non-fungible, I wasn't trying to be funny.
- It really did sound like some sort of plant. - I agree.
- Or mold or fungus. - I agree.
- Right. So I think - Yeah.
that's something that right out of the gate, they might be thinking,
"Huh? Maybe we should try and change this."
Or just use NFT and ditch the rest of it, but point being, this is a very educational time.
It's a learning curve over the next few years, once again, to explain to people what it is
but also to learn myself.
I'm involved in it,
but I'm still very, very, you know, a rookie
when it comes to all the terms and all the way that it works and that sort of thing,
so it's very important for me, and I said this earlier,
but it's important for me to start understanding
- because I want to know now - Yeah.
what everyone will know a year from now or two years from now
because, like you said, you can't stop it.
It's the wave of what's going on with entertainment, with art, music, movies, all these sort of things.
And if you don't jump aboard now,
you'll kind of be behind.
And I've never been behind. I've always been a step ahead.
Some of it by design and some of it by luck,
but this is one of those things that happened very organically
due to my connection with Kevin Smith,
who said the greatest quote ever to me.
I always want to stay ahead of the puck,
rather than behind it,
because when you're behind the puck, you can't score a goal.
- You've got to be ahead of it to get the pass - Yeah.
and shoot it in the net.
And that's kind of where I'm at with my NFT knowledge and experience starting today.
Yeah, always trying to stay a step ahead, and sometimes you had to step on some heads.
I'm sure you had to do that too throughout your career.
Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head there
because, you know, one thing we really try to do here at BitBoy Crypto is make sure
- we're not talking over people's heads - Right.
and explain stuff to people in an everyday way
that they can actually grasp and they can actually understand.
We're the mainstream channel. We know that.
And, you know, we want more people to come in and understand.
And when you're intimidated by the names of some of these things,
it definitely is a detractor that makes people a little hesitant to get in.
So I think that's something that really is kind of in industry,
we need to look at with the word "non-fungible token"
because your grandma is never going to know what a non-fungible token is.
It's just a little too, you know, too technical, too above her head.
Maybe my grandma knows 'cause I told her about it, but--
So, let's get into-- what about other crypto?
Do you know anything about--
Do you own any crypto in a portfolio?
Are you interested in Bitcoin, Ethereum, things like that?
Here's the thing.
In Bitcoin, I really have to start figuring out understandings 'cause I really don't,
but I haven't spent a lot of time on that.
But the thing with NFT, it was very interesting to me.
Was--
When it came out of the--
like anything else, people got caught up in it.
You hear like, "Oh, Gronk sold his NFTs for a million dollars,"
and you're like, "Oh, it's free money."
And then the same thing happens.
Everybody gets involved,
and the quality of some of the NFTs isn't as good,
and suddenly just having one isn't enough.
When I have been promoting this over the last few months,
people were like, "Oh, this is the 2021 version of a LaserDisc."
NFTs.
"They're just going to come and go," and, "It's a fad," and I really--
- obviously, we know that that's not the case. - Right.
And I think too,
when it came out of the gate, once again, guys got lazy.
So when you're talking about the Jericho NFT,
and that's why I wanted to focus on Painmaker because it is something a little bit different,
a little bit more exciting, more comic book,
but it had to be great.
I didn't want it to just be a picture of Chris Jericho
with some lines and smoke moving
because that, to me, is just kind of--
it's a little bit kind of lazy.
And I wanted it to be something that when, like, that I would buy as an NFT.
And that's why we came up with the kind of the animated graphic
with the spikes popping out of the jacket and the flames coming out of the eyes.
- There's a lot of motion and move by this. - Yeah.
To me, it is what an NFT should be.
Here is my piece of art,
but it's not just, you know, the Mona Lisa hanging on the wall.
There's the picture.
It's got move and emotion to it, but it's very cool to have it.
Now, people still are like, "$650? What are you? Are you crazy?!"
Listen. I just bought a Paul McCartney autographed Hofner bass guitar
for a lot more than that
because there's only so many autographed Paul McCartney bass guitars
that you can have in the world.
There's only so many, you know, first edition Painmaker NFTs that you can have in the world.
And once people start getting their mind wrapped around that,
that it is a piece of art,
it is a collector's item,
then I think it's going to get even bigger than it is now
because people right now are still thinking,
like I said, "Oh, I'll watch it once, and that's it. Who needs this?"
You need it if you're a collector.
And you need it if you are really understanding what NFTs are
as more people get involved and the quality continues to rise.
Yeah. I like the spikes that come out of the jacket.
I was checking that out.
- The spikes are coming out of the jacket - Right.
kind of towards the end of the animation and then, you know, the smoke, the flames,
and then, of course, you've got the SOUL, the Phantasma logo,
that comes up and is involved with this NFT.
But I think it is really cool. And like what you're saying,
I think that the thing is why a lot of people-- why this got oversaturated so fast
is because at first,
- it was just the crypto community buying these. - Right.
And there was kind of this idea-- and we were the only people that knew what NFTs are.
So, then you have these celebrities and athletes
and, you know, influencers coming out with their own versions of NFTs,
and like you said, a lot of them were very lazy,
and they came out,
and we expanded the pool a little bit of people who are interested and wanting to buy,
but the pool 1-3 years from now
is going to be massive because, like you said, this is the new form of digital art.
I think people that make art,
like actually do paintings like you were saying,
I think it's going to be few and far between that they don't do an NFT version to even their physical art.
I think that's going to be something we're going to see as well
because why would you make art and then not double sell it, you know?
- You would be able to sell the digital version. - Yeah.
And like you were talking about with the Paul McCartney memorabilia there,
- you know, you said it was signed. Correct? - Yeah.
You know you can rub off a signature?
- You can. - There you go.
And that's something very common.
I actually used to sell football helmets from Tom Brady, Peyton Manning.
We had hydro dipped helmets.
So it was a pretty cool stuff.
But sometimes when we were packing them up,
we would accidentally smudge the signature.
- And it was so easy to do. - Right.
And then it's virtually ruined.
- You lost the entire thing. - Yeah.
Whereas these NFTs are timeless.
Well, and you're right about. It's timeless.
And I think, once again, I don't know if I'm going to sell one of these,
like you said, we've limited it I think to 48 or 49,
- whatever it is. - Yeah.
But point being, I'm building--
Listen, if I sell 49 of them, good for me.
That's $30K.
Pat myself on the back and go on my way.
That's not what we're thinking about here.
It's creating the brand of the Chris Jericho NFT
- that I want to build over the next two, three, five, 10 years. - There you go.
Once again, the perfect example of this, Bit, is my podcast Talk Is Jericho.
- We're just coming up on my 800th episode. Okay? - Wow!
When I started in December of 2013,
- a podcast is a fairly new medium. - Uh-huh.
And people were saying, "Why would you listen to a podcast?
Just listen to the radio. Why would you want to listen to this?"
Now, here we are, and there's literally a million,
and I'm not exaggerating, a million podcasts in the world.
Probably more at this point.
Mine have a great fan base because I started early,
and it was good quality.
If I started today,
- I would not be able to get the market share that I have because there's just too many podcasts. - Right.
So as a result, I've always been ahead of the curve with the deals that I get,
first with PodcastOne then with Westwood One,
as far as the annual contracts that you're signing,
because my podcast has steam and name value and it has longevity.
Same thing. And that's my same mindset with the NFTs.
We're starting it today, August 13, 2021.
When get eight years from now,
August 13, 2029,
you can have me back on the show and we'll see how big is the Chris Jericho NFT brand.
I expect it to be just as big as the Talk Is Jericho brand is
because like I said, I'm not just starting to put one out and pocket some spare change,
and then, you know, go on my merry way.
I want to do Painmaker NFT comics.
- I want to do, you know, the virtual drive-ins. - Yeah.
The whole Painmaker concept that I thought was something so cool
because it's only the tip of the iceberg for Jericho fans that know about it
and those that don't.
I have my own superhero character that I've created that we can do whatever we want in this realm.
And then I could do some Jericho stuff,
and then we can do, you know, the online meet and greets,
all that sort of fun stuff,
But I wanted to base the Painmaker concept
connect it with the NFT
so that we can do a whole, you know, universe,
a Painmaker universe, you know, if you will,
and really expand upon that,
so I'm really kind of just throwing darts at the wall to see what's going to stick,
but now's the time to do that because, like I said, I'm one of the first to get my feet wet in it,
so when everybody-- when there's a million NFTs out in a few years,
people will say, "Oh, I remember Jericho was one of the first that I heard of."
Yeah, I love it. I love getting ahead of the train.
I think your podcast analogy is so perfect
because it's so true.
Like, it's so hard to get a podcast started.
- Everybody thinks, "I'm just going to start a podcast." - Right.
But it's so difficult. I tried to podcast for years.
Very unsuccessful until I grew the YouTube channel,
and now we've got an audio podcast that goes along with it.
- There you go. - So we built the brand and then we had the steam.
- Without that, it never would have taken off. - Yes.
So-- and it was-- we thought it was pretty good too, you know?
So it was unfortunate the way that that happened.
But I think what you're doing trying to get in front of this before everything hits,
I think that is the way to do it.
So if anybody wants to check out the Painmaker NFT,
we will have the link down below for you guys in the description.
You guys can go and check that out.
We'll definitely, you know, look at scooping one of these up if they don't sell out quick.
And, Chris, thank you so much for coming on the show.
And I appreciate. This is very educational for me as well.
So, I'll come on again next time, and you can explain more about all of this stuff.
And we can maybe figure out another word for F.
- If it's an NFT, - I like that.
we can get rid of "fungible". Maybe "fun".
- It's fu-- - We've got to come up with a new F word.
- It's great. - Yeah. Nothing but fun tangibles.
That's it.
Well, alright. Guys, if you could drop some comments down below,
let me know what you guys think about this NFT.
Check out the link and let me know if you think you're going to scoop it up.
That's all I got.
Be blessed.
BitBoy out.