By James Caldwell, PWTorch columnist

Chris Jericho says that when he returned to WWE in late 2007, he was asked to do some of the same old Y2J material, but he wanted a completely different look to his character. He wanted to re-invent himself rather than depend on what he did in the past.

"I made a real conscious effort to change my entire character," Jericho told Alfonso Castillo of Newsday, "which a lot of people didn't like. They wanted me to just be Y2J - the fun guy, the jokes. And it was like, I was done with that. It was the new Chris Jericho. No more Y2J.

"And I was very specific - take all the Y2J's out of my 'Tron,' don't ever call me Y2J on a broadcast again. I told Lawler and Michael Cole, don't ever call me that. Y2J is dead. And as far as I was concerned, he's gone. He's dead."

Jericho says that as a result of reinventing himself, he's been able to get real heat on his heel character. He also defends the writers, such as Brian Gewirtz, for contributing to the development of the program against Shawn Michaels. Michaels and he had a significant amount of creative input, he said, but Gewirtz also worked closely with them.

"Once he tapped into what we were doing, he'd come up with stuff, and I would come up with stuff, and Shawn would come up with stuff, and we'd go over stuff together and Vince would get involved," Jericho said. "Everybody was on board because it was working so well. And the more collaborators you could have who understand what you need to do, the better it is."

Jericho is pleased with the conclusion of his program against Michaels in the ladder match at No Mercy, as they ended it without having to kill one or the other. It just came to a natural end, he said.

"Everything you could do with it (the feud), we did," Jericho said. "And so there comes a time. You can't stay with it forever, because then you jump the shark and it's like, 'OK, more of this?' But I think we kept it exciting all the way through, culminating in the ladder match."

Jericho said they asked themselves, "What kind of finish can we do that's never been done that doesn't involve one of us setting ourselves on fire and falling through a plate glass window with spikes underneath it?"

Asked how Michaels and he were able to turn their program into one of the top feuds of the year, Jericho said it comes down to experience with 35-40 years between them to pull ideas and concepts from. Younger wrestlers don't have that experience to pull the audience into what they're doing in the ring, he says.

"That's nothing against the young guys. That's just the way it is. It's true," he said. "And also the boss being completely confident in what we could do. There's not a lot of trust for the younger guys because they haven't proven themselves to be able to carry something like that. And we did."

Caldwell's Analysis: Chris Jericho has done plenty of interviews recently to promote "Redemption Song" and we get a little more insight into Jericho each time. Here, we get to apply Jericho's close relationship to Vince McMahon to understand a generational disconnect between McMahon and the younger wrestlers.

McMahon and Jericho have a mutual respect based off their balls-to-the-wall work ethic when they're on the road working. There are many reports on younger wrestlers being more into video games, iPods, and hanging out with road friends when they're at the arenas rather than being 100 percent focused on improving, learning, or growing as wrestlers. As a result, McMahon has a tough time trusting people who don't appear to share his same work ethic or desire to make the WWE product the best possible product it can be.

Related to Jericho's comments about working with Michaels, Gewirtz, McMahon, and the creative team for the Michaels program, this feud should be a sacred text in WWE lore. Yet, last night on Raw, Michaels treated the entire program flippantly with the line about mocking his kids and punching his wife, but no one being able to mock the chaps.

It was an irreverent attempt at humor, but the Michaels-Jericho feud should be treated as a major deal, even after the program is over. That was a major drawback on last night's Raw to see that tone taken with a beautiful program that carried Raw for six months this year.

RELATED STORY at PWTorch.com: Jericho interview yesterday on not letting kids watch WWE TV.

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