From the above interview with Alicia Atout:
“I hate to say but if I go back to the WWE there won’t be a ‘List.’ I mean, it doesn’t feel right anymore. For me to walk out there with ‘The List’ and put somebody on it just seems like ‘Oh, that’s so 2016.’ Which was huge, and people want to see it, but I just can’t allow myself to not continue to be creative. That’s why I love working in New Japan. I love that character.”
In a business like professional wrestling, where so many have gotten by for so long working familiar gimmicks they’ve played forever, it really is refreshing to see Jericho refuse to rely on what he’s been in the past. However you may feel about his character in New Japan right now, it’s admirable, at the very least, that he’s continued trying to reinvent himself.