It was kind of this tongue in cheek thing where I'm this 18 year old kid," Hero explained. "And I had really tattered [wife beaters] and I'm like, 'okay, I'm going to be 'The Wife Beater', so people see the name on a piece of paper and go, 'what is this?' and then I come out and [I'm just a guy in a wife beater], yeah, coming out to Smack My b---h Up by Prodigy. Yeah, what's going on? I don't shave yet."
According to Hero, he was booked for a show in Wisconsin in May of 1999 and women's groups picketed the show because of the 'Wife Beater' name. The story gained some mainstream media attention.
"So they picketed this [show] and then there used to be this show called Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher and they brought it up on the show." Hero continued, "they never said my real name because, I guess, nobody ever knew my real name, but there was an episode with Tom Green and they were talking about, like, 'well, Bret 'The Hitman' Hart's not an actual hitman [and] Jake 'The Snake' [Roberts] isn't a snake, so what's wrong with 'The Wife Beater'?' Like, it was a funny little thing."
Hero claimed that he came up with the 'Chris Hero' name on the way to a show when a booker told him to get a new name.
"I got an opportunity to work for an NWA company and [the booker] was just like, 'no, dude. You've got to come up with a new name. Like, I like your stuff in the ring and I'll give you some shows, but we've got to come up with something different. All on the way to the show, I came up with 'Chris Hero'."
for that gimmick. Especially, the fact that CZW haven't been about that life for quite a while.