Jericho's 2,725th career match will happen this week on AEW Dynamite, celebrating his 30-year anniversary in the pro wrestling business. I remember seeing him for the first time in WCW, and to be honest, I didn’t think much of him at the time. Out came this young good looking kid; The Lion Heart, Chris Jericho. I can’t even tell you if he won that first match or not because he didn’t stand out much yet. But that soon changed; Chris Jericho turned heel, and he soon became one of my favourite wrestlers. You could tell he was great in the ring, but what really stood out was his unique way of connecting with the fans. They jeered him, while laughing at his antics. I wanted him to win every match he was in because he was so damn entertaining! He soon took over the cruiserweight division until he had outgrown it. He had even positioned himself to face Goldberg, which Goldberg nixed. It wasn’t long before Jericho had out grown WCW as well. His contract was over and he soon signed with WWE. Chris, later stated, “My goal was always to be in WWE. I could tell after about a year in WCW that WWE was still the place to go for a young guy. WCW was a place for older guys. If you came in at the bottom in WCW, you would stay there for the rest of your life”
The Rock was in the ring cutting a promo when the Millennium clock started counting down, three, two, one, and the lights went out, and the music hit “break the walls down”, and there he stood with his arms outstretched and with his back to fourteen thousand screaming fans. Chris Jericho turned to face the crowd, and that’s when his WWE career had begun. No longer was he “The Lion heart”; he was now “Y2J”.
WWE was where he would have most of his greatest moments, matches, fueds and reinventions, beating The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin in the same night to become the first Undisputed Champion; six world title reigns. Becoming the greatest intercontinental champion of all time with the nine reigns, Jericho’s fued with Shawn Micheals is legendary. Chris Jericho called it his greatest feud of all-time, and arguably one of the best ever. It lasted months and months and had twists and turns all along the way, and it all started with a lie. Jericho couldn’t handle being lied to so he turned heel and threw Shawn’s head through the Monitor. These two would go at it each week for months, painting a beautiful story that would naturally end in a match for World Heavyweight Championship.
Jericho would take breaks away from wrestling to work with his band Fozzy for either a tour or to cut a new album. Each time he came back, he would reinvent himself into a brand new version. A slow talking, suit wearing, self righteous Jericho, “do you understand..... what... I’m saying to you .....right now?”. Wearing his light up leather jacket, Jericho had the best entrance in all of wrestling. The scarf wearing, trend setting Chris Jericho, he made people cheer for the word, “IT” because if you didn’t, you would find yourself on “The list of Jericho”.
Going into Wrestlemania, Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho were white hot, stealing the show all year as best friends, and then later as enemies. They were put second on the show for the US title. Jericho shared later, “originally, that was going to be the main event for the world title. Kevin Owens was the champion and I was going to beat him in the main event of wrestle-mania as a baby face”. Chris Jericho was insulted and felt like he wasn’t getting used properly. His contract was coming to an end and he would take some time off and wrestle in NJPW. Chris’s freedom in Japan gave him new life. After 18 years with WWE, he knew he would never return.
A new wrestling company was starting up from scratch. AEW had the money and the passion of super-fan Tony Kahn to be an alternative to WWE. When Jericho was drawn away from WWE to AEW, it gave the new league instant credibility. Jericho reinvented himself again as Le champion becoming the first ever AEW world champion. He would then form his first faction: The Inner Circle. Introducing new words and phrases like “Million viewer man”, “Demo God”, and “A lil bit of the Bubbly”. When Chris Jericho enters the ring with his bands hit song Judas playing, everyone in the building creates magic by singing it back to him. For thirty years, Chris Jericho has been creating magic In professional wrestling and we are just extremely blessed to get to sing it along with him.
By Aaron J Harder
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