Chris Jericho

"Thank you all for following me, 'cause it's not my fault that I am better than each and every one of you!"

Christopher Keith Irvine (born November 9, 1970), better known by his ring name Chris Jericho, is an American-born Canadian television and stage actor, author, radio host, television host, rock musician, and professional wrestler. He is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), wrestling on its Raw brand. Jericho is also known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and internationally in Canadian, Mexican and Japanese promotions.

As a part of WWE, he is credited as being the first-ever WWF Undisputed Championship in professional wrestling history. Also, he has won the WWE Intercontinental Championship a record eight times. Jericho is a five-time World Heavyweight Champion, having won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship twice, the aforementioned Undisputed Championship, and the World Heavyweight Championship twice. In addition, he is also the ninth Triple Crown Champion and third Grand Slam Champion.

Outside of WWE, Jericho is the frontman of Fozzy, an American heavy metal band, and a star of the wrestling documentary Bloodstained Memoirs.

Latest News

 * Chris Jericho won the Slammy for best male wrestler.

Trivia

 * When he was 11, Chris Jericho used to play Dungeons and Dragons.
 * Jericho's favorite KISS member is Paul.
 * Y2J was Jericho's idea, not the WWF's.
 * Jericho once worked as a model and bouncer in Canada.
 * Jericho is a member of the band Fozzy (formerly known as Fozzy Osbourne.
 * Jericho's ideal band would include: Bruce Dickinson on vocals, Eddie Van Halen on guitar, Mike Portney on drums and Steve Harris on bass.

Quotes
"I hate the word 'fake,' there is nothing fake about what I do. It is a predetermined show, but it is a contact sport, it is just as real as football is as far as taking the hit and taking the punishment. We go year-round, we don't have any days off, we don't have any off-season, we don't have any home stands. It is a lot tougher, I think we are the toughest athletes in the world. I think people understand, but they don't really understand the amount of physicality that we have within our sport, because it's a show but it is a contact sport."

"People nowadays, they can find out anything they want just by going on a website, and I don’t think that’s fair. I mean, when I was a kid I didn’t know anything about wrestling, what was going to happen, I just knew I watched the shows every week, and whatever happened on the shows, I’d have to wait till the next week to find out more. And I think people feel a sense of entitlement, like 'I don’t know what’s going on, and I should know right now!'"

"I would have to say that Canada definitely produces the best wrestlers, I don't know why. I think Canada is a big wrestling country, and there are a lot of guys who are interested in wrestling in Canada. In the WWE there are probably seven or eight Canadians out of a roster of 50 or 60, that's about 20%... There's probably something in the beer! Canada is a great wrestling country and a lot of guys watch wrestling when they are kids. It's like how certain areas in the States produce wrestlers, like Florida and Minneapolis. It is just one of those geographic things."

"With my career being so varied as it was, spending so much time in Mexico, Germany, Japan, and all those places I wrote about in A Lion’s Tale I think there are a lot of matches from there that the WWE doesn’t own. It’s always fun to revisit those old days. Not just the matches themselves but the experiences I had to get there. Whether it be getting held up on the side of the road in Mexico and being left to die pretty much and then having to walk back at 4:00 in the morning in the most dangerous city in the world just following the lights in the sky to hopefully get me back to the city. Or smashing a flower pot in Japan and then having the Yakuza show up and tell me that the flower pot belonged to them and I had to pay them and clean it up instantly or get my finger cut off. I mean all those things happened to me before I was 25 years old. What makes this unique is that it is one of the last books that could ever be written this way. Just having all these strange experiences overseas and being a stranger in a strange land and like I said following this dream I had."

"The path I chose was wrestling because that's what I was into at the time. I had decided at 15 that I wanted to be a wrestler. The route into wrestling was a little more viable for me, than trying to make it in a rock band in Winnipeg. There wasn't much of a scene there. It was something that I always wanted to be involved in, so when the opportunity arose I took it and built this rock band the same way I built the Chris Jericho name. After accomplishing everything you could ever want to accomplish in wrestling, which I have, it is very cool for me to be working on something else."

1990–1996
A year after graduating from college, Irvine was setting up rings for promoter Bob Holliday. At age nineteen, he entered the Hart Brothers School of Wrestling. Two months later, he was ready to start wrestling on independent shows, making his debut in October 1990. He took the name "Jericho" from the Helloween album, Walls of Jericho and from his Christian beliefs.

Jericho worked for Tony Condello in the tours of Northern Manitoba with future superstars Adam Copeland (Edge), Jason Reso (Christian Cage), and Terry Gerin (Rhino). He also wrestled in Calgary's Canadian National Wrestling Alliance (CNWA) and Canadian Rocky Mountain Wrestling (CRMW). In the winter of 1992, he traveled to Mexico where he wrestled for several small wrestling companies as well as the largest in the country, Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL). In EMLL, Jericho took on Silver King, Negro Casas, and Último Dragón en route to an eleven-month reign as the NWA Middleweight Champion that began in December 1993. His burgeoning wrestling skills also took him to Japan in 1994 where he competed for the Wrestling and Romance (WAR) promotion, facing the likes of Gedo and Último Dragón, to whom he lost the WAR International Junior Heavyweight Championship. 1994 also saw Jericho reunited with his former teammate from CRMW, Lance Storm, as the Thrillseekers in Jim Cornette's Smoky Mountain Wrestling promotion. In 1995, Jericho competed in the second Super J Cup Tournament, hosted by WAR, losing to Chris Benoit.

In 1996, thanks to a recommendation by Mick Foley to promoter Paul Heyman, Jericho began wrestling for the Philadelphia-based Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) promotion, winning the ECW Television Championship in June 1996. While in ECW, Chris Jericho made a name for himself, wrestling top talent such as Taz, Sabu, Rob Van Dam, Cactus Jack, Shane Douglas, and 2 Cold Scorpio. It was during this time that he drew the attention of WCW.

World Championship Wrestling (1996–1999)
On August 26, 1996 Jericho made his first appearance with WCW, and on September 15, he appeared at his first pay-per-view show, in a match against Chris Benoit at Fall Brawl. On June 28, 1997, Jericho defeated Syxx in Los Angeles, California to win the WCW Cruiserweight Championship for the first time. He won the title again on August 12, 1997, by defeating Alex Wright.

Jericho began his WCW heel run when he won the title a third time, defeating Rey Mysterio, Jr. at Souled Out 1998 by forcing him to submit to the Liontamer. After the match, Jericho assaulted Mysterio's knee with a toolbox. Mysterio needed six months of recovery before he could return to the ring. Jericho then had a short feud with Juventud Guerrera with Guerrera repeatedly wanting a shot at Jericho's Cruiserweight Championship but constantly being rebuffed. This resulted in a Title vs. Mask match at SuperBrawl VIII. Guerrera lost the match and was forced to remove his mask. Following this match, Jericho began his ongoing gimmick of collecting and wearing to the ring trophy items from his defeated opponents, such as Guerrera's mask, Prince Iaukea's Hawaiian dress, and a headband from Disco Inferno.

Jericho then began a long feud with Dean Malenko in which Jericho constantly claimed to be a superior wrestler but refused to wrestle Malenko. Due to his mastery of technical wrestling, Malenko was known as "The Man of 1000 Holds," so Jericho claimed to be "The Man of 1004 Holds." During the March 30, 1998 episode of WCW Monday Nitro, after defeating Marty Jannetty, Jericho pulled out a long pile of paper that allegedly listed each of the 1004 holds he knew and then recited them to the audience. Many of the "holds" were fictional, and every other hold was an armbar. On the March 12, 1998 episode of WCW Thunder, Malenko appeared to defeat Jericho who was wearing the mask of Guerrera, however, this was revealed to have been a bribed Lenny Lane, resulting in a minor feud over Jericho not paying Lane for his role. At Uncensored Jericho finally wrestled Malenko and defeated him, leading to Malenko taking a leave of absence from wrestling. Jericho then proceeded to bring with him to the ring a portrait of Malenko, which he insulted and demeaned. Just prior to Slamboree, J.J. Dillon (referred to by Jericho as "Jo Jo") scheduled a cruiserweight Battle Royal in which the wrestler who won would immediately have a shot at Jericho's Cruiserweight Championship. Jericho accepted on the grounds that whoever had to face him would not have nearly enough energy to wrestle two matches in a row. At Slamboree, Jericho came out to announce the competitors in insulting fashion before the match started and then went backstage for coffee. The battle royal was won by what appeared to be Ciclope after Juventud Guerrera shook Ciclope's hand then eliminated himself but was in fact a returning Malenko in disguise who proceeded to defeat Jericho for the championship. This led to Jericho claiming to be a victim of a carefully planned conspiracy to get the belt off of him. He at first blamed the WCW locker room, then added J.J. Dillon, Ted Turner, and finally in a vignette, he walked around Washington, D.C. with the sign "conspiracy victim" adding President Bill Clinton to the list of conspirators after being rejected from a meeting. Eventually Malenko vacated the title. In the match to decide the champion, Jericho ended up defeating Malenko at The Great American Bash to win the vacant title due to Malenko being disqualified after hitting Jericho with a chair. The next night Malenko was suspended for his actions.

At Bash at the Beach, Jericho was defeated by the recently returned Rey Mysterio, Jr. (who had recovered from his knee injury) in a No Disqualification match when the still suspended Malenko interfered. The next night, however, Jericho regained the Cruiserweight Championship from Mysterio after he interrupted J.J. Dillon, who was at the time giving the championship to Mysterio. Jericho was again awarded the championship.Eventually, Jericho decisively lost the title to Juventud Guerrera at Road Wild with Malenko as special referee. On August 10, Jericho defeated Stevie Ray to win the WCW World Television Championship (Stevie Ray substituting for the champion Booker T).

Soon after this, Jericho attempted to instigate a feud with the WCW World Heavyweight Champion Goldberg, calling him out repeatedly but never actually wrestling him. Jericho began referring to him as "Greenberg". At Fall Brawl, Jericho, Ralphus, and the Ninja participated in a scene where before coming to the ring they attempted to replicate Goldberg's guided ring entrance from his locker room but got lost repeatedly. At one point Jericho yelled "Rock and Roll! Hello Winston-Salem!" in reference to a similar scene from the mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap. When Jericho finally reached the entrance to simulate Goldberg's pyro, the resulting pyro was so poor it caused Jericho to flip out and start kicking it. Then, a four and a half foot tall midget instead of Goldberg came out and was easily defeated by Jericho, who now claimed to be 1-0 against Goldberg to satirize Goldberg's undefeated streak. This occurred three more times, eventually ending with Jericho claiming to be 4-0 against Goldberg, though they never actually wrestled once.

On November 30, 1998 Jericho lost the Television Championship to Konnan. Jericho then began a feud with Perry Saturn in early 1999. The feud saw Jericho and Saturn instigating bizarre stipulation matches, such as at Souled Out, where Jericho defeated Saturn in a "loser must wear a dress" match. At SuperBrawl IX Jericho and Saturn wrestled in a "dress" match which again saw Jericho defeat Saturn. Saturn finally defeated Jericho at Uncensored in a Dog Collar match.

1999–2000
Jericho alternated between WCW and a number of Japanese tours before his debut with the World Wrestling Federation. The build-up to Jericho's arrival was a clock labeled "countdown to the new millennium," counting down over the weeks prior to his arrival. On the home video, Break the Walls Down, Jericho states he was inspired to do this as his entrance when he saw a similar clock in a post office. Vince McMahon gave him the green light to use it as his intro to the WWF. The clock finally ran down on August 9, 1999 in Chicago, Illinois while The Rock was in the ring doing a promo. Jericho, a heel, who was actually being cheered instead of getting booed, entered the arena and proclaimed himself "Y2J" (a play on the Y2K bug). The Rock proceeded to verbally mock him for his interruption.

Jericho feuded with Chyna for the Intercontinental Championship. After losing to Chyna at the Survivor Series 1999, Jericho won his first Intercontinental title at Armageddon. This feud with Chyna lasted for many months, including a controversial decision during a rematch in which two separate referees declared each one of them the winner of a match for the title. As a result, they became co-owners of the title until Jericho attained sole ownership at the Royal Rumble. He ended up dropping the title to Kurt Angle at No Way Out. On April 2, Jericho participated in a Triple Threat match against Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle at WrestleMania 2000. Angle entered the match-up as both the WWF European and WWF Intercontinental Champion. The first man to score a pinfall or submission would be declared Intercontinental Champion. The second man to score a pinfall or submission would be declared European Champion. Jericho was first pinned by Benoit and pinned Benoit later on in the match, making Jericho the new European Champion. Jericho lost the title the next day to Eddie Guerrero on Raw after Chyna turned heel to side with Guerrero, claiming she could not resist his Latino Heat. On the April 17 edition of Raw, Jericho upset Triple H in a WWF Championship match. Referee Earl Hebner had made a fast count when Jericho pinned Triple H, giving Jericho the title. After previous weeks of assault on referee Earl Hebner, Triple H told him that if he reversed the decision, then he would never touch him while he was under contract. After Hebner reversed the decision, he fired Hebner and assaulted him. Despite the pinfall win over Triple H, WWE does not recognize Jericho's reign as champion. After the controversial decision, Jericho went on to feud with Chris Benoit. On the May 4 edition of SmackDown!, Jericho defeated Benoit to become Intercontinental Champion for the second time, but lost the title back to Benoit four days later on Raw.

Jericho's popularity skyrocketed when he started feuding with Triple H and his wife (just married in the storyline at the time) Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley. Fans took particular delight in his promos toward Stephanie, as he showered her with insults, calling her a "filthy, dirty, disgusting, brutal, bottom-feeding, trash-bag ho" and throwing a pie in her face. He got the best of Triple H on more than one occasion, even helping the Brooklyn Brawler, a renowned jobber, gain an upset victory over the then four-time WWF Champion. Their feud climaxed at Fully Loaded, when they competed in a Last Man Standing match, with Jericho only losing the match to Triple H by one second and thanks to multiple occasions of Stephanie helping Triple H, especially in the final moments.

Wrestling facts

 * Finishing and signature moves
 * Codebreaker
 * Lionsault
 * Liontamer/Walls Of Jericho
 * Running Enzuiguri


 * Nicknames
 * "King Of The World"
 * "Lionheart"
 * "The Ayatollah of Rock'n'Rollah"
 * "Y2J"


 * Tag teams and stables
 * Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit
 * Chris Jericho and Christian
 * Thrillseekers - with Lance Storm


 * Managers
 * Chyna (WWF) (2000)
 * Ralphus (WCW)


 * Theme music
 * "Break The Walls Down" by Jim Johnston (WWE)
 * "Electric Head Pt. 2 (The Ecstasy)" by White Zombie (ECW)
 * "King Of My World" by Saliva (WWE)
 * "Soul Crusher" von White Zombie (ECW)

Championships and accomplishments

 * Empresa Mundial de Lucha Libre
 * NWA World Middleweight Champion (1 time)


 * Extreme Championship Wrestling
 * ECW World Television Champion (1 time)


 * World Championship Wrestling
 * WCW World Cruiserweight Champion (5 time)
 * WCW World Television Champion (1 time)


 * World Wrestling Federation / Entertainment
 * World Heavyweight Champion (2 time, current)
 * WWF Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion (1 time)
 * WCW World Heavyweight Champion (2 time)
 * World Tag Team Champion (3 time) - with Christian (1), The Rock (1), Chris Benoit (1)
 * WWF/E Intercontinental Champion (8 time)
 * WWF European Champion (1 time)
 * WWF Hardcore Champion (1 time)


 * Wrestle Association-R
 * WAR International Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion (1 time) - with Gedo
 * WAR International Junior Heavyweight Champion (1 time)