Chris Jericho has been wrestling for over 26 years. Throughout that time he has always been ‘Chris Jericho’, only who that Superstar is has changed multiple times.
Chris Jericho would make his pro wrestling debut October 2nd, 1990. Now in his 2nd quarter-century of wrestling, he’s arguably more entertaining than ever.
In the role of “Kevin Owens’ best friend, ” Jericho has gotten himself over in a way that he probably doesn’t have to. At this stage of his career, Jericho could conceivably just re-hash old versions of himself and WWE fans would be just fine with it. He could refer to Stephanie McMahon as a “bottom-feeding” so-and-so, and say that he “never….ev-er” wants to see her again, and he would still be just as popular as most of the current roster. He could just coast for these final few years of his career and nobody would say anything negative about it.
That’s not how Jericho tends to do things, however.
Even though Jericho has been wrestling a somewhat part-time schedule these last few years, his character has continued to evolve. In fact, the character of Chris Jericho seems to undergo a significant transformation every 5 years or so.
What is impressive about Jericho’s various character developments is how seamlessly they seem to come about. His gimmick changes are so gradual that you don’t notice until one episode of Raw you begin to wonder “how long Jericho has been wearing a scarf for?”
Here are the 5 most significant stages in Chris Jericho’s character development.
5. “Lionheart” Chris Jericho
Just 2 years after starting his training at Keith Hart’s school in Calgary, Jericho flew down to Mexico and starting competing in Lucha Libre.
Playing off of his long, blonde hair, he was given names that referenced lions in Spanish. First, he was known as Leon D’Oro (translates to “Golden Lion”) and then finally Corazón de León (“Lionheart”). Jericho was a big star for CMLL in Mexico, and held the promotion’s middleweight title for almost a year.
He would also wrestle briefly in Japan and as 1/2 of “the Thrill Seekers” with Lance Storm in Smokey Mountain Wrestling. In 1995 however, “Lionheart” Chris Jericho was brought into ECW. Jericho would win the company’s television title, and only a year after his debut signed a more financially beneficial deal with WCW.
Upon debuting in WCW, Jericho kept the same “Lion Heart” gimmick and wrestled as a vanilla babyface for the most part. Jericho would win the Cruiserweight title twice during this run. In the summer of 1997 however, we saw the first evolution in Chris Jericho.
4. Chris Jericho: “Ayatollah of Rock ‘N’ Rolla”
Chris began his WCW heel turn in the late summer of 1997 as part of his feud over the cruiserweight title with Rey Mysterio.
After a match that August, Jericho took out Mysterio’s knee, injuring the popular luchador. The vanilla babyface Jericho was gone and would never be heard from again. In his place was an arrogant wannabe-rock-star with a ponytail at the very top of his head. He would refer to Nitro as “WCW Monday Jericho” and all of his fans as “Jericho-holics”, having t-shirts made up for each.
He would feud with Dean Malenko over the Cruiserweight title, which led to his famous “1004 holds” promo. Dean Malenko’s nickname at the time was “the man of 1000 holds” , so naturally Jericho wanted to top him by being “the man of 1004 holds”. Jericho attempted to read all 1004 holds he knew from his original “list” on an episode of Nitro once, though he seemed to count “armbar” several times. The results were pretty hilarious.
Jericho would continue the character throughout the late 90s as WCW continued to sink. His one notable feud during this time was a half-hearted attempt at a program with Goldberg, only Goldberg seemed to rarely be participating in the angle.
Jericho’s final televised match for WCW was on April 5th, 1999, a loss to Booker T in a tournament for the United States Championship.
3. Break the Walls Down: Chris Jericho as “Y2J”
In 1999 there were several conspiracy theories that technology would all break down upon the turning of a new century. The theory was referred to as the “Y2K Bug”, a virus of sorts that would take down the world’s computers and grind society to a halt.
Jericho pitched the idea of vignettes airing on WWE programming that would show a countdown clock similar to “doomsday clocks” which were counting down the century.
Only Y2J’s clock would count down to August 9th, 1999, when Jericho would debut on WWE television. His WWE debut is widely considered one of the best in history, as he engaged in a verbal battle with the Rock.
Jericho’s original WWE character was very similar to the arrogant heel character he played in WCW, but it wouldn’t take long for his popularity to turn him babyface. “Good Guy” Y2J would take a back seat to the other popular babyfaces in WWE at the time, however.
During the Invasion angle of 2001, Jericho began a slow heel turn as his character became increasingly jealous of the Rock. The move would work out for Jericho, who would end up winning the Undisputed Championship and eventually main event WrestleMania 18 (unless you count Rock vs Hogan the main event that year).
The Y2J character would be the longest stretch of his wrestling career, spanning from 1999 to 2008.
2. Chris Jericho: “I Am the Best in the World at What I Do”
Jericho would take a 2-year hiatus from the WWE, from August 2005 to November 2007. His return followed the same pattern as his original WWE debut. Vignettes with a Matrix-style “code” flashing on the screen were shown until finally it was revealed that the “codebreaker” was Chris Jericho.
Jericho would spend a few months as a babyface, but would begin transitioning to a new heel persona in the summer of 2008. Gone were the flashy entrance and over-the-top promo delivery, and in their place was a more subdued and serious character.
Jericho would later state that this version of his character was influenced by the character Anton Chigurh in the film “No Country for Old Men”. This version of Jericho would engage in an epic feud with Shawn Michaels, before winning the World Championship at Unforgiven in 2008.
The suit-wearing no-nonsense Jericho would also feud with Batista, CM Punk, and John Cena. Eventually, however, Randy Orton punted him in the head, allowing him to take time off from wrestling once again.
1. Chris Jericho as Kevin Owens’ “Best Friend”
In the build-up to this year’s SummerSlam, Jericho entered a feud with Enzo and Cass but had no partner to tag with. During a backstage interview, Owens appeared and let Chris know he had his back. With that “Team Jeri-KO” was born.
Owens and Jericho defeated Enzo and Cass at SummerSlam, and began an over-the-top bromance with each other.
All of a sudden Chris Jericho was once again an over-the-top heel. Only this time he is wearing scarfs and has a bad goatee.
Jericho’s new catch phrases involve him “presenting himself” and offering up nearby people the chance to “drink it in, man”. He’s also now been adding any perceived offenders to his “list”. His segments with Owens are often the highlight of RAW.
Congratulations to my best friend @FightOwensFight for winning the #WWEUniversalTitle! We are going to be a great champion!
— Chris Jericho (@IAmJericho) August 30, 2016
But WWE has been dropping some not-so-subtle hints that the best friendship between Owens and Jericho may not be for much longer. Little bits of jealousy from Chris to Kevin over the Universal Championship have been revealed over the last couple of weeks.
How long can it be until one best friend turns on the other?
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