Chris Jericho

Real Name:Chris Irvine

Stage Name: Chris Jericho, Y2J, Super Liger Tag Teams: Sudden Impact

Date of Birth: 11 September 1970 Home Town: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Height: 6" Weight: 231 POUNDS

Brief Bio:

Chris Jericho was born Christopher Irvine on September 11th, 1970 in Canada. Son of Ted Irvine, National Hockey League player, Jericho excelled at athletics as a young man, particularly in ice hockey and water polo. After completely school and getting a degree in journalism, he entered Stu Hart's famous Dungeon training school in June of 1990. Jericho had been a long time fan of pro-wrestling, particularly Hart's Calgary-based Stampede Wrestling. He was reportedly influenced heavily by the late Owen Hart in these years

After training for over three months, Jericho made his debut on October 2nd, 1990. The rest of 1990 and 1991 saw Jericho wrestle in Canadian indies, more often than not around the Calgary area. He made a few scant appearances for Atsushi Onita's upstart garbage league Frontier Martial-arts Wrestling (FMW) in 1991. By mid'92 he had grabbed a regular spot in the Canadian Rocky Mountain Wrestling (CRMW) promotion. He and Lance Storm formed a partnership and were named the first ever CRMW North American Tag Champions on October 17th of that year. At this point the two of them were very green high flyers dubbed "Sudden Impact". At the same time Jericho found bookings in Monterrey, Mexico from promoter Carlos Elizondro. Elizondro had seen some footage of Jericho while the young Canadian had wrestled in San Francisco shortly in August. Within his first two years, he had already gained experience in four countries, and was one of the top stars in Calgary.

Jericho defeated Biff Wellington on January 29th, 1993 for the CRMW North American title and also reclaimed the CRMW tag titles with Storm six days earlier. In February, though, Jericho dropped both titles after deciding to leave the area for better experience. On April 23rd he debuted for Empresa Mexican de la Lucha Libre (EMLL), the longest running wrestling promotion in existence. In order to find a name for Jericho in Mexico, a contest was run where the fans could vote on what they wanted. "He-Man" was the winner but Jericho convinced the promoters to say the name "Lionheart" won out. Not as if the fans would ever know they were conned, and not as if it had not happened before in the crooked business of pro-wrestling. In any case, Jericho became known as "Corazon de Leon". He formed a tag team with grizzled (and greasy) veteran El Dandy and on July 21st, they defeated Silver King and El Texano for the World Wrestling Association (WWA) Tag Titles. The two teams feuded for the rest of the year before King and Texano regained the titles. Jericho's time spent with Dandy proved to be extremely valuable in teaching the young man how to connect spots together through transitions and to create more fluid matches. Working the Lucha style also aided him in improving his high flying style. By the end of the year he had built up enough of a name to go after singles titles and he defeated Mano Negra on December 7th for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) Middleweight Title. Jericho also worked an extended tour in Otto Wanz' Catch Wrestling Association in Germany during September and October in-between stints with EMLL to gain experience in the mat wrestling-based style of the area.

With the start of 1994, Jericho returned to his Calgary roots and rejoined CRMW. He quickly captured the CRMW Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Title from Steve Rivers on January 14th. The reign would not last long as his former partner Lance Storm took it away two weeks later in what must have been a great indy match for the time. It is too bad none of this footage exists as the Storm vs Jericho battles on the Calgary Indy circuit must compare favorably to some of the more well known indy classics of the 90s. The return to Calgary proved to be just a pit stop as Jericho debuted in Wrestle Association "R" (WAR) on February 24th as "Lion Do". While in Mexico, Jericho had befriended Yoshijiro Asai, who went on to become one of Japan's top Junior heavyweights in Ultimo Dragon. Dragon was more or less in charge of the Jrs in WAR, and was the one responsible for getting Jericho a spot on the roster. While there Jericho had memorable matches with Jado, Dragon, and even Haku. After one tour there, Jericho debuted on March 7th in Jim Cornette's Smokey Mountain Wrestling (SMW) with old buddy Lance Storm. The Tennessee indy wanted the two to resemble an updated Fabulous Ones. Combining the characters Steve Keirn and Stan Lane had created in the 80s with the newer high flying style. The two Canadians worked in SMW until August when Jericho broke his arm practicing a Shooting Star Press. He resumed work with WAR in Japan and lost his NWA Middleweight title to Ultimo Dragon on November 8th. It was a remarkably great match that really made people realize what a talent Jericho was. Dragon was the real star in that he carried Jericho so fluidly and made all of Jericho's moves look so good and meaningful. The two continued their feud while Jericho split time in WAR and EMLL.

On March 3rd, 1995 Jericho had what must have been up to that point, his crowning achievement when he defeated Negro Casas in the final of a Junior heavyweight tournament. In addition to defeating a legend in the finals, he also beat rivals El Dandy and Ultimo Dragon on the way. In addition to being recognized as one of the very best independent workers in the world, he was also being recognized by promoters and being rewarded as such. Later in the month on the 26th, he lost to Gedo in the finals of WAR International Junior Heavyweight tournament, although eventually captured the belt on June 4th, which just happened to be the one year anniversary of the legendary Toshiaki Kawada vs Mitsuharu Misawa match up. In another fantastic match up, Jericho successfully defended his Jr title against Dragon on July 7th. He was not able to fend off Dragon for long, though, as the innovator of the Asai Moonsault seized the title for himself on July 28th in what must have been another great match. Dragon was always one of the best at getting superb stuff out of Jericho. Jericho also returned to CRMW in May and defeated Lance Storm on the 12th, although he quickly dropped the title back to Storm two weeks later before returning to Japan.

Recognition that Jericho was a top talent in wrestling was firmly realized when he was invited to the second ever J-Cup, hosted by WAR on December 13th. He defeated Japanese indy wrestler Hanzo Nakajima in the first round before falling to reigning J-Cup champion "Wild Pegasus" Chris Benoit in the quarter finals. The match with Benoit rivaled his prior ones with Dragon, and ended when Benoit caught Jericho with a second rope Tombstone Piledriver attempt. It would begin an eternal rivalry between the native Canadians and Hart Dungeon graduates.

Jericho found continued success in WAR with the start of 1996 when he and former rival Gedo teamed to defeat old friend Lance Storm and Yuji Yasuraoka on February 23rd. They would drop the titles to Storm and Yasuraoka a little over a month later, although, they did successfully defend the titles versus Jushin Liger and Tatsuhito Takaiwa on an New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) show on February 26th. It was Jericho's first exposure to NJPW, the #1 pro-wrestling company in Japan. One accolade Jericho had not yet found in pro-wrestling was an extended, active title reign. He had held the NWA Middleweight belt for an entire year but rarely defended it after leaving Mexico. It would be a few years before Jericho would reach that goal.

Also in February, Jericho debuted for Paul Heyman's Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) on the 2nd. In-between foreign tours, he settled into ECW as his domestic home. On May 11th at ECW's super card "Matter of Respect", he defeated Mikey Whipwreck to set up a shot at Pitbull #2's Television title on June 22nd. The match with Pit Bull could have been awful, what with Pitbull a roided up stiff, and Jericho a green indy spot machine, but Jericho put in one of his best performances ever and carried Pitbull to a good match. At the present when someone wants to downgrade Jericho's current ability, they will often point back to his match with Pitbull #2 to prove he was "better" back then. On June 1st, he worked a three way with Bam Bam Bigelow and Konnan in Antonio Inoki's multi-promotional "World Peace Festival". This was likely the first time World Championship Wrestling (WCW) officials could view him up close, and may have factored into his near future heavily.

On July 13th, he lost the ECW TV title to Shane Douglas in a four way also involving Too Cold Scorpio and Pitbull #2. The match was largely centered around Douglas-Pitbull, and despite their limitations as workers, the match actually ended up garnering huge praise. Many people consider this the best match in ECW history, surprisingly, even though Jericho and Scorpio were eliminated first. Jericho's last match in ECW came on August 3rd, putting over Scorpio. The match received great praise for its high spots and the fluidity the two gave to them. Although Jericho's stay in ECW was relatively short, he familiarized himself with many "smart" fans in the United States while in the company, and had established himself as another great light weight in the same vain as Chris Benoit, Eddy Guerrero, or Dean Malenko: a guy that was considered too small for the states but excelled in foreign companies before making a name for himself in the USA through Heyman's ECW. And just like those three, WCW and Eric Bischoff were now calling on him.

Jericho debuted for WCW on August 20th, defeating Jerry Lynn (under a mask as Mr. JL) in a good TV match. WCW immediately put him in a mini-program with Benoit, who's career Jericho had practically reproduced on a few years delay (trained by the Hart family, start in Canadian indies, make a name in Japan and Mexico, return with ECW, get signed by WCW). The two wrestled on WCW's "Fall Brawl" PPV on September 15th. It was a hard worked, technically good match although the markish WCW crowd had little reason to care about Jericho at that point. In WCW he was promoted as a high flying pretty boy, and Benoit was still establishing himself as a midcard force at that point. The bottom line is that when you match up these two guys, you always get a good match as long as they're given the time.

Jericho sort of coasted through his first couple weeks in WCW without any definite storyline or character development. The crowd's lost interest, accordingly. While the WCW fans appreciated in-ring work more so than the WWF fans, they still needed interesting characters to latch onto. In October WCW put him into a feud with Syxx and referee Nick Patrick. In all his matches, Patrick would be biased against Jericho, sometimes costing him the match. At "Halloween Havoc" on October 27th, Jericho lost to Syxx due to Patrick's corrupt officiating. Syxx must have wanted nothing to do with the relatively unknown Jericho, and quickly got himself out of the feud with Jericho, so the emphasis shifted towards Jericho vs Patrick. The two faced off in a match at "World War 3" on November 24th, with Jericho winning despite having one arm tied behind his back. Although Jericho ended up going over in his feud with Patrick, it was a low key, low promoted feud, so he did not gain much prestige with the fans. In the following months Jericho would not be involved in any high profile feuds and the fans began turning on his pretty boy character, despite the fact he was delivering good matches in the ring.

He somehow became the #1 contender for the United States title and faced Eddy Guerrero at SuperBrawl VII on February 23rd. The match was very good with Guerrero going over although the two had a tough time getting heat from the crowd. Guerrero was saddled with an "fighting spirit" face roll, which stripped him of the charm and genius his rudo heel gimmick had while in Mexico. Jericho was at this point an under pushed cruiserweight face, so with face vs face, the crowd did not know how to respond. WCW management lost interest in pushing him and let him work tours for New Japan instead.

In January, he had actually debuted in NJPW as "Super Liger", defeating top Jr heavyweight Koji Kanemoto on the annual January 4th Tokyo Dome super card. The idea was to create a "dark Liger" persona to eventually feud with Jushin Liger, emulating the Tiger Mask vs Black Tiger feud of the early 80s and early 90s. Jericho was horrible under the mask and could not get his timing or movements down in the costume, so the idea was ditched, and he returned to WCW for the program with Eddy Guerrero (who actually played Black Tiger #2 in the early 90s for WCW). But after the SuperBrawl disappointment, WCW sent Jericho back to NJPW for their annual "Best of Super Juniors" round robin tournament. He finished in second place in his block, tied with Shinjiro Otani (El Samurai won the block and defeated Kanemoto in the final). He had built up a rep for having great fighting spirit in Japan, but was by no means a superstar. He returned to WCW and did not do too much for awhile before he got a surprise upset over WCW Cruiserweight champion Syxx on June 28th. WCW had decided to reward him in some way for his hard work despite their lack of push over the past half year

He defeated former WAR and EMLL rival Ultimo Dragon on the July 13th "Bash at the Beach" card in another good match between the two, although again, the crowd was less than receptive to Jericho. He dropped the title to Alex Wright on a July 28th edition of Monday Nitro. Wright defeated him in a rematch on August 9th's "Road Wild" card, however, Jericho regained the title at an August 12th "Saturday Night" taping. He held the title for a month before dropping it to a now heel Eddy Guerrero on September 14th at "Fall Brawl", the same PPV he had debuted for WCW on a year before. Throughout his Cruiserweight title reign, he had been unable to garner good heat. The crowd respected his wrestling ability and did not actively dislike him, but they did not care about him much, either. The switch to Guerrero was done since Guerrero was attaining massive heat as a heel. He toured NJPW again after the title switch, and was inducted into the "Slam Wrestling Canadian Wrestling Hall of Fame" the same month. Despite that, his career in WCW slumped yet again. He got a minimal push; even when he upset superstar Scott Hall on November 3rd, he was buried afterwards, making the entire match meaningless. Typical WCW booking.

After jobbing for a few months, Jericho's character began to snap. Following losses he'd begin assaulting the ring announcer, later apologize, but then replay the procedure later. He challenged Rey Misterio Jr. and won the Cruiserweight title on January 24th, 1998 at "Souled Out". Misterio was in need of an ACL operation and was going to be out six months, so they decided to put the title on a new heel Jericho. WCW writers had Jericho use the same arrogant tone WWF's Rocky Maivia had begun using a month before, with Jericho adding his own humor and catch phrases. He then defeated Misterio's rival Juventud Guerrera in a match where Guerrera had to unmask should he lose on February 22nd at "SuperBrawl VIII". Moving through the list of top competitors, he defeated Dean Malenko by submission in a match that pit "The Man of a Thousand Holds" against "The Man of a Thousand and Four" holds. Jericho mocked Malenko's gimmick and persona up until the match, and beating him by submission only added to the humiliation. Jericho had defeated the top three competitors in the past three months, all by his "Liontamer" Boston crab variation. Booker Kevin Sullivan elevated his friend Prince Iaukea to take on Jericho in April, but it ended the same with Jericho going over by submission. Jericho began complaining that he had no more opponents to face in the cruiserweight division and proclaimed himself the greatest champ ever. He continued trashing Malenko's family and reputation throughout. It was decided the winner of a fifteen man battle royal would face Jericho at the next PPV, "Ciclope" ended up winning, but unmasked as Malenko! Malenko back out of semi-retirement, and Jericho was finally defeated by Malenko on May 17th at the "Great American Bash", and he lost by submission.

Jericho's character was enraged that Malenko had one upped him, and he was featured in humorous skits set in Washington DC, where he read through various law books to find out a loophole into getting his title back. Eventually he found that loophole (whatever it was), and Malenko was forced to vacate the title. Jericho's father came into the storyline to tell his son that a true champion must win the title in the ring, so Jericho and Malenko faced off again on June 14th at the "Great American Bash". During the match, Jericho made another insult towards Malenko's deceased father Boris, which caused him to flip out and be DQ'd. The next night at Nitro, Jericho was awarded the Cruiserweight title as result of his DQ victory on the condition that he would give Malenko another title shot within 30 days. Jericho instead tried to maneuver his former rival Ultimo Dragon into the number one contender spot, insinuating that he was scared of Malenko. In addition to bagging on Malenko's family, he began insulting Rey Misterio Jr. again by bringing out a midget Misterio, who he mockingly proclaimed the rightful #1 contender. It was eventually decided Malenko and Jericho would face each other again at "Bash at the Beach" in July on the condition that neither man harm the other in the interim. Jericho successfully goaded Malenko into attacking him, though, which meant he had no opponent for the PPV. At the show. Rey Misterio Jr. showed up and defeated him by reversing his Liontamer submission into a roll up. Jericho found another loophole in the "rulebook", and convinced WCW to nullify the title switch since Malenko had attacked Jericho at the PPV. Jericho challenged Malenko to one last match for the July 20th Nitro, with the stipulation being that this would be Malenko's last ever chance. Jericho brought brass knuckles into the ring and manipulated Malenko into getting DQ'd for using them, thus ending their in-ring feud in Jericho's favor. Malenko, however, got himself made special ref for Jericho's defense against a now maskless Juventud Guerrera at "Road Wild" on August 8th, which saw Jericho's fourth and final Cruiserweight title reign end with Guerrera avenging his unmasking six months prior. Jericho had held the belt for nearly eight months straight with one break in the middle and one nullified break, making it his first sustained title reign in a major promotion. Coinciding with this was his leap into stardom on the WCW undercard. He was easily one of the most over heels in WCW, and one of the "smart" fan's favorite wrestlers for his hilarious speaking skills, great charisma, and good in-ring work.

Just two days later (August 10th) on Monday Nitro, Jericho defeated Stevie Ray for the WCW Television title. It was clear that WCW wanted to move Jericho into the heavyweight division, and the TV title would allow that. Jericho was listed at 5'10, 225 pounds in the recent years but was probably closer to 5'8" or 5'9" and in the low 200s. Despite this, he looked like a giant next to Misterio, Guerrera, Malenko, and Dragon, who were very small men. Jericho was at a weight where many considered him too big to be a Cruiserweight, but too small for a Heavyweight. This pseudo-paradox would come back to haunt him in the form of WCW politics.

Jericho's TV title reign ended up hurting him rather than helping. His contract with WCW was to expire in mid 1999, and WCW President Eric Bischoff kept pressuring Jericho to resign. Jericho was put in a storyline that saw the Giant mysteriously protect Jericho, with the insinuating being that they had a deal going, or perhaps Jericho was going to join the NWO that Giant was a part of. Reportedly, the WCW booking team was in favor of the latter, but Jericho had seen how Bret Hart and others had been sidetracked into meaningless roles in the NWO under Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash, so he declined the idea. Giant soon turned on Jericho and buried him. Later in the year, Jericho began to mock WCW World Champion Bill Goldberg in interviews. He brought out a midget Goldberg, who he defeated in a comedy match at September's "Fall Brawl" PPV. He also hired his own "bodyguard", an out of shape fat man named Ralphus, to mock Goldberg's pre-match entourage. Hulk Hogan and others convinced Goldberg to decline a program with Jericho, though, citing the size difference between the two, and the fact that Jericho was not a "big name". WCW booking fucks up again. At October's "Halloween Havoc", Jericho defeated Raven in a title defense. In November, he defeated Bobby Duncum Jr., capping off a horrible feud that saw the WCW management try to get the totally untalented Duncum Jr. the rub off Jericho. They *knew* Jericho was over, but were actively keeping him down on the card! Amazing! All this time, Bischoff continued pressuring Jericho to resign. He had succeeded in getting Benoit, Guerrero, and Malenko in resigning, but could not convince Jericho. Bischoff threatened to job the young Canadian out if he refused, but Jericho did not budge. Bischoff eventually made him job the title to Konnan on the November 30th episode of Nitro. The two had a rematch at Starrcade that saw Konnan win by submission. The burial had begun.

Jericho and Saturn opened up the new year in a program together. Jericho actually went over a few times in the feud but it was mostly atrocious with disappointing performances from both men. The fact that the feud shifted into a "loser has to wear female clothing" direction clearly was not too good either. And from there, Jericho became a job boy. He refused to resign with WCW so Bischoff kept by his word and jobbed him out. By the Summer he had been taken off television and was only jobbing on house shows. He toured with his comedy band "Fozzy Osbourne" with the extra time. WCW realized they were going to lose one of their most popular up and coming stars, and only had themselves to blame.

June 30th, 1999...WWF.com reported that Chris Jericho had come to terms with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and would be starting soon. He did a series of vignettes for the web to hype his appearance. There was speculation whether he would debut as a face or heel. Obviously, his smug heel character in WCW is what made him a star in America. WWF began showing short clips of a "Countdown". Each time the timer would be appropriately shorter. People figured out it was to end on an August 9th edition of Monday Night Raw. Right in the middle of an interview by Rocky Maivia, the clock reached zero and Monday Night Jericho came to fruition. Jericho chastised the Rock and WWF for being too obscene and having unoriginal catch phrases and entertainment. He claimed he would save the company. The two superstars traded barbs before Rock eventually got the best of him in the verbal war, but Jericho had electrified the crowd. For the next couple weeks Jericho would interrupt various top stars' promos to do his spiel. Despite his success in this regard, his matches were very disappointing although that was probably to be expected what with Vince Russo as a top writer in the federation and match lengths being kept to a minimum.

Jericho and ring announcer Howard Finkel had a short comedic storyline together that resembled the Jericho-Ralphus one from WCW, although was not nearly as effective. Jericho's first feud ended up with Ken Shamrock. Jericho brought in Mr. Hughes as a bodyguard to help him combat the former Mixed Martial Arts star. Shamrock hurt his neck shortly before their scheduled match for "Unforgiven" on September 26th, so Xpac (Syxx) took his place. The Jericho-Syxx feud was rekindled in a different company although the roles were reversed with Jericho the heel and Xpac the face. They had a decent match but the finish was horrible, with Mr. Hughes causing a DQ. It became clear that WWF did not have the intention of promoting Jericho as a top star right off the bat, despite the fact he started off his WWF stay opposite all the top stars in promos. Even mid-carder Xpac didn't job to him! A short time later he wrestled Rock in the main event of Raw but predictably did the job. All the while the Mr. Hughes storyline continued to get more embarrassing as it was taking heat away from Jericho's character. Eventually the two split and Hughes has not been seen in WWF since, thank god.

Jericho came to WWF because it was the "land of opportunity". After being held down in WCW throughout 1998, he was supposed to break through in 1999, but was finding himself in midcard storylines and horrible skits. When new Intercontinental champion Chyna made an open challenge to anyone in October, Y2J accepted. The internet fans immediately got behind Jericho again since Chyna is the worst pro-wrestler in all of WWF. A lying, talentless, ugly, hypocrite... the "smart" fans frothed at the prospect of Jericho taking away the IC title and bringing it back to a respectable competitor. The two wrestled on November 14th at "Survivor Series" which saw Chyna retain the title after a top rope Pedigree. Jericho did a superb job carrying her in terms of psychology as the match had very good build and suspenseful near falls. Despite being as big a dick as he could, the crowd got solidly behind Jericho in the match, even booing whenever Chyna took over on offense. It was gratifying to see a live crowd completely turn on such a horrendous worker. In the end, though, Chyna was the victor. Jericho got another change a month later on December 12th at "Armageddon", though, and succeeded in winning the IC title by submission with his "Walls of Jericho" Boston crab submission. The "smart" fan delighted, but it would only get worse.

Much to the dismay of...everyone the Chyna-Jericho storyline continued. They had another rematch on a December 30th episode of "Smackdown". Two referees became involved, with each giving one wrestler the nod. The end result was Chyna and Jericho becoming "co-IC champs", in one of the worst storyline twists in recent memory. It was also during this period that Vince McMahon had a serious discussion with Jericho about improving his game and working more smartly in the ring. The nerve! Here, Jericho carried Chyna to her best matches ever, and McMahon is telling Jericho he has to learn how to be a better worker? It was well known how jealous HHH was when Jericho entered the fed, even going so far to mock Jericho's "stiffness" on the air despite the fact neither was programmed against each other on television. Clearly he was getting into Vince's head. The end result came when Xpac volunteered to "take Jericho under his wing" and help him adjust to the ultra-loose, formulaic WWF TV style of wrestling.

Jericho and Chyna defended "their" IC title against Bob Holly on January 23, 2000 at the "Royal Rumble" PPV. In the triple threat match, whoever won would get sole possession of the IC title. Chyna was gruesome in the match, totally out of her league, with the men not much better. It was a poor match, but at least Jericho won and perhaps, finally rid himself of the human anchor that was Chyna. Over three months feuding with Chyna was coming to an end.

While feuding with each other, Jericho and Chyna developed "respect" for each other and began teaming afterwards! WWF newcomer sensation Kurt Angle set his sights on the IC title (he already possessed the European title) around this time. Angle's super over heel persona, combined with Jericho's new partnership with Chyna, not to mention his still incredible charisma, made sure to turn the twenty-nine year old Canadian face for the first time in over two years. Jericho and Angle opened "No Way Out" on February 27th in a good match that showed promise from both men, but nothing brilliant. Surprisingly, Angle came out on top, ending Jericho's IC reign sooner than expected. The two continued feuding afterwards over the "Eurocontinental" title. A few weeks before Wrestlemania, Jericho's consummate rival and superior Chris Benoit got involved. Benoit had joined WWF shortly after Royal Rumble after he, too, got fed up with WCW politics. Likewise, he, too, was demoted to the midcard in WWF after a high profile debut. The three men had a three way dance on April 2nd in a two falls match. Benoit pinned Jericho in the first fall with a top rope headbutt to win the IC title, but Jericho avenged that loss by winning the second fall with the Lionsault quebrada to win the WWF European title, rendering Angle title-less.

The next night at Raw, Jericho's putrid, acrid, all around horrible partner Chyna turned on him during a title defense against Eddy Guerrero (who jumped to WWF with Benoit for the same reason), ending the European title reign at one day. Now Chyna was separated from Jericho completely! But now Guerrero was saddled with the human heat sucking machine of darkness :(

Never the less, things started looking up for Jericho. On an April 17th episode of Raw he was a surprise opponent for World Champion HHH and actually defeated him for the title with the aid of referee Earl Hebner. Although Hebner soon reversed his decision, the win established Jericho as the #2 baby face in the company and set into motion a rivalry with top heel HHH. He continued feuding with Benoit over the IC title and their match up at the April 30th "Backlash" PPV was the semi-main event under Rock vs HHH with Steve Austin involved. Their match was building real well, and was clearly exciting announcer Jim Ross a great deal, when Jericho was DQ'd out of nowhere for using the title belt in the match. The crowd boo'd the finish and JR, himself, lambasted it. A very good match, though. The two continued their feud into May, with more emphasis placed on each's respective submissions: Benoit's crossface and Jericho's Boston crab. On a May 2nd episode of "Smackdown", Jericho defeated Benoit for the IC title in the opener. Just six days later, though, Benoit regained the belt in a "submissions match" at the "Judgement Day" PPV. The match had good psychology with each man working over a different body part, upping the submission intensity throughout. It ended somewhat suddenly when Benoit clamped on the crossface and Jericho passed out. The two had an aimless June in which both were horribly misused in the "King of the Ring" tournament with Benoit losing to Rikishi in the first round of the PPV and Jericho losing to Kurt Angle also in the first round. The tournament was a disaster with those two, plus Eddy Guerrero all being eliminated early on seemingly just to swerve the audience since everyone presumed at least one of the three would advance far into the tournament.

Jericho got his first megapush in July, though. With the Rock vs HHH feud burnt out, each needed new opponents. Benoit feuded with Rock over the WWF World Title, while HHH and Jericho sparred. It eventually lead to a "triple main event" Fully Loaded PPV on July 23rd which also included an Angle vs Undertaker grudge match. Rock and Undertaker predictably went over their opponents, but HHH also somewhat surprisingly defeated Jericho. In the weeks leading up to the special "last man standing" match, Jericho was portrayed as the underdog but full of fire, assaulting HHH at every corner. In the match, HHH dominated, getting several near finishes on the constantly selling underdog. Jericho eventually came back and they teased a double knock out, but in the end HHH got up at the nine count and immediately collapsed. The psychology of the match was brilliant for WWF and the actual in-ring work did wonders to establish Jericho as a near equal of HHH, drawing comparisons to classic Puroresu psychology where the upstart gains respect for taking the veteran to the limit. Things were really going Jericho's way by this point. He rid himself of Chyna, was co-main eventing PPVs, and was the number two face in the company while Austin sat out with injuries. Unfortunately, things would not get better.

From there on out, Jericho aimlessly wandered the WWF landscape right up till 2001. He faced Benoit again in a 2/3 falls match at August's "Summerslam", but lost two falls to one. The match was far too short at less than fourteen minutes but was still good. These two men's matches in WWF were plagued with horrible finishes that came too early before they could really light up the arena. If one did not know better they'd think someone was trying to hold them back...

Jericho faced Xpac in two PPV matches in September and October. Both matches were good matches, the second being a cage match. Despite all of Jericho's PPV matches being entertaining, his character began to get stale on television. It did not help that he was feuding with the *ultra* stale Xpac, who had ceased being over nearly a year before, this also despite the fact he was capable of real good matches. Y2J also was demoted from #2 face position when Austin came back, and when WWF decided to push Undertaker into a WWF Title feud with Kurt Angle. Both Angle and Benoit surpassed Jericho on the totem poll of upper mid carders. It's not certain why WWF de-pushed Jericho after his electrifying feud and matches with HHH. Perhaps thinking they needed to get Jericho some more credibility in the upper card, they programmed him with the monstrous Kane. Kane dominated Jericho in their televised meetings, with the announcers playing up the size discrepancy greatly. Jericho succeeded in picking up a fluke tag victory over Kane before jobbing clean to the Big Red Machine on November 19th's "Survivor Series". They had a "last man standing" rematch in December at "Armageddon" that saw Jericho win, although it was a bad match and the fact that Jericho could never actually pin Kane dampened the rub he was supposed to get.

With baby face Jericho still spinning his wheels, WWF went back to a formula that they knew could work, and had him feud with Chris Benoit...again. Benoit won the IC title from Billy Gunn at "Armageddon" as well, and the two battled it out on TV once again. As a symbolic way of showing Jericho's journey in WWF, he asked for a "ladder match" at "Royal Rumble", to climb the ladder of WWF stardom through his consummate rival. Benoit agreed, and gloated that throughout all the years they had been wrestling, Benoit always came out on top. Go back to Jcup'95, WCW in 1997, and now WWF in 2000, Jericho always came out on the losing end eventually. Benoit "injured" Jericho's left shoulder in the weeks leading up to "Royal Rumble" in order to make it harder for Jericho to reach the top, to make it even harder for the now thirty year old Canadian to prove Benoit wrong. Their match on January 21st, 2001 was a near classic. They brought more logic and reality to the ladder match than most other recent gimmick matches of the same nature, but also had several great spots. It was given nearly nineteen minutes, but the finish was once again somewhat disappointing with Jericho regaining the IC title for a third time with Benoit awkwardly unable to get back into the ring following a bump to the outside. Still a marvelous match and MOTYC for 2001. The match may end up being more representative if Jericho can become a true main event superstar in WWF by the end of 2001, as he finally defeated his rival to start off the New Year. At the present, Jericho is currently feuding with Eddy Guerrero over the IC title.

People have criticized Jericho for a drop in quality in his in-ring work during his WWF stint, but several factors could be attributed to that. For one, he must wear lifts in his boots that surely screw up his balance to some extent. Two, his level of opponents on regular television are nowhere near what they were during his WCW Cruiserweight reign where he could face world class workers like Juventud Guerrera or Ultimo Dragon every week. Also as previously mentioned, Jericho was expected to work a looser, more conservative style on free TV. His mic work also declined throughout 2000, falling into the same stale catch phrase monotony he mocked in his debut interview with Rock in August'99. He still shows tremendous potential, naturally, as evidenced by his MOTYC with HHH in July'00 and Benoit in January'01, plus he still pumps out a hilarious interview every so often. Hopefully he will become more consistent in the ring and on the mic in 2001 and can really cite this as his breakthrough year, his proof as the Millenium Man.

Above Bio is from:
http://www.neowrestling.com/bios/jericho.shtml

Additional:-

At No Mercy 2001 on October 20, 2001, Chris Jericho finally "won the big one" by capturing the WCW Championship from the People's Champ, The Rock.

After dropping the WCW Championship back to The Rock, Chris Jericho has shown his fans a side of himself they have never seen before -- a bitter, jealous, deceitful figure.

December 9, 2001 - Chris Jericho made history at Vengeance, pinning The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin to become the first-ever Undisputed Champion!

Other Links:

http://www.chrisjericho.com/

http://www.wwfsuperstars.com/chrisjericho/bio/