Trivia / Chris Jericho

• Breakup Breakout: Jericho was once part of a tag team called with Lance Storm that, in Japan, were called Sudden Impact but which were renamed the Thrillseekers when they arrived in SMW in 1994.
• Creator Backlash:
  • His "Super Liger" character. He was so over in Japan and his skills were so respected that he was handpicked to play an Evil Twin of Jushin Thunder Liger. (which he compares to the idea of John Cena feuding with evil twin "Don Cena"). His first match in the role was so bad, largely due to the poorly designed mask and costume, that it was quickly dropped.
  • Jericho also considers his program with Chyna to be this. While it was his first major storyline in WWE, Jericho has gone on record as to say that it was "brutal" having to share the spotlight with Chyna, especially as it made him look like a weak babyface who couldn't win a single match without her help during their Co-Intercontinental Champions phase. He also didn't consider her to be any easier to deal with in real life either as Chyna had also gotten Jericho in serious trouble with management as well through backstage politics.
  • He also pokes fun at the awful haircut he sported for the 2004-2006 period where he wanted to cut his hair short, but didn't go from long to short and had the "uncomfortable middle stage". By the time he returned to WWE, he'd gone fully short.
• He Also Did: He appeared as the voice of Captain Spectacular on the "Dark Matters" section of Devin Townsend's Z2 album.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes:
  • Chris Jericho was involved in perhaps the greatest match of 2001, in which he and his partner defeated Triple H and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin for the WWE World Tag Team Championship on RAW. And that match will never be seen on a greatest-hits collection, because his tag-team partner was Chris Benoit. With the advent of the WWE Network & Benoit's matches remaining on the shows he took part in, this will eventually be averted as more of the immense back-log of RAW episodes are added to the archive.
  • Subverted by "Strange Kentucky People", a bizarre tribute video of Jericho given to him by a hillbilly fan during his time in Smoky Mountain Wrestling. Despite the video allegedly hitting the tape-trading scene (alongside the infamous Jim Cornette Dairy Queen fiasco) and many SMW wrestlers confirming the video's existence, it has not appeared on the Internet at all.
• Playing Against Type: Despite looking a lot like Hollywood's idea of the boy-next-door Everyman type, Jericho played the role of heel at least as often as that of face.
• Promoted Fanboy: Chris has stated in numerous interviews that he wanted to two things in life, to become a wrestler and be in a rock 'n roll band. He succeeded with both. When he isn't wrestling, he's touring with his band Fozzy.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Jericho punching HBK's wife. While the punch was scripted, Jericho accidentally busted her lip. This provided a lot of fuel for the feud. It should be noted that Rebecca was totally okay with it.
• Real Song Theme Tune:
  • The Thrillseekers used Danger Danger's "Rock America" in SMW, which Jericho apparently hated.
  • (In ECW): White Zombie's "Electric Head Pt. 2 (The Ecstasy)"
• Romance on the Set: Dated Kimona Wanalaya in ECW and two of the Nitro Girls in WCW, though none of these instances became parts of storylines.
• Screwed by the Network:
  • His run in WCW, where he (along with most of the midcard) was never given a chance to move beyond Cruiserweight/TV title level, in spite of his immense talent and crowd heat.
  • The revenue from WCW Chris Jericho dolls went not to Chris Jericho but to Hulk Hogan and Sting.
  • His run as the first-ever WWF Undisputed Champion: the storyline had him take a back seat to Triple H and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley fighting over their pet bulldog, even though he was the world champion defending his title in the main event of WrestleMania.
  • Hell, his entire first run with WWF/E from 1999-2005, if his second book is any indication.
• Star-Making Role: His feud against Stephanie McMahon and subsequently her husband Triple H is what really made him a white hot Anti-Hero babyface from 2000 onwards. He even mentioned in his second book how working with a woman like Chyna nearly destroyed his career but working with Stephanie really saved his career.
• Viral Marketing: Jericho seems to love doing this:
  • His 1999 WWF debut was promoted with "Countdown to the Millennium" videos that actually counted down to August 9, 1999 (his debut date) as opposed to January 1, 2000.
  • Jericho's 2007 return was promoted with mysterious Matrix Raining Code that gave us SAVE_US.222 and later, SAVE_US.X29. X+1=Y and J=9+1, making it SAVE_US.Y2J.
  • Jericho's 2012 return went even more cryptic with links to YouTube videos, featuring a Creepy Boy (presumingly named Chris) prophetising his return, joined by a Creepy Girl, who seems to hold the answer to his return.
• What Could Have Been
  • Him & Edge as WWE Unified Tag Team Champions, cut short due to Edge getting injured. Jericho eventually formed the "Jeri-Show" duo with Big Show.
  • In his first book Chris mentions that Owen Hart was one of the main reasons he became a wrestler and wanted little else but to be one-part of the Tag-Team Champions with Owen. But, Owen died after Jericho had signed with the WWF/E, but before he had made his debut.
  • In his second book, he talks about his 2007 return and how he needed a quick, snappy Finishing Move he could hit from anywhere, a la the RKO. He created a Bulldog-into-a-DDT maneuver he wanted to call the "Boomstick." However, he turned on RAW soon after and saw Candice Michelle doing the same move. When he heard it was called the "Candy Wrapper," he knew it wouldn't be taken seriously.
  • Jericho was supposed to turn heel in 2013 and enter a feud with Ryback that would result in a match at WrestleMania 29. Then he went on a his tour with Fozzy, and once he had return said plan had changed, among others, he remained a face and was paired with Fandango instead. The Ryback feud did play out, although Jericho played the face to contrast Ryback turning heel on John Cena.
  • He was gonna feud with Orton in 2012, but both managed to get suspended within a week of each other, Jericho for kicking the Brazilian flag, a huge no no in Brazil, for 30 days and Orton was suspended for his second Wellness Violation that carried a 60 days suspension.
  • After losing to Kenny Omega at Wrestle Kingdom 12, Jericho looked to supposedly extend his time in New Japan Pro-Wrestling by attacking Tetsuya Naito at New Year's Dash the following day. After a period away from the company (during which he returned to WWE temporarily for Raw's 25th anniversary and for the Greatest Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia), talks about planning Jericho's return to New Japan and continuing the Naito feud stopped, before the former announced that he was done with the company for the time being. He would pick up where he left off quickly later that year however, when Jericho launched a feud with Naito's faction Los Ingobernables de Japon over the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
  • Funny enough, one of the final pitches he had to WWE prior to these plans being scrapped came after Jericho claimed the IWGP Intercontinental Championship off Naito at Dominion 2018, in which he pitched a match against Seth Rollins, the-then WWE Intercontinental Champion in what would have been billed as a cross-promotional match. If rumors are to be believed, Vince McMahon actually found the idea intriguing at the very least, but no formal plans ever came into play.
  • Jericho's defection to AEW or his entire post-WWE indie career could have been averted had his feud with Kevin Owens a) had played out as a Universal Title main event as originally booked instead of getting turned into a US title feud thanks to Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg III^note Lesnar agreed to a rematch to get his win back but only as an Universal Title match or b) said US Title match opening WrestleMania 33 instead of being the second match on the card which Jericho took as a grave insult as opposed to the opener as which he viewed as second only to the main event.
  • Another reason for the defection according to Jericho was that he wanted to book some of the NXT roster onto the first Jericho cruise and was flat-out refused, leading him to grab the Elite and half of the ROH roster instead.
  • In a non-wrestling what if, he was invited by Clint Eastwood to audition for a role in American Sniper and even though he didn't get it, he was incredibly flattered by the fact that he was invited by Eastwood himself.
  • Jericho revealed that he'd been offered a spot in the WWE as far back as 1996, but turned it down because he wasn't happy with the offer. According to him, the infamous jobber character The Goon was created solely to be portrayed by him if he signed on then.