Awesome / Chris Jericho

• Jericho's 1999 debut on Raw is War, with the crowd already so hyped to see him before he even appeared on stage that they chanted along with "Welcome to RAW... IS... JERICHO!!!" the very first time he even SAID it.
  • And his return in 2007 - the "Second Coming" - also on Raw. The speech he launched into at the end was the stuff of legends. Fitting for the one who returned to save us from the Legend Killer.
  Jericho: Because the first chance I get, I'm gonna take that WWE Championship from you... And I'm gonna put it around this goooorgeous waist! And when I do, Monday Night Raw, the WWE, Sports Entertainment, Entertainment Entertainment, the state of Florida, the country of the United States, the western hemisphere, the planet Earth, the Heavens Above, The Galaxies, the Crab Nebula, the Universe itself! (Long Pause) Will never...
  The Crowd: Never!
  Jericho: Never!
  The Crowd: Never!
  Jericho: Neeeeeveeeeer!
  The Crowd: Never!
  Jericho: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVER! Be the same! Again! (Cue Break the Walls Down)
  • Jericho did it AGAIN, as he has been revealed to be the one behind the "It begins" videos that popped up on RAW at 2011's end.
  • Jericho's return at the 2013 Royal Rumble at #2 to face Dolph Ziggler. The fans tore the roof off the building when his music hit.
• Jericho beating Austin and Rock in the same night in back-to-back matches to become the first WWE Undisputed Champion, which to this day is often used as a Remember When You Blew Up a Sun? reference.
  • Jericho would also beat both men at the next two PPV's: Rock at the Royal Rumble and Austin at No Way Out. It took God-Mode Sue Triple H to beat him at Wrestlemania
• Beating The Two-Man Power Trip of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin & Triple H for the WWF Tag Team Championships with Chris Benoit on RAW and retaining the titles in a Tables, Ladders & Chairs Match against The Hardy Boyz, Edge & Christian and The Dudley Boyz on SmackDown! later that week.
• A real life CMOA was his series of CNN interviews following Chris Benoit's murder-suicide, during which he acted as an intelligent and well-spoken ambassador for pro wrestling, correcting a lot of Nancy Grace's mistakes.
• Established himself as a badass backstage after trapping Goldberg in a front face lock. (Reports differ as to how long Jericho had Goldberg in the hold, and whether he let it go on his own, was pulled off by other wrestlers/security, or Goldberg broke out of it, though Jericho mentioned the fight in his second autobiography and says some of the boys had to pull him off a limp Goldberg.)
• On an early edition of Smackdown Jericho had a truly awesome moment in the ring with the Rock. Rock was doing his usual crowd sing along juvenile insult promo mouthing off at Jericho. Jericho interrupts him. Nothing unusual, guys interrupt other guys' promos all the time. Why does THIS one stand out as awesome? Because Jericho did so without ever saying a word, by holding his palm right up to Rock's face, then turning his palm towards himself and doing the "bring it" motion. Watch it here.
• In 2000, a weekly occurrence on Raw & SmackDown was Jericho insulting Stephanie McMahon for no other reason than he found it funny. Eventually, Triple H got sick of Jericho insulting his wife, so Jericho goaded him into a WWE championship match. And won. Granted, Triple H forced the referee to reverse the decision before the end of the show, but the moment the referee counted three? Just watch the crowd reaction.
• When winning the Undisputed Championship in 2001, Jericho became one of eleven "Grand Slam Champions", meaning he was at different points in his career a WWE Champion, a World Tag Team Champion, an Intercontinental champion, and a European Champion. As time went on, the WWE started to recognize World Heavyweight Championship, Hardcore Championship and WWE Tag Team Championship reigns as part of the Grand Slam (ex. the Hardcore Title substitutes for the European, WHC for WWE Title, etc.), titles that Jericho has held or came to hold since their inclusion. In 2009 (by winning the WWE Tag Team title with Edge), Jericho became one of only two people in the company's history to hold every single title in the Grand Slam (the other is Jeff Hardy, who only completed this circuit in 2017), and because the Hardcore, European, World Heavyweight, and World Tag Team titles are inactive, he and Jeff are almost certainly going to be the only two men to enjoy the distinction in company history.
• Jericho has generally had great difficulty against both John Cena and Triple H, but this sequence, in which he pinned Cena, put him in the Walls of Jericho and then hit a Codebreaker on Triple H, was a fantastic Two Minutes of Awesome for Jericho. (Granted, he had The Big Show helping him, but still).
• Chris Jericho holds the record for most WWE/F Intercontinental championship reigns, 9 separate reigns as of June 7, 2009. The next highest number of IC title reigns is 8(The Miz).
• Jericho's feud in WCW with Goldberg. Not for the feud itself, but for Jericho standing up for his ideas despite constant attempts from Goldberg and Eric Bischoff to shut the whole idea down. This culminated in Jericho being called to Bischoff's office with both Goldberg and Hulk Hogan waiting to tell Jericho to end it all. Jericho successfully got them to allow him to do one more bit that night and if the crowd didn't react he'd drop it. Of course, the crowd went wild during the show (the end result was Goldberg finally getting some revenge by spearing Jericho on the ramp). After the show Hogan approached Jericho in the common locker room (a place Hogan never visited) and praised him for standing his ground and even admitted the Jericho was right and Hogan, Bischoff and Goldberg were wrong.
• From the other side of the coin Chris Jericho getting pelted with D-Generation X merchandise after insulting the crowd one too many times.
• Although he was a heel and a thorough Jerkass at the time, it is worth mentioning Unforgiven 2008. After a violent feud with Shawn Michaels that included Jericho socking Michaels's wife in the face, it all came to a head at Unforgiven 2008, where Jericho withstood an enraged Shawn's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown in an "Unsanctioned Street Fight". It was so bad that the ref simply called for the bell while Jericho was locked in a submission, completely out cold. But this isn't the awesome part: later in the night CM Punk was assaulted backstage during an interview, which took him out of the Championship Scramble main event. The match itself proceeded as planned until what was supposed to be Punk's entrance...and instead of Punk, out stumbles Chris Jericho, who inserted himself into the match. Despite all the punishment he suffered earlier, he won the match, which marked the beginning of his first World Heavyweight Championship reign.
• Extreme Rules 2009. Jericho not only defeats Rey Mysterio in a No Holds Barred match for the Intercontinental Championship, but the awesome counter that lead to him winning? Jericho counters a 619 by pulling Rey's mask off in one smooth motion, and then gets a schoolboy rollup for the win, leaving Rey to shrink back to the locker room with his hands over his face. He guaranteed to unmask Rey, and win the title, and he accomplished both of those things within five seconds of each other.
• Knocking off Bray Wyatt at Battleground 2014 in an upset (given his recent role within the company, which is to work about a half-time schedule and more specifically to put younger superstars over) that not many saw coming.
• An Offscreen Moment of Awesome for Jericho: Following SummerSlam 2016's Orton/Lesnar finish (Lesnar beating Orton by TKO when he busted Orton open the hard way), he went to check on Orton. He then confronted Michael Hayes about the finish, asking if it was a shoot or not. Hayes says nothing and Jericho proclaims "Bullshit". Brock comes in from behind the curtain and confronts Jericho about it and Jericho backs Lesnar against a wall. Chris was ready to fight Brock Fucking Lesnar if he'd hurt Orton intentionally. Holy shit. Doubles as heartwarming with Jericho showcasing that much concern for a fellow wrestler. Luckily Orton intervened and insisted to Jericho that he was okay before it escalated further.
  • Considering the Goldberg entry above, one may not find it so incredulous that Jericho could legitimately stand a chance against Lesnar.
• January 9, 2017: With aid from Kevin Owens (in a 2 on 1 handicap match), Chris Jericho knocks off Roman Reigns to capture the United States Championship, the last title he had yet to win in the WWE and making him eligible for the current Grand Slam championship (winning a World, Intercontinental, Tag, and United States championship).
• Much has to be said of Jericho's character reinventions over the course of his career, especially since his 2007 return. His transition the following year into a emotionless Heel to a cocky veteran on both sides of the spectrum to put over younger talent and his more recent stuff with Kevin Owens and the List of Jericho, it cannot be emphasized how much he can adapt to the times, avoid being stale and fill almost any role near flawlessly.
• Another CMOA for Chris Jericho is the sheer number of championships he's won over the course of his career. Between ECW, WCW, and WWE Jericho has won a staggering 32 championships. ECW: 1 TV Championship. WCW: 1 TV Championship and 4 Cruiserweight Championships. WWE: a record 9 IC Championships, 7 Tag Team Championships, 1 European Championship, 1 Hardcore Championship, 6 World Championships, and most recently 2 United States Championships. No one in WWE has that many championships. Between full-timers, part-timers, and semi-retired wrestlers the only ones that comes close are John Cena with 25 and Jeff Hardy with 26 and that's still a good sized gap.
  • And as the entries below show, he's not done yet!
• As Bryan and Vinny put it, in an age when WWE can't get Roman Reigns over, Chris Jericho, in his illustrious career, has gotten some of the stupidest, most random things over, including (but not limited to):
  • A list of 1004 holds (ARMBAR)
  • A fat, old personal security guard in a tiny tanktop named Ralphus
  • A (different) List (some 20 years after the first one)
  • The Big Show
  • A scarf
  • The word 'It'
  • The phrase 'You stupid idiot'
  • "A LITTLE BIT OF THE BUBBLEH"
  • A spinning back elbow as a credible Finishing Move.
• Jericho challenging Kenny Omega to a match at Wrestle Kingdom 12. Nobody thought this would go beyond Twitter beef. HOLY SHIT.
  • And then, to show he wasn't just playing around, Jericho upped the ante. How often is it you get to see an actual Dream Match in this day and age?
  • The match totally lived up to expectations too, "Alpha vs Omega" ending up another classic from two of the best wrestlers in the world.
• Chris Jericho winning at Dominion 6.9 beating Tetsuya Naito to become a 10-time Intercontinental Champion.
• At the end of the brutal match between Kenny Omega and Penta el Zero M^note also known as Pentagon Dark from Lucha Underground at indie megaevent All In, Omega was celebrating his hard-fought victory over his opponent when the lights suddenly went out. When they eventually came back up again, Penta was on his feet again... but something was different. "Penta" attacked Omega and beat him down as the crowd roared, then they exploded when the masked luchador hit him with a Codebreaker and unmasked to reveal himself as Jericho! Omega may have triumphed the first time they'd met, but the Alpha wasn't done with him yet!
  • It gets even better when one considers the story behind it. Jericho had a concert that night in Kansas, and had to fly in a private jet to Chicago just to get to his match in time. Then he realized that his Pentagon costume was the wrong colors, and he had to spraypaint it backstage to match the real thing, an hour before the show started, and needing to use one of Cody Rhodes's tracksuits to fan it dry. And he still made it all work.
• "Alpha vs Omega II" at the main event of AEW's first major PPV Double or Nothing saw Jericho and Omega put on another brutal contest, with Jericho getting one of his own back against Omega with the aid of his new Finishing Move, the "Judas Effect", earning himself the very first shot at winning AEW's newly revealed championship in a future title match against Hangman Page!
• A behind the scenes one from 2009. Michelle McCool claims that she and Melina were told off for a spot in one of their matches - where Michelle gave Melina a DDT on the security wall. The reason they were told off? Because it "looked better than the guys"^note Many of the women employed by the company at that time, notably Gail Kim, claimed that WWE were actively trying to dumb down the women's division and enforcing Chickification.. Michelle describes Jericho coming to their defence and saying "if that was better than the guys then that means the guys have to step it up".
• Defeating Hangman Adam Page at AEW All Out to become the first ever AEW World Champion. Almost 2 decades after leaving WCW for being underutilized, Jericho is now returning to TNT once again as a world champion.
• In just a few short weeks of AEW's premier, Jericho proves himself not only to be a great heel Champion, but as the top guy of the company by doing what he has always done best: making others shine. Unlike some people we could mention, Jericho plugs the shit out of his opponents and his Inner Circle members^* though to be fair, one of said people has an advocate who speaks on his behalf and often engages in Baddie Flattery for his challengers, making them sound like they're hot commodities and legitimate contenders (when most mainstream audiences would likely never had heard of the likes Sammy Guevara or Santana & Ortiz), and his match with Darby Allin made the younger wrestler look like a million bucks despite a losing effort, by giving the kid some serious offense while his (Allin's) hands were tied behind his back!
  • In case you're still not convinced, in the main event of the Dynamite episode after Full Gear Jericho teamed up with Sammy to challenge AEW Tag Team Champions SCU for the belts in an attempt to get "all of the gold" for the Inner Circle. And after a good match, not only did SCU manage to hold onto their gold, but Jericho ate the pin (his first pinfall loss in AEW) to put SCU over without making Sammy look weak!
• When the Coronavirus crisis hit, AEW had to scale down their productions for the safety of their workers and tape several weeks' worth of shows in one go so that everyone could go back into quarantine. Jericho stepped up as a commentator, and was hilariously entertaining while doing most of it off the cuff, reportedly doing 7 hours of tapings in one day!
• On Apr. 2, 2021, Chris was announced as a guest on 'The Broken Skull Sessions' with Steve Austin, which was set for an Apr. 11 premiere, immediately after the 2nd night of WrestleMania 37. A current AEW main eventer having a chat on WWE Network/Peacock programming, while signed outside WWE. The walls have definitely come down, in more ways than one, indeed.
• THIS: for context, MJF has been in a months-long feud with Jericho ever since the former tried to destroy the Inner Circle with his new faction, the Pinnacle. Before their match, MJF dictates that neither Chris' Judas Effect nor his theme song "Judas" can be used. As Jericho comes out for their match, there's no music, but the crowd doesn't care as they sing the lyrics to the song A Cappella.
• In response to criticisms of his ring work slipping and him getting out of shape, Jericho put in the hard yards to get himself back into prime shape for his match against Eddie Kingston at Revolution 2022, even having a visible 6-pack again. Less that 10 seconds into the match, Kingston got behind Jericho and gave him a half-and-half suplex that dropped him right on his head, but Jericho recovered from the devastating impact and the two men proceeded to put on a brutal King's Road-style match that was hailed as one of the best of Jericho's entire AEW run, kicking off what would be a premier year for him.
• Beating Claudio Castagnoli for the Ring of Honor World Championship at AEW Grand Slam 2022, yet another accolade added to his exhaustive list of accomplishments (his eighth world championship win, leading to his new nickname "the Ocho"). While he would bombastically declare himself the greatest ROH champion of all time in the typically facetious heelish manner, his multiple title defences over the course of his 80-day reign before Claudio won the belt back, including against many other former ROH title holders such as Colt Cabana, Tomohiro Ishii, Dalton Castle and Bandido, made many people admit that he was genuinely making a legitimate case to add himself to the list (no pun intended) of the ROH greats in record time.
• His match against Will Ospreay at All In 2023. When news leaked that Jericho was planned as Ospreay's opponent rather than having the much-preferred rubber match against Kenny Omega, many people rolled their eyes at what they perceived as Jericho trying to put himself ahead of younger and more deserving talents again and mainly being concerned with getting Fozzy a spot in front of the massive 80k+ crowd, but on the Dynamite before the event the two men had an absolutely killer promo face-off which won most of the doubters over. When the event came, Jericho did perform his own entrance theme live with his bandmates (including recreating Freddy Mercury's famous "Ay Oh!" call-and-response from Live-Aid in 1985) and the UK crowd was hugely into it, but Jericho was savvy enough to know he had to play heel against the incredibly-over (even with Don Callis in his corner) Home Town Hero Ospreay and didn't futilely try to win them over. And then the match absolutely ruled, which may not have surprised many considering that Will Ospreay was in it, but Jericho put his big boy worker pants on that night and fought like mad to the bitter end before putting the young legend over, even kicking out of the OsCutter and defiantly flipping Ospreay off while daring him to deliver the Hidden Blade to his face instead of the back of his head. A definite all-time career highlight match in Jericho's 30+ year career.