Christopher Keith Irvine (born November 9, 1970) better known by his ring name Chris Jericho, is an American-born Canadian professional wrestler, television and stage actor, author, radio host, television host and rock musician. He is best known for his appearances with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). He is also known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and internationally in Canadian, Mexican, and Japanese promotions. He is also the host of the ABC game show Downfall. Jericho is currently on hiatus from professional wrestling as he is touring with his band, Fozzy.
Jericho has won 22 championships in his WWE career, and is credited as being the first-ever Undisputed Champion in WWE. He has won the WWE Intercontinental Championship a record nine times. He is a six-time world champion, having won the WCW/World Championship twice, the WWF Championship once, and the World Heavyweight Championship three times. He is the ninth Triple Crown Champion and
At age nineteen, Irvine entered the Hart Brothers School of Wrestling where, on his first day, he met Lance Evers, the future Lance Storm. Two months later, he was ready to start wrestling on independent shows, making his debut on October 2, 1990, in a draw against Storm. The pair would go on to work as a tag-team, initially called "Sudden Impact". He took the name "Jericho" from the Helloween album, Walls of Jericho.
Jericho and Storm worked for Tony Condello in the tours of Northern Manitoba with Adam Copeland (Edge), Jason Reso (Christian Cage), and Terry Gerin (Rhino). The pair also wrestled in Calgary's Canadian National Wrestling Alliance (CNWA) and Canadian Rocky Mountain Wrestling (CRMW). In 1991, Jericho and Storm started touring in Japan for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, where he would befriend Ricky Fuji, who also trained under Stu Hart. 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, Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). In CMLL, 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, Storm, as the Thrillseekers in Jim Cornette's Smoky Mountain Wrestling promotion. In December 1995, Jericho competed in the second Super J Cup Tournament, hosted by WAR, losing to Wild Pegasus.
Extreme Championship Wrestling (1996)
In 1996, thanks to a recommendation by Chris Benoit to promoter Paul Heyman, Jericho began wrestling for the Philadelphia-based Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) promotion, winning the ECW World Television Championship in June 1996. While in ECW, wrestled 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 World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
World Championship Wrestling (1996–1999)
Cruiserweight Champion (1996–1998)
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 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 by defeating Rey Mysterio, Jr. at Souled Out by forcing him to submit to the Liontamer. After the match, Jericho assaulted Mysterio's knee with a toolbox. Mysterio (kayfabe) needed six months of recovery before he could return to the ring. Jericho then had a short feud with Juventud Guerrera in which Guerrera repeatedly requested a shot at Jericho's Cruiserweight Championship, but Jericho constantly rebuffed him. The feud culminated 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 repeatedly claimed he was a better wrestler than Malenko, but refused to wrestle him. Because of 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 defeated a wrestler wearing Juventud Guerrera's mask who appeared to be Jericho. However, the masked wrestler was actually Lenny Lane, who Jericho bribed to appear in the match. This started a minor feud between Lane and Jericho after Jericho refused to pay Lane. At Uncensored Jericho finally wrestled Malenko and defeated him, after which Malenko took a leave of absence from wrestling. Jericho then proceeded to bring with him to the ring a portrait of Malenko that 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 an insulting fashion before the match started and then went backstage for coffee. An individual who appeared to be Ciclope won the battle royal after Juventud Guerrera shook his hand then eliminated himself. However, the winner was not Ciclope, but instead a returning Malenko in disguise. Malenko proceeded to defeat Jericho for the championship. Jericho claiming he was the 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" and accused President Bill Clinton of being one of the conspirators after being rejected from a meeting. Eventually, Malenko vacated the title. Jericho ended up defeating Malenko at The Great American Bash to win the vacant title after Malenko was disqualified after hitting Jericho with a chair. The next night, Malenko was suspended for his actions.
At Bash at the Beach, the recently returned Rey Mysterio, Jr. (who had recovered from his knee injury) defeated Jericho in a No Disqualification match after the still-suspended Malenko interfered. Jericho regained the Cruiserweight Championship from Mysterio the next night after he interrupted J.J. Dillon while Dillon was giving the championship to Mysterio. Jericho was again awarded the championship. Eventually, Jericho decisively lost the title to Juventud Guerrera in a match at Road Wild with Malenko as special referee.
In music, Jericho became the lead vocalist of Fozzy in 1999. Their eponymous debut album (2000) and Happenstance (2002) consist of cover songs and original music; later records All That Remains (2005), Chasing the Grail (2010), Sin and Bones (2012), Do You Wanna Start a War (2014) and Judas (2017) are comprised entirely or predominantly of original compositions. Jericho has also appeared on numerous television shows over the years, including the 2011 season of Dancing With the Stars. He hosted the ABC game show Downfall, the 2011 edition of the Revolver Golden Gods Awards, and the UK's Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards in 2012 and 2017.
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