Would you please, SHUT… THE HELL… UP.
Just read for a few moments.
Chris Jericho is more than twenty years old. Chris Irvine began wrestling in 1990. The son of a former professional hockey player, Irvine gravitated toward wrestling and ended up in training to go pro in Calgary under the tutelage of the famous Hart family.
After a few stops abroad, Irvine, now Jericho, made his way through ECW and WCW before finally landing in his dream spot… World Wrestling Entertainment.
Welcome to Raw is Jericho.
Chris Jericho, a native of Winnipeg came into the world’s most noteworthy wrestling organization with a bang. Jericho was immediately cast into the same spotlight as Dwayne Johnson, The Rock.
But that was just a taste of who Jericho would become in WWE. He was a larger-than-life rockstar that transcended the audience. Jericho was well known as an excellent ring technician and solid entertainer before entering WWE, but the Ayatollah of Rock n’ Rolla became so much more than that upon entering the big leagues.
In Canada, Jericho was a point of pride. The world of pro wrestling already had a strong list of Canadian sports entertainers to that point including, Edge, Christian, Val Venis, Lance Storm, Chris Benoit and, of course, Bret Hart.
Hart was the gold standard in not just Canadian wrestling, but all pro wrestling. His technical skills in the ring were nearly unmatched. Jericho, however, brought a new element to the game. He was uniquely gifted on the microphone, while at the same time being an expert in-ring technician. Jericho was, after all, the man of 1,004 holds.
Jericho was more charismatic than anyone a Canadian wrestling fan had come to know up until that point, making him somewhat of, well, an ayatollah.
Jericho was someone who Canadians could praise in the same way Don Cherry praised Doug Gilmour. He was a good Canadian boy, but also someone who fit inside the American world of pro wrestling, bridging a divide between nations thanks to his wrestling acumen.
There’s always a comparison to Hart when Canadian wrestling fans examine their own countrymen and women, but there has always been something different about Jericho. He’s never shied away from his Canadian roots, but also hasn’t ever needed to use them to propel himself forward in the world of pro wrestling. Jericho succeeded outside of his nationality. He was ahead of his time as a wrestler, working without a border for a majority of his career.
Never was Jericho’s status as a top-tier wrestler, damn his nationality, more on display than when he was crowned the first-ever Undisputed Champion. The kid from Winnipeg defeated The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin on the same night to capture one of the most distinctive honours in the history of pro wrestling.
Jericho would go on to capture numerous championships during his run in WWE, including a record nine Intercontinental Championships. "The Best in the World" cemented himself as one of the greatest wrestlers of all-time, and it all started twenty years ago.
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