Chris Jericho

About

Chris Jericho (real name Christopher Keith Irvine) is a Canadian professional wrestler, musician, and media personality, most well-known for his time competing in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Among wrestling fans, Jericho is known for his over-the-top, rockstar-like personality and his multiple WWE Championship runs. Outside of wrestling, Jericho is known as the lead vocalist for heavy metal group Fozzy, his podcast Talk is Jericho, and his work in television and writing.

History

Wrestling Career

Jericho first began wrestling in 1990, training under Ed Langley and local Calgary wrestler Brad Young. Alongside fellow wrestler Lance Storm, Jericho would first wrestle around local Calgary promotions, such as Canadian Rocky Mountain Wrestling. From 1991–1995, Jericho would travel outside Canada and wrestle in various foreign promotions such as Mexican promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) and Japanese promotion Wrestle Association R^[1]. In 1995, Jericho started wrestling in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). From 1996-1998, Jericho wrestled in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as a cruiserweight. In 1999, Jericho signed with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), making his debut on RAW in August 29.

Since then, Jericho has had multiple runs in the WWE as a record-setting nine-time Intercontinental Champion, a three-time World Heavyweight Champion, and the first-ever WWE Undisputed Champion^[3]. On January 9, 2017, during a Monday Night RAW, Jericho defeated Roman Reigns for the United States Championship, becoming a first-time US Champion and therefore a Grand Slam Champion who had held every major singles title in WWE.

Post-WWE career

On November 5, 2017, Jericho made a guest video appearance in New Japan Pro Wrestling show Power Struggle, where he challenged IWGP US Champion Kenny Omega to a title match next year on January 4, 2018, at New Japan's biggest show of the year, Wrestle Kingdom 12.^[11] The news shocked many, as Jericho hadn't wrestled outside the WWE since he joined in 1999, and Jericho had made a point on various interviews that he was loyal to the company and wouldn't wrestle in other promotions.

Jericho was defeated by Kenny Omega, but would continue to compete periodically in New Japan Pro Wrestling. He won the IWGP Intercontinental Championship from Tetsuya Naito at NJPW's Dominion 2018 show, then lost the title back to Naito at Wrestle Kingdom 13. He also received an IWGP Heavyweight Championship match against champion Kazuchika Okada at Dominion 2019, where he was unsuccessful in winning the title, and is scheduled to face Hiroshi Tanahashi in a special singles match at Wrestle Kingdom 14 in January 2020.

In 2019, Chris Jericho made an appearance at a media event organized by All Elite Wrestling, a brand new wrestling promotion. Jericho would sign a 3-year contract with this new company, then went on to defeat Kenny Omega in a rematch of Wrestle Kingdom 12 at AEW's first major show, Double Or Nothing, before becoming the inaugural AEW World Heavyweight Champion with a victory over Adam 'Hangman' Page later in the year at All Out. Jericho has defended the title since.^[12]

Music Career

Jericho began his music career in 1999, forming the heavy metal band Fozzy^[2] alongside guitarist Rich Ward. Fozzy has released seven studio albums. On May 3, 2017, Fozzy released the music video of their single "Judas" from their upcoming album of the same name. On July 24, 2017, Judas reached No. 1 on Sirius/XM Octane charts.^[9], and the album was released on October 13, 2017. As of November 4, 2017, Judas has peaked at #147 on Billboard 200.^[10] Jericho would later use Judas as his entrance theme song while wrestling in New Japan Pro Wrestling and All Elite Wrestling.

Online History

Jericho has a significant following on his Twitter @IAmJericho, with over 3.6 million followers as of the end of 2019.^[3]

Related Memes and Catchphrases

List of 1,004 Holds

On the March 30, 1998 edition of WCW Monday Nitro, Jericho challenged Dean Malenko in an in-ring promo; Malenko claimed to be "The Man of 1,000 Holds", so Jericho challenged that claim and proceeded to read a long list of 1,004 different wrestling holds. Jericho would continue to go through his list even past commercial breaks, until he was finally interrupted by another wrestler. The promo has since been the subject of parody, with wrestling fans often repeating the hold "armbar." Jericho himself has parodied his promo, doing a variation where he names all the wrestlers he's beaten.

JeriTroll

JeriTroll is an image macro series featuring an image of Chris Jericho, usually with overlaid text that depicts acts of trolling or deception. “JeriTroll” is also the name given to the act of Chris Jericho trolling wrestling fans.

Jericho Invented Everything

Jericho Invented Everything is a meme that refers to the idea that everything in the world was invented by or is somehow a rip-off of Chris Jericho. During a promo on WWE Monday Night RAW in 2012, Jericho insulted WWE Champion CM Punk by calling him a "Chris Jericho wannabe" and said that the fans were as well. Punk retorted that Jericho didn't invent saying that you were the best, and later jokingly asked Jericho "Did you invent Canada?"

Following this unusual remark, Chris Jericho's Wikipedia entry was edited to say that he did indeed invent Canada, and several images macros spawned claiming that Jericho invented other famous things, inside and outside of the world of pro wrestling.

ASK HIM

ASK HIM is a trend of Jericho's whereby he shouts at the referee while engaging his opponent in a submission hold, demanding that the referee ask the opponent to submit. In online discussion, the term is frequently used when referencing Jericho. A Youtube video uploaded by user DamnMan90 in May 2009 features a compilation of "Ask Him" moments.^[5]

UrbanDictionary has a definition for "Ask Him", also added in 2009, and defines the term thusly:^[6]

Awesome phrase, said to be WWE Wrestler Chris Jericho's favourite sentence. Every match he applies a submission hold and shouts it every 5 seconds. He even did it once when it wasn't a match and there was no ref in sight.

Jericho applies the Walls of Jericho
Chris Jericho: ASK HIM!

Opponent doesn't submit
Chris Jericho: C'mon Ref, ASK HIM!

Stupid Idiot

In his 2015-2016 run in the WWE, Jericho took to calling his enemies a "stupid idiot," which fans reacted very positively. Notably, at the Monday Night Raw after Wrestlemania XXXII, Jericho called the crowd "stupid idiots," and they began chanting "We are idiots!"^[7] (The clip is shown below among other "stupid idiot" moments.)

The List of Jericho

On September 19th, 2016, Jericho introduced "The List of Jericho," which was originally intended to be a list of grievances he had against Mick Foley, but later turned into a list of people who annoy him (aka "Stupid Idiots"). Though unrelated, fans noted the list hearkened back to the "1,004 Holds" list Jericho used in his Malenko feud.^[8] The List of Jericho was incredibly popular with fans, who would often cheer loudly when Jericho screamed "You just made the list!"

In December 2019, while working for All Elite Wrestling, Jericho cut a promo renaming the List of Jericho into "The Lexicon of Le Champion" and re-purposing it into a list of all wrestlers that he would refuse to wrestle in AEW. Similar to his 1,004 Holds list, he rattled off several names on the list during this promo, humorously including non-wrestlers, fictional characters, and Jon Moxley's name repeated several times.

A Little Bit of the Bubbly

A Little Bit of the Bubbly is a phrase said by Chris Jericho during an improvised backstage promo after he became the first AEW champion at the AEW pay-per-view All Out in 2019. Jericho, upset that no one backstage was celebrating his victory, grabbed a microphone and began improvising a promo throughout the backstage area. Approaching a bottle of champagne, he said "Ooh, a little bit of the bubbly!" The line quickly became a meme in the wrestling fandom, as fans created mashups and image macros based on the phrase.

Later that same year, Nocking Point Wines partnered with Jericho and All Elite Wresting to produce and sell real bottles of "A Little Bit of the Bubbly" champagne through their website.^[13]

Search Interest

External References