Wrestling / Chris Jericho

As the first-ever Undisputed Champion. Drink it in, maaaaaan...

"Welcome to TV Tropes IS JERICHO!"

Lionheart. The Man of 1,004 Holds. Corazón De León. León D'Oro. Lion Do. Super Liger. He-Man. Chris Power. Y2J. The Ayatollah of Rock N' Rolla. The First Ever Undisputed Champion. Sexy Beast. The King of The World. The Painmaker. Le Champion. Le Sex God. The Ocho.

Chris FUCKIN' Jericho. Drink it in, maaaaaaaaaaan!

Chris Jericho (real name Christopher Keith Irvine, born November 9, 1970 in Manhasset, New York) is an American-born Canadian professional wrestler with a long, storied career spanning thirty years and numerous promotions around the world, and frontman of the heavy metal band Fozzy.

Jericho's rise to stardom in the industry began in WCW, where the "Lionheart" became a hit with the fans (particularly because of hilarious promo work), having several Cruiserweight title runs and feuding with the likes of Dean Malenko, Rey Mysterio Jr., and Juventud Guerrera. When Jericho tried to move into the main event, however, his attempts were blocked by the bookers; a planned feud with Goldberg was aborted, and Jericho realized he'd never make it to the main event in the company. In 1999, Jericho left WCW and jumped ship to the WWF; his debut at the end of the "Countdown to the Millennium" - interrupting a promo by The Rock, of all people! - is considered one of his Crowning Moments of Awesome for the Ayatollah of Rock-and-Rollah.

In the two decades since, Jericho has accomplished a lot - in addition to holding the Intercontinental Championship a record nine times, he's also a multiple-time world champion, a multiple-time tag team champion, and he was the first man to hold the WWE's Undisputed Championship (the unification of the WWE Championship and the WCW World Title Belt), which he accomplished by beating The Rock and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin in back-to-back matches. He hosted a short-lived game show on ABC and was multi-champ hottie Cheryl Burke's partner on Dancing with the Stars. (He did surprisingly well, lasting until week six.) He also competed in Genichiro Tenryu's WAR (Wrestle Association R) promotion, FMW, SMW, CMLL, the CWA (Catch Wrestling Association) in Austria/Germany, ECW, AAA, Stampede Wrestling, New Japan Pro-Wrestling and other promotions in Mexico and Canada. In early 2019 he made waves by being one of the first wrestling megastar names to sign with the nascent promotion All Elite Wrestling, becoming their first World Champion in August of that year. In 2022 he won the Ring of Honor World Championship for the first time, and that same year he participated in The Masked Singer as the Bride. He also stars in a web series called But I'm Chris Jericho!.

Per usual, That Other Wiki has a great writeup of his extensive career, both in and out of the ring.

Not to be confused with the TV series Jericho (2006), the TV series Jericho (1966), the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic Jericho (MLP), the British series Jericho of Scotland Yard, or the video game Clive Barker's Jericho.

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The Tropes of Jericho. List it down, maaaaaaaaaaan...

• Aborted Arc: The week after the 2012 Over the Limit saw Randy Orton facing off against Alberto Del Rio (thanks to a Fatal Four Way match for the World Heavyweight Championship in which Orton and Del Rio weren't pinned). Jericho attacked Orton just before the match ended, hitting him with three Codebreakers and proclaiming that he was the best in the world. It looks like this was setting up for a major feud between the two. One week later... both get suspended^note Orton was flagged for a Wellness Policy violation and Jericho caused controversy over kicking the Brazilian flag at a house show in said country, promptly flushing the potential feud down the toilet.
• The Ace: As the years have passed, Chris Jericho has become more and more prominent in discussions over which wrestler is the GOAT^note Greatest Of All Time, particularly as a consequence of his run with AEW. He can simply do everything and anything, can be face or heel at will, can get over absolutely anything, is a great locker room leader, and is absolutely dedicated to building as many new stars as he can at every opportunity.
• Actually Pretty Funny: Santino telling him he had a "Lindsay Lohan haircut" got this reaction out of Jericho.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Done twice, first dead seriously after being fired by Eric Bischoff for losing to John Cena, eventually having to be dragged out by security. (Laser-Guided Karma: Bischoff ended his own run with a similar attempt, equally unsuccessful and ten times the Cool And Unusual.) Another following his return, when he was forced to beg for Stephanie McMahon's forgiveness to maintain his job; despite how hilariously forced and insincere the whole thing was, it actually worked.
• Alliterative List: On the January 1, 2001, Raw, he called the trio of Christian, Kurt Angle and Edge, "Junior, Jerky and Jackass."
• Always Someone Better:
  • How he felt about Lance Storm when they first met.
  • Jericho also once compared himself to George Harrison of The Beatles, noting that while George was one of the best songwriters of his era, he happened to be in a band with the best two songwriters of his era, John Lennon and Paul McCartney; noting that while he (Jericho) may have been one of the best of the Attitude Era, he worked with the best, meaning The Rock and Stone Cold.
  • More recently, in kayfabe, CM Punk. Prior to Punk's walk out and (first) retirement from wrestling, Chris was never able to beat Punk one-on-one since after the end of his second WWE run and subsequent return. When he asked Paul Heyman for the match with Punk at Payback 2013, he outright admitted he needed to beat Punk, having tapped out to him at WrestleMania the year prior and pinned in a Chicago Street Fight the month afterwards. He got it — and then failed to beat Punk again. At which point Chris stopped trying completely, more-or-less conceding that Punk was simply better than him.
• Animal Theme Naming: Lion-Tamer, Lionsault, and his former nickname: Lionheart.
• Anti-Climax:
  • Has said that he doesn't want to go out with a huge Ric Flair-esque sendoff, but rather be dragged kicking and screaming from wrestling while the audience thinks "Wow that guy was a jerk".^note A reaction that's quite hard for him to get, because even when he's playing the most obnoxious, egotistical heel you've ever seen (and he does exactly that), he does it in such a charismatic, entertaining way that fans can't help but want to see him do it again next week. Which is exactly what happened when he took a break from wrestling in 2005. He lost a match with John Cena and Eric Bischoff fired him, having security drag him up the ramp kicking and screaming. As revealed in his second book, he was originally supposed to just be walked out by security. But when they walked out, he told them under his breath to carry him out.
  • During his last month with WWE, Jericho vowed he'd retire if he couldn't win the WWE Championship at Night of Champions. Come the match and Jericho is the first of the six eliminated within minutes. This is where the crowd should have been chanting "Na-na-na-na! Na-na-na-na! Hey he-ey! Goodbye!" but instead chanted "Y2J! Y2J!" in respect for the performer. Clearly, that wasn't enough of a downer ending because he stayed around for two weeks so he could get a more dubious send-off: a punt by Randy Orton.
  • On the Raw following SummerSlam, A.J. Lee books a rematch between Ziggler and Y2J with some higher stakes this time around: Dolph's MITB briefcase vs. Jericho's WWE Contract. Jericho wins, he gets Dolph's title shot. If Ziggler wins, Jericho's gone from the company. It's a back-and-forth match, with both men hitting their signature moves, up until Dolph counters the Lionsault into the Zig Zag for the 1-2-3. Played straight when a frustrated Jericho hits Ziggler with his MITB briefcase post-match, followed by a Codebreaker. However, it turns into a more Bittersweet Ending with the crowd cheering and chanting for Jericho all the way as he walks up to the stage and looks out to the crowd for (seemingly) the last time.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • Triple H and Stephanie McMahon for much of WWE's Attitude Era. The Rock was also something of an arch-enemy, spoiling his big debut in the WWF and eventually boiling over during the InVasion.
  • Chris Benoit was one of these to Jericho for a year or so in the WWF, though they had feuded in Japan as well.
  • Shawn Michaels on-and-off during the Brand Extension, but especially during 2008. Most of Jericho's critically acclaimed matches in WWE were with Shawn.
  • CM Punk for the first half of 2012. Jericho did everything he could to get into Punk's head, starting with exposing the dirty laundry in Punk's family, and then by humiliating Punk by preying on him when he was vulnerable and pouring tons of alcohol all over his prone body (even smashing a bottle of the stuff on the back of Punk's head).
  • Dolph Ziggler for the second half of 2012 and into 2013.
  • He's referred to Bob Barker as his "arch-nemesis".
  • The Heavenly Bodies in SMW.
  • Alex Wright, Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn in WCW.
  • Bray Wyatt in 2014 after Jericho became The Wyatt Family target.
  • Kevin Owens, after Owens betrayed him at WWE Raw Festival of Friendship.
  • Kenny Omega definitely made The List on the way to Wrestle Kingdom 12 in New Japan Pro-Wrestling and into AEW. He went on to make The Lexicon of Le Champion in AEW in December 2019 (see "Long List" below).
  • Jon Moxley also made The Lexicon in 2019, and went on to take the AEW championship off Jericho in 2020.
  • Became this to Adam Cole shortly after Cole returned to AEW in 2023, Jericho being angered over Cole defeating Jericho's protégé, Daniel Garcia, and said defeat being treated merely as something to celebrate Cole's return. As a result, Jericho had the J.A.S handcuff him to the ring and force him to watch The Outcasts brutally beat Cole's girlfriend, Britt Baker, with a kendo stick. Since then, Jericho earned Cole's undying hatred.
• The Artifact: Jericho's countdown and explosion in his entrance theme was a reference to the Y2K countdown (hence the nickname "Y2J") and such a motif became outdated by the time 2000 was over. However, over the years, he's kept the moniker, with commentators still referring to him by that nickname and fans still chanting "Y2J" in the arenas for the duration of all his WWE runs even into The New '10s, even though the Y2K phenomenon is now nothing more than a small footnote in history.
• Ascended Meme:
  • During his famous "Man of 1004 Holds" promo, Jericho listed the "Moss-Covered, Three-Handled Family Gradenza," a phrase he saw in the 1971 TV adaption of The Cat in the Hat. Paul Heyman liked the name so much that when Perry Saturn began using a swinging fisherman's suplex as a finisher, Heyman gave it that name. In addition, he was fired by A.J. Lee as GM on the 1004th episode of RAW.
  • In 2009, during a match at the Survivor Series pay-per-view event, a fan near the front row yelled at Jericho to "Go back to Toronto!" Without missing a beat, Jericho quickly retorted "I'm from Winnipeg, you idiot!" and continued on with the match. The moment went viral, and in 2016, Jericho and Cesaro had this exchange on an episode of Raw:
    Jericho: [to Sami Zayn] It was in Stupid Idiotville; does it matter-
    Cesaro: Oh, so it was-
    Jericho: Does it matter where I won?!
    Cesaro: So it was in your hometown?
    [Beat]
    Jericho: I'm from Winnipeg, you idiot.
• Attention Whore: The nature of his "Y2J" persona. This was relevant when he turned heel in 2009, believing that all his audience-pandering got him nowhere and that Humans Are Bastards, ready to turn on you the second you're out of their good graces.
• Badass Boast: "I AM THE BEST IN THE WORLD AT EVERYTHING I DO." Possibly borrowed from another famous Canadian.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Following his heel turn in 2008.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Jericho won his historic feud with Shawn Michaels in 2008, winning the deciding (Last Man Standing) match in London, England.
• Bait-and-Switch Comparison: One of Jericho's best burns against Stephanie McMahon came during the buildup to his match with Rhyno at SummerSlam 2001, with Steph acting as Rhyno's valet in her role as the owner of ECW.
  Jericho: But at SummerSlam, I'm gonna take care of that smelly, greasy, nasty animal. <Beat> And I'm gonna get you too, Rhyno!
• Beard of Evil: Jericho tends to sport a beard when he's a heel.
• Big Bad: As the inaugural AEW World Heavyweight Champion and leader of his own faction, Jericho reigns comfortably as the company's first ever top heel.
• Big "NEVER!": "It will never EEEEEEVVER happen again!"
• Big "SHUT UP!": "Would you PLEASE SHUT THE HELL UP?!"
• Blah, Blah, Blah: Jericho's response to Paul Heyman when he wasn't all that forthcoming about CM Punk's whereabouts.
• Blatant Lies: During his brief feud with Ken Shamrock in his early WWE days, he would place himself inside of a steel cage and hire a bodyguard, saying that it wasn't to protect himself from Shamrock, but to protect Shamrock from Jericho. Real life injuries sustained by Shamrock during this feud was what caused him to leave WWE for good and retiring from wrestling all together for several years.
• Boring, but Practical: His post-WWE finishing move, The Judas Effect, is... a spinning back elbow. While a lot of fans have criticised it as a dull, implausible finisher (especially as many wrestlers use the move just as a transitional move), a well-aimed back elbow is in fact one of the more genuinely legit MMA moves used in wrestling despite its lack of flashiness, capable of genuinely knocking an opponent out like they were hit by a pointy bone sledgehammer.
• Boring Insult: Called Dean Malenko "Bore Us Malenko", which was also a reference to his father...Boris Malenko.
• Brick Joke:
  • He references the Long List when first meeting Santino, saying that "I know Freddie, the popcorn-seller in the 15th row" while expressing befuddlement as to who Santino was.
  • While appearing on FOX Sports Live in 2015, he got a chance to revisit his famous 'Man of 1004 Holds' promo.
• Broken Pedestal: Adam Cole used to be a huge fan of Chris Jericho, and cites him as one of his largest inspirations for his entire image. However, after Jericho forced him to watch The Outcasts brutally beat Britt Baker with a kendo stick, all respect Cole had for Jericho went out the window.
• Broken Record: "Quiet...quiet...quiet...quiet...quiet...quiet..."
• Bullying a Dragon:
  • In only his second appearance on WWE TV, the August 16 (taped August 10), 1999 Raw, he actually interrupted The Undertaker's promo, calling Taker and The Big Show "two morons" who "couldn't string together two intelligent words," and that instead of being the "personification of evil," they were the "personification of BOREDOM." Taker put him in his place.
  • Jericho apologized for this on the 2001 Undertaker: This Is My Yard DVD.
• The Cameo: In the film Albino farm. He also has shown up on a lot of VH1 countdowns.
• Card-Carrying Villain: In AEW his entrance video quotes the Diamond Head song "Am I Evil?" ("Yes, I am!")
• The Cast Show Off: In addition to being a wrestler, Jericho is also the lead singer of his metal band, Fozzy, has written two best-selling books, hosts a game show, and took part in the 2011 season of Dancing with the Stars.
• Captain Ersatz: Lionheart has surprisingly few, if any, but Jericho has at least one in the Fire Pro Wrestling series.
• Catchphrase: Several.
  • "C'MON BABY!" is perhaps his first catchphrase, dating back to his pure face fun in WCW.
    • In fact, it's all he said during the first three weeks of his 2012 return, along with "YEAH".
  • "Welcome to Raw Is Jericho!" which is a descendant of "Monday Night Jericho!" from his WCW Nitro days.
  • "...would you please, SHUT! THE HELL! UP!
  • "Nevah! EEEEEEVVER! [...] AGAIN!" (with again pronounced uh-gain)
  • Though he only used it in one promo, he repeated it enough to make it count: "ARMBAR!"
  • "You idiot!"
    • "You stupid idiot!"
  • "Junior!"
  • Currently he has "I'm the best in the world at what I do!" which sounds suspiciously like the catchphrase of a certain fellow Canadian and mutant badass.
  • "Gelatinous sycophantic tapeworms" and the like to describe the audience.
  • "Filthy, dirty, disgusting, nasty, skanky, brutal, bottom-feeding, trashbag HO!" in reference to Stephanie McMahon.
    • Recycled on Trish Stratus on the March 29, 2004 Raw during "The Highlight Reel", in re her heel turn on Jericho in his match with Christian two weeks earlier at WrestleMania XX, though he left out "nasty, skanky" that time.
    • Almost made a comeback on the July 28, 2014 Raw but Triple H cut him off at "Ho".
  • Known for coining the insult "assclown," which was taken from Office Space, but popularized by Jericho. You know you've made it when Buffy the Vampire Slayer herself uses the term.
  • "Get your head out of your ass!"
  • Chris Jericho does not have any catchphrases, as that would be pandering to the mindless drones and hypocrites that comprise the WWE Universe. Do you understand what I am saying to you right now?
  • HEY PUNK
  • As undisputed champion, he would constantly remind people of this while also referring to himself as a Living Legend.
  • Look at me when I'm talking to you, boy!
  • "C'mon/Come on, you son of a bitch!" Frequently says this when wrestling.
  • "ASK HIM!!!!"
  • "I give you the gift of Jericho. Drink it in, ''maaaaaaaaaaaan''...!"
    • This has now evolved to include various other Things of Jericho, complete with their own three-word addition.
  • "You're/He's/They're gonna get it!" usually followed by repeating and emphasizing the word "IT!" in response to someone's question about what it is.
  • "You just made The List!" (usually preceded by "You know what happens when...)
  • "A little bit of the bubbly!"
  • That's Entertainment!
  • Because I'm a wizard!
• Cheap Heat: In A Lion's Tale, he claims that he described the hairstyle he had for his Raw debut to Vince as being this. Vince's response, "Indeed."
• Cluster F-Bomb: Has an extreme tendency to do this in New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
• The Comically Serious: Any time his "grumpy" post-2009 character is put into a more lighthearted situation (like when he played The Price Is Right with Bob Barker on RAW).
• Commuting on a Bus: These days he is more focused on his band Fozzy, so he only make occasional appearances between gigs with the band.
• The Complainer Is Always Wrong: On Nitro, Ted Turner said that Chris Jericho was correct when he whined about the cruiserweight championship belt being awarded to Dean Malenko, however he found Chris Jericho so whiny and annoying that he decided to let Dean Malenko's reign continue anyway.
• Composite Character: His most recent incarnation is a mix of his "rock-star" personality from his 2007-2008 run mixed with some of the more seriousness of his 2009/2010 run.
• Conspiracy Theorist: He accused WCW of conspiring to keep the cruiserweight championship belt away from him. It turns out he was only half right. They were trying to keep the title away from Chris Jericho but they were perfectly willing to let everyone know about it, rather than try to hide the fact.
• The Corrupter: Planned on turning CM Punk into an Alcoholic. He failed in that regard.
• Costume Porn: The light-up jacket(s) he started wearing since his return in 2012.
  • Iconic Outfit: The aforementioned jacket has turned into one, to the point where it's almost a bit jarring to see him without it.
  • The light-up jacket came back at Wrestle Kingdom 12 as part of his entrance.
• Covered in Gunge: After Jericho defeated Orange Cassidy at Fyter Fest 2020, he went into the ring on Dynamite with the Inner Circle, telling the audience that Cassidy wouldn't get a rematch and that his career was dead. Cue Cassidy coming into the arena, listening to a little more of Jericho's remarks, not saying a word, and then slowly raising his fist into a thumbs-down gesture. Followed by the Inner Circle being drenched in orange juice dropped from the rafters. To add further humiliation, he asked for a towel to wipe himself off, not finding out until several seconds later that it was an Orange Cassidy towel.
• Creepy Monotone: During his post-return heel run.
• Crucified Hero Shot: His signature pose is this, borrowed from Leonardo DiCaprio's "King of the World" pose from Titanic (1997).
• Curb-Stomp Battle: When he went on Nancy Grace's talk show, it appears she expected him to just be some dumb musclehead, instead of the intelligent, well-spoken man he is. He proceeded to call out her Critical Research Failure, and defend the business at the time it needed it the most.
• Defeat Means Friendship:
  • According to Jericho, Grace actually appreciated this since his appearance, at his core, was to educate and not spout off angry agenda like everyone else at the time.
  • Subverted at WrestleMania XIX - after losing to Shawn Michaels, Jericho seemed to be going in for the big weepy face-turning hug... and instead boots HBK full force in the crotch.
• Department of Redundancy Department: As a heel in 2016, his favorite insult was to call fans and his rivals "stupid idiots."
• Determinator: Once broke his arm the morning before SMW Night of the Legends, August 5, 1994 and still wrestled. He was practicing Shooting Star Presses off of promoter Jim Cornette's diving board. Terry Funk of all people went up to him that night and said "you're a bigger dumbass than me!" That night, the Thrillseekers (Jericho and Lance Storm) defeated the Heavenly Bodies ("The Doctor of Desire" Tom Prichard and "Gigolo" Jimmy Del Ray, w/Jim Cornette) in a street fight that was the bloodiest match in SMW history.
• Diabolus ex Nihilo: If you're a New Japan fan. It's safe to say that no one expected Jericho, a man who hadn't wrestled anywhere but WWE since 1999, to come in and challenge Kenny Omega at Wrestle Kingdom 12 ahead of anyone from New Japan's own roster.
• Dirty Coward: Jericho is always this when he is a heel.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune:
  • Shockingly averted, as Jericho's band Fozzy have never recorded his entrance music. Whilst Jericho did perform vocals on the WWE Originals CD for the track "Don't You Wish You Were Me?", it was never used as his theme song again after a mere two weeks.
  • Played straight in NJPW. Jericho used "Judas" as his entrance theme at Wrestle Kingdom 12. In AEW he also used this song.
• Dramatic Drop: At AEW Double or Nothing, after defeating Kenny Omega in the main event, a boastful Jericho turned around and found Jon Moxley standing in front of him, giving him a hungry look, causing the microphone he'd just cut his promo on to slip from his nerveless hands and fall to the mat.
• Dumb Jock: The Nitro Announcers called his promos "Meat head microphone" and he was called a "muscle head" during a Mad TV sketch about a guy trying to embarrass him and a bunch of other people working WrestleMania XX. (Chris Jericho proved it wrong in the later case)
• Establishing Character Moment: His debut on RAW? Interrupting The Rock to save the WWE from boredom. His next interruption was of The Undertaker, just to drive the point home.
  • He even had one in New Japan Pro-Wrestling by spending his first physical appearance there in decades being attacking Kenny Omega from behind and brutalizing him, spilling his blood and even attacking Don Callis after he checked on Kenny. He would proceed to do that pretty much every physical appearance afterwards.
• Eternally Pearly-White Teeth:
  • Averted during the earlier part of his career (the Rock even told him to brush his teeth during one of their feuds) but played straight these days.
  • He's admitted on Twitter that he wears dentures.
• Fat and Skinny: Jeri-Show. He's skinny and Big Show is fat.
  • Jeri-KO. Jericho is skinny and Kevin Owens is fat.
• Evil Power Vacuum: Jericho's decision to go another hiatus in late 2010 is one of the contributing factors to WWE's decaying main event scene during that time period. It eventually got to the point that there was no real main event heel for the second half of 2011 after CM Punk officially turned face in the wake of the "Summer of Punk"; WWE tried to push Alberto Del Rio into that role but he wasn't connecting with audiences at all, and eventually Jericho himself had to take it up when he returned in 2012 to feud with (ironically) Punk for that year's WrestleMania.
• Finishing Move: Lionsault (Último Dragón's La Quebrada), Lion Tamer (Boston crab plus knee in the head), Walls Of Jericho (Boston Crab with better name), Code Breaker (face breaker with knees). Since leaving WWE, The Judas Effect (MMA-style spinning back elbow).
• Forced Meme: He has been trying his damnedest to get "fruit" turned into a synonym for "cool" or "sweet".
• Foe Romance Subtext: With Stephanie McMahon, unknown if it's intentional, but it's definitely there. Jericho would often mock her by stating how promiscuous she was, often sounding like he was secretly pissed he wasn't getting any. Though a truly epic "Take That!" Kiss delivered to her at the 2001 Summer Slam points towards it being intentional.
  Jim Ross: "RVD Is thinking about retaining the title, Jericho is thinking of Stephanie."
• Foreign Wrestling Heel: It actually got him booted out of Brazil, after he balled up their flag and booted it into the crowd.
• Fun with Acronyms: Around 2008 or so he began calling himself the greatest of all time and then started wearing trunks with GOAT written on them.
• Game-Breaking Injury:
  • Used in the last week of September 2010 as an in-story explanation for Jericho's absence in WWE while he did his Fozzy tour.
  • Notably averted in Real Life. Aside from a broken arm in Smoky Mountain Wrestling, Jericho has never suffered a major injury in his entire wrestling career. Though, for the latter part of said career (specifically, after 2010, as mentioned above), it's mainly because he took frequent long-term breaks, allowing his body to rest and heal properly.
• Genius Bruiser: In Real Life, Chris is quite the intelligent fellow.
• Gratuitous French: As the first AEW champion, Jericho constantly refers to himself as "Le Champion".
  • And one of the weirdest parts of his late-2020 program with MJF, which culminated in MJF defeating him for a place in the Inner Circle, was "Le Dinner Debonair", which ended up being a song-and-dance routine that has to be seen to be believed.
• Green-Eyed Monster: The real reason he "destroyed" Y2J and spent so much of his time calling the Raw audiences parasites, hypocrites and such? Because Shawn Michaels lied about a leg injury to get one over on Dave Batista and yet they still cheered for him, while Jericho got booed the moment he stopped being completely honest.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door:
  • Heel–Face Return: Notoriously, Chris managed to do both this and a Face–Heel Turn within the span of ten minutes. How? He simply said nothing instead of a return promo and trolled the crowd by acting all pumped up while shouting out things like "Yeah, baby!" all for the sole purpose of pissing off the audience. When he finally spoke about a month or so later, he fully admitted to trolling them and called both the audience and the wrestlers in the back a bunch of Jericho wannabes.
• He's Back!: As of 1/2/12. And again, as of 1/27/13. And uh-gain as of 6/30/14, interrupting The Miz's tirade before getting curb-stomped by The Wyatt Family.
• Hero Killer: In NJPW as The Painmaker. So far he has defeated Tetsuya Naito, EVIL and Hiroshi Tanahashi. Or in AEW where he defeated Kenny Omega, Hangman, and Cody Rhodes as champion, before Jon Moxley ultimately dethroned him.
• Holier Than Thou: Chris Jericho came back to the Raw to save the noble land of WWE from the tyranny of Randy Orton. But what he's come to realize is that you people don't want to be saved! You don't deserve to be saved! Chris Jericho is an honest man! You are a bunch of back biting, conniving, gelatinous tapeworms!
• Honorary Uncle: He and Chavo Guerrero Jr. are this to David Benoit, son of Chris Benoit. David mentions in several interviews that Chavo and Jericho always look out for him ever since the unfortunate 2007 event.
• The Host: Of Sunday Night Live with done by the Sketchersons troupe, of the reality show Redemption song, of the game show Downfall and of the Robot Combat League.
• Hunk: Not quite as Pretty Boy-like as he was in his younger days, but he's still definitely fine-featured.
• Hypocritical Humour: On the 23 October 2019 episode of AEW Dynamite, Jericho and the Inner Circle^note minus Jake Hager who was absent preparing for a Bellator bout were being obnoxious from their private box while Cody was trying to deliver a promo, with Jericho dismissing Cody's threats of kicking his ass by pointing out how outnumbered he was. Dustin came out to back up his brother, which Jericho shrugged off as still giving his side a 2-1 advantage, but when MJF came out to add his support as well Jericho dismissed him with "So now we're gonna be scared of someone wearing a scarf? Huh? Who wears a scarf?!" The members of the crowd who weren't laughing too hard immediately roared back "YOU!"
• I Have Many Names: Chris Jericho, Lion Do, Super Liger, León d'Oro, Corazón de León
• I Lied:
  • Jericho's response to staying on Raw after promising to retire forever if he lost at Night of Champions.
  • But then, he once cut a promo where he said that he'd have a sex change and become "Christina Jericho" if he lost to Chyna.
• I Was Beaten by a Girl: Had a series of matches with Chyna, bringing this into play whenever Jericho lost.
• Incoming Ham:
  • His theme starts with a countdown, then several seconds of silence, then a pyrotechnics explosion, followed by several seconds of a close-up of him on the TitanTron, followed by him standing with his back to the crowd, then finally turning around and heading to the ring as his song yells "BREAK THE WALLS DOOOOOWN!!!". It's as much Incoming Ham as a ProfessionalWrestler can get.
  • As Undisputed champion, he cranked it up to eleven, doing elaborate poses with both belts as he made his way to the ring.
• Insane Troll Logic:
  • So, if you attack and take out Team WWE, The Nexus won't have anybody to fight against, so the match can't take place, and Nexus can't take over Raw......BRILLIANT!
  • On his role as WCW Television Champion: "I am the WCW Television Champion^note It was a holdover from the territorial days, meant to represent the best wrestler on television, since it would be the one title defended every week on television.! That means that if you watch television, I am your champion!"
  • Played for laughs after Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko defeated Eddie Guerrero and Chris Jericho on the February 16, 1998 WCW Monday Nitro. After the match, Jericho and Eddie did some mock-crying, saying, "They're just jabronies!" The problem is that if Benoit and Malenko are "jabronies", and they defeated Guerrero and Jericho, what does that make Guerrero and Jericho?
  • Another classic example came on the Dynamite episode after AEW Revolution (where he lost the AEW World Championship to Jon Moxley) when he claimed that Moxley (who had won by hiding the fact that his injured right under under its eyepatch had already healed to surprise Jericho) had cheated because Jericho had specifically been training to fight against a one-eyed opponent while Moxley had had two eyes, calling Mox a "snake-oil salesman" and a "pharisee". In another lesser example from the same promo, he also claimed that he didn't need to be holding the championship to continue calling himself le Champion, prompting the crowd to begin chanting "Yes you do!"
• Irony: Onscreen, Chris is the one credited with creating the concept of the Money in the Bank ladder match - a match he has never actually won. The closest he ever came was WrestleMania 24, and the guy who won it, CM Punk, would go on to win it again next year.
• It Will Never Catch On: Eric Bischoff, during his run as the head of WCW, thought Jericho simply didn't have what it took to be a main-event star and a draw. He STILL believes that to this day, despite the last 10+ years of evidence to the contrary.
• It's Personal:
  • What started as a feud over who was the best in the world, turned in to this when Jericho revealed to the world that Punk's father and sister were addicts, alcohol and drugs respectively. CM Punk was not pleased.
  • He's also made enemies in The New Day after destroying Xavier's beloved trombone, Francesca.
• Jack of All Stats: A Super Junior with high-flying, technical submission and brawling skills.
• Jerkass Has a Point: When he turned heel in 2008, it was mostly because he was angry with Shawn Michaels for playing dirty to win the past couple of PPV matches he had and the fans because they kept siding with him.
  • In his first appearance in New Japan, Chris Jericho stated that he is the best of the business because he is still in it after all this time. He also called out others who claimed they were the best (i.e Shawn Michaels, Edge, and CM Punk), but are all out for the count. Despite how rude and dickish it is, he does have a point. All of have been gone for God knows how long, while Chris is still in the wrestling world even at age 50.^note Although Edge came out of retirement in 2020, and so did Punk in 2021. We don't talk about Michaels' one-off return to the ring...
• Just Here for Godzilla: Invoked/discussed.
  "There's nothing wrong with the "Smart Mark" there's nothing wrong with wanting to see the ultimate match, but a lot of people just want to sit back and be entertained as well."
• Kiai: Particularly when he's hitting his bulldog.
• Kick the Dog: At first, Jericho seemed to have come back because he was hacked off at what he saw as other superstars ripping off his style - CM Punk in particular. Usually in WWE, that's reason enough to start a fight. Then it got personal, with Jericho essentially airing Punk's family's dirty laundry to the public. CM Punk was not impressed, indeed. It gets worse. After Punk takes a beating from Mark Henry the Raw after WrestleMania, Jericho comes in from the crowd, mocking Punk's victory and wanting to make "a toast". He takes a bottle of Jack Daniel's and pours it all over Punk's near-unconscious body, then takes another one and breaks it over the back of the man's head. Seems like denigrating Punk's family was just the tip of the iceberg for Jericho.
• Kill It with Fire:
  • On the April 27, 2022 episode of Dynamite, after an in-ring sit-down between his Jericho Appreciation Society on one side and Eddie Kingston and former Inner Circle members Santana and Ortiz on the other, the JAS attacked them backstage, laying out Santana and Ortiz and isolating Kingston. With the rest of the JAS holding Kingston, Jericho threw a fireball in his face. He has since began calling himself a wizard, and even filed a trademark on "The Wizard".
  • The December 14, 2022 edition of Dynamite saw Action Andretti shockingly defeat Jericho. One week later during the Holiday Bash edition of Dynamite, the JAS made a membership pitch to Ricky Starks, and jumped him after he turned them down. Andretti ran in to clean house. While Tony Schiavone was interviewing him after this, 2.0 came out to confront him, and he turned around to take a Jericho fireball in the face.
• King of Beasts: He was called "Lionheart" prior to coming to WWE.
• Language Barrier: He said that when he had wrestled in Japan earlier in his career, he hadn't bothered to learn Japanese. He survived because some of the Japanese wrestlers knew English.
• Large Ham: Even in his heel incarnation, he can't rid himself of the ham.
  • It's pretty safe to say he will never EEEEEEVVER!!! be accused of being subtle.
  • It certainly reached a new level at his 2012 comeback, where he did nothing but bask in front of the camera and get the crowd to cheer for him, without ever actually saying anything except a few "Yeah baby!!" exclamations.
• The Leader: Jericho is an absolute locker-room leader behind the curtain. He's willing to help out anyone who needs it, stood up for Michelle McCool and Melina when they were being berated for daring to look too good in the ring, was willing to legitimately fight Brock Lesnar backstage when he thought Lesnar had gone off-script by busting open Randy Orton's head hardway at SummerSlam 2016, and was credited with helping AEW get its shaky tag team division in order following a locker room meeting after there had been considerable criticism of its sloppiness, leading to a noticeable improvement and most of the criticisms disappearing. And in front of the camera, despite his role as the head of the Inner Circle being an egotistical, self-obsessed heel, he constantly puts over his stablemates and makes them seem like a big deal, as well as doing everything he can to build new stars from his opponents, such as Darby Allin and Jungle Boy.
• Lensman Arms Race: One of the reasons Chris Jericho has changed his style so much from the beginning of his career. When he started, his moonsaults and hurricanranas were hot shit; as time wore on, the high fliers moves got increasingly complex and he got older, so he had to change his lucha style to a more American one. Some people even prefer the new Jericho. Although, perhaps as a result of changing his style, he's still able to perform moves like the Lionsault at will, despite recently hitting 50.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Jericho is known for his long locks and is one of the renowned sex symbols in professional wrestling history.
• Long List:
  • During a feud with Dean Malenko, "The Man of a Thousand Holds", Jericho came out and read his list of a Thousand and Four Holds, which lasted through a commercial break and went clear into another segment. Every third or so item on the list was "ARMBAR!," which you can name in this Sporcle quiz.
  • Among his many feuds with Stephanie McMahon, he gets a good-sized one in.
    Jericho: As far as your husband goes, he's been gone for such a long time, and I know how lonely you must be. I mean, I know you've been forced to form a "private alliance" of your own with three-quarters of the superstars in that locker room. And the lighting crew, and the camera crew, and the sound technicians, and the stagehands, and the prop guys, and the merchandise-sellers, and the popcorn vendor in the fifteenth-row! Congratulations, Louie!
  • In a call back to the above, Jericho makes another Long List on the September 27, 2010 episode of Raw, this time made up of all the opponents he's beaten, including people he's only beaten backstage and counting wrestlers with different aliases multiple times, which you can name in THIS Sporcle quiz.
  • Started a new list on the September 19, 2016 episode of Raw, where the List of Jericho started as a list of grievances against current General Manager Mick Foley for perceived slights against both him and the Universal Champion, his best buddy Kevin Owens. By the end of the segment, the list had grown to include Gallows and Anderson, Enzo and Cass, and The New Day.
  • On the December 4, 2019 episode of AEW Dynamite, he started an Alternate Company Equivalent—The Lexicon of Le Champion. This list included opponents he refused to wrestle "ever again" in 2019—such as Cody Rhodes, Jon Moxley, The Young Bucks, Buck Owens, Kenny Omega, "Kenny from South Park", Allen Jones, and Rick Allen, just to name a few. Mox was the "armbar" of The Lexicon.
• Loophole Abuse: Attempted this in WCW after he lost the Cruiserweight title as a way to get it back. It never quite worked out for him (though it did earn him the unceremonious nickname "The Crybaby" Chris Jericho).
• Loser Leaves Town: Been involved in two of these. Once in 2005, when he was in a match against John Cena where the loser would be fired, and second, most recent in 2012, where he was in a match against Dolph Ziggler, where Jericho's WWE contract vs. Dolph's Money in the Bank contract were on the line, with him losing both of them. Both times were so he could go tour with his band.
• Made of Iron: Other than a broken arm during his SMW days, has never^note  e-e-e-ever gotten seriously injured. Keep in mind that until about midway through his first WWE run he had a high-risk, hard-hitting style and has had his fair share of "career-shortening" gimmick matches.
• Malicious Misnaming: Jericho's early gimmick in WWE was intentionally getting other wrestlers' names wrong, calling Mick Foley "Mike" and Chris Benoit ("Ben-wah") "Chris Ben-OIT". Made a short comeback when he met Santino. He also calls Tony Schiavone (pronounced "Shuh-vahn-ee") "Skee-a-vone" in both WCW and AEW.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: Buys expensive things, some of which are made from exotic fabric.
• Matrix Raining Code: As seen in SAVE_US.222 and his second WWE run, which also saw it briefly incorporated into his tight designs.
• Messianic Archetype: Invoked many times during his promos. His return vignettes also contain words such as "save us" and "the second coming".
• Metal Head: He's a vocalist of Fozzy. He also become a guest vocals for Blaze Bayley, Devin Townsend Project, Dream Theater, Metal Allegiance, Nasty Savage and Ted Kirkpatrick.
• Millennium Bug: His Red Baron "Y2J" was based on this.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Jericho revealed that the last straw which drove him to leave WWE and sign with AEW was his planned Universal Title vs US Title match against Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 33 being first changed to just a match over Jericho's US title (due to the Universal Championship being taken from Owens by Goldberg at Fastlane to facilitate getting it onto Brock Lesnar instead), which was bad enough, but then the match got bumped from being the opening match (the second-most prestigious spot on the card after the main event) to the second match (a throwaway spot) to make room for AJ Styles vs Shane McMahon as the opener instead. This was such a blatant slap in the face to a wrestler of Jericho's status that it made him decide to begin looking around for a new place to work, just as AEW was about to get started.
• Mr. Fanservice: A hilarious, athletic hunk provides much fanservice? No way!
  • With forearms the size of hams and a face just this side of Pretty Boy, how could he not?
  • To Trish Stratus from "The Highlight Reel" on the March 29, 2004 Raw (see above under Catchphrase):
  "I'm not in your league? I'm Chris Jericho, I'm a sexy beast, baby!"
  • However, Fan Disservice ensued the night after the 2008 Unforgiven, when he appeared in the Raw ring to strip off his shirt in order to show the crowd the huge red welts that that "horrible man", Shawn Michaels, had given to him in their Unsanctioned Match - and also to show off his World Heavyweight Championship belt, which he'd won in the course of the same evening (long story).
• Name-Tron: A key part of the set for "The Highlight Reel" is, of course, the "ridiculously expensive Jeritron 3000".
• Oh, Crap!: Possibly the most magnificent example in recent wrestling history, when he saw◊ that Dean Ambrose had brought thumbtacks into the Asylum Match at Extreme Rules '16.
• Older Than They Look: Even though he's been around seemingly forever to the longtime wrestling fan, it's still easy to forget sometimes that he turned fifty back in 2020.
• Once an Episode: During his prime in WCW, he'd tie his hair in increasingly bizarre ways and quote popular rock songs, including Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me" and The Offspring's "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)."
• Overly Long Gag: A favorite promo type, including:
  • His long, long introduction to Santino Marella.
  • His list of 1004 holds.
  • His list of 1004 wrestlers beaten.
  • His 2012 return to WWE, which consisted of nothing but him prancing around the ring, pointing at the crowd to cheer, and going "Yeah, baby!" For ten minutes.
  • "The Lexicon of Le Champion".
• Parts Unknown: "From Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, but now residing in Stupid Idiotville, Chris Jericho..." courtesy of Cesaro, who was the special guest ring announcer for the main event of the June 13, 2016 edition of Raw.
• Popularity Power: During his 2012 return tour. Jericho's really had to go out of his way to Heel it up because so many of the fans still want to cheer him for coming back. This may be partly a Draco in Leather Pants (and an awesome light-up jacket) situation, too, as Jericho's one of the most entertaining heels to watch.
  • Exaggerated in his 2016-2017 run. Inanimate objects like scarves, potted plants, and legal pads have gotten more over than some wrestlers just by association with Chris Jericho.
• Power Stable: Was a member of Fuyuki-gun in the WAR (Wrestle Association R) promotion, led by Hiromichi Fuyuki and also including Gedo and Jado. Lion Heart would go be "Lion Do" during this period of time.
  • In AEW he formed a new stable around himself called the Inner Circle, and later retooled it into the Jericho Appreciation Society.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Until he turned heel in 2008.
• Red Baron: The Lionheart, Y2J, The Ayatollah of Rock-And-Rolla, Your Hero, Role Model and Paragon of Virtue, the Man of 1004 Holds, the King of the Loopholes, the Larger Than Life Living Legend, the King of the World, the Highlight of the Night, the King of Bling-Bling, the Alpha, the Painmaker, Le Champion, the Demo God, the Influencer, The Wizard, The Ocho, The Learning Tree; Seriously, for sheer numbers, his only rival is The Undertaker.
• Remember When You Blew Up a Sun?: His defeat of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and The Rock in the same night in order to claim the Undisputed Championship is often cited as a near impossible feat — one that Jericho has no problem boasting about all the time.
• Renaissance Man: Already one of the biggest stars in the history of wrestling, Jericho is also a successful rock musician, a bestselling author, and an accomplished dancer. It seems like there's nothing the man cannot do if he puts his mind to it.
• Ring Oldies: Chris is now in his 50s but is still able to run amok as a force to be reckoned with.
• The Rival:
  • Chris Benoit during the Attitude Era.
  • The Rock, during the InVasion.
• Running Gag:
  • Mick Foley has never beat Jericho in a match. This is stated every time Foley is mentioned in Jericho's books. Jericho actually let Foley pin him at his Hall of Fame induction. CM Punk counted the pin.
  • After getting slammed into a bed of thumb tacks by Dean Ambrose in the Ambrose Asylum match, Chris is very quick to remind people of the "SIXTY-NINE TACKS! SIXTY-NINE TACKS, DEAN!", alluding to the number of tacks that got stuck in his flesh and had to be forcibly extracted.
• Running Gagged: He did this for Jack Swagger's "WE THE PEOPLE" chant in the second episode of AEW Dynamite.
  [fans are chanting "We the people" at Jake Hager]
  Jericho: Calm down for one second. "We the people" sucks and it's dead and buried! It was a stupid idea by bad creative and all that's gone.
• Separated by a Common Language: He was as lost in the Deep South that Smokey Mountain Wrestling was situated in as he was in Japan.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: In his latter-day heel runs in particular. Listen to his heel promos long enough, and even if your vocabulary's pretty respectable, you're likely to find yourself thinking about reaching for a dictionary at least once.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: He became way more serious and ditched all of his previous catchphrases before becoming a multiple-time WWE champion.
  • Of course as a Heel he's pretty firmly a clown.
    • Unless he's channeling Anton Chigurh.
  • On the eve of his Undisputed title defense with The Rock at Royal Rumble 2002:
    The Rock: If ya smell-
    Jericho: No! This is not a joke! I am not a joke! I am serious! And you will not look past me, you stupid son of a bitch!
• Shout-Out: A few of his skits back in WCW run were basically scenes from This is Spın̈al Tap transitioned into wrestling promos. At the terrible WCW Fall Brawl 98 PPV, Jericho parodied Goldberg's dramatic guided entrance by walking to the ring with his bodyguard "Ralphus" and got "lost" on the way there.
  • His name is inspired by the Helloween album Walls of Jericho.
  • His theme song, "Break the Walls Down", references not just the above album (which is itself inspired by a story in the Biblical Book of Joshua), but the rock bands AC/DC and Judas Priest and the William Butler Yeats poem "The Second Coming."
  • His 2009 heel persona was inspired by No Country for Old Men (specifically Anton Chigurh).
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Twice in the same night!
  Michael Cole: (after "new" "email" jingle goes off) Can I have your attention ple—
  Jericho: OF COURSE YOU HAVE AN EMAIL, YOU IDIOT! JUST READ IT!
  • And again...
    Michael Cole: (after "new" "email" jingle goes off) Can I have your atten—
    Jericho: SHUT UP! JUST READ IT!
  • He also delivers one to BRAY FREAKIN' WYATT!
    Jericho: "WOULD YOU PLEASE SHUT THE HELL UP?!"
• Sleeps with Everyone but You: The implied reason why Jericho obsessively insulted Stephanie so much: she was easy... for everyone except him. The fact that he forcefully kissed her at the 2000 King of the Ring and the 2001 SummerSlam definitely makes this even more obviously true.
• Smug Snake: In full-on heel mode, Jericho is one of these.
  • And a Card-Carrying Villain who, surprisingly, doesn't spontaneously grow a mustache and start stroking it when he goes heel.
• Sore Loser: There are times he will lose matches he absolutely cannot afford to lose or cannot see himself losing, and he will pitch a childish fit that puts early 2002 Christian's temper tantrums to shame. For example, the night he got fired by Eric Bischoff after losing to John Cena in 2005, or the first time he ever took a loss in AEW when he ate the pin courtesy of SCU member Scorpio Sky.
• Spikes of Villainy: Since joining AEW, he's taken to wearing a black leather jacket studded with large metal spikes on the shoulders and arms.
• Still Got It:
  • He got this chant upon his Royal Rumble return in 2013. His response?
    "I never lost it, baby!" (crowd cheers)
  • Jericho is still regarded as a top level star a decade later during his AEW run, even when he's into his 50s. As well as being the company's inaugural World Champion, his late-2022 run as ROH Champion is considered a significant career highlight for him.
• Stunned Silence: When Chris made the mistake of accepting an interview on The Eric Andre Show expecting it to be a typical talk show. While the madness was going on all around him, poor Chris didn't say a word the entire time...
• Superpowered Evil Side: The face paint sadistic Painmaker persona in NJPW seems to be this, since it showed a more brutal side of Jericho. Although it's more of a super powered more evil side, since Jericho is already a violent heel.
• Tag Team:
  • Sudden Impact/The Thrillseekers, w/Lance Storm, in Genichiro Tenryu's WAR promotion, FMW, SMW and various other promotions in Canada and Japan.
  • (When he was León d'Oro) Canadian Wildcats with Tigre Canadiense.
  • Jeri-Show with Big Show in WWE.
  • Le Sex Gods with Sammy Guevara in AEW.
  • The Golden Jets with Kenny Omega in AEW
• Take That!: Two of his most notable nicknames since departing WWE are "the Alpha" and "the Painmaker". Three guesses as to who those are meant to be taken as potshots against.
• Talk Show with Fists: "The Highlight Reel"
• Talk to the Fist: Pulled this once on Dolph Ziggler, who was rambling on about how Jericho was "losing his touch". As soon as Dolph starts repeating the line to Vickie Guerrero in an aside - cue Codebreaker to the face mid-sentence. It's worth noting, though, that the way the scene played out made it appear that Jericho flattened Ziggler because he couldn't come up with a decent verbal rebuttal at the time.
• This Is Gonna Suck: His initial reaction when The Wyatt Family interrupts him. You can practically see the moment happen on his face, where he goes from "Who the hell are these guys?" to "...This isn't going to end well, is it?"
• Threat Backfire: He tried to leverage CM Punk's Dark and Troubled Past (his father was a massive alcoholic growing up) to get inside his head. That was one pipe bomb that blew up right in his face.
• Too Many Belts: As Undisputed Champion, he deliberately carried both the Big Eagle Belt and the Big Gold Belt around with him (see the page image), using them in elaborate poses and taunting the crowd with them. Not long after he dropped the belts to Triple H, they were replaced with a single belt.
• Trans-Pacific Equivalent: One of two to Nobuhiko Takada, since Takada was the first wrestler to win both the New Japan IWGP Heavyweight Title and the New Japan IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title, and Jericho was the only wrestler to win the WCW World Heavyweight Title and the WCW World Cruiserweight Title.^note Rey Mysterio Jr. is the other, since he won the WWE World Heavyweight Title and the WWE World Cruiserweight Title.
• Troll: If he's not playing the heel that's giving Breaking Speeches and trying to get inside opponent's heads, he's this. This has especially been true on his comeback tour (take the first few weeks after his return in 2012, for example), and it's even been true while he's been a face.
• The Unapologetic: Played for laughs on the 20th November 2019 episode of Dynamite when he came out to cut a promo, ostensibly to apologise for the unprofessionalism of his Villainous Breakdown the previous week after being pinned by Scorpio Sky of SCU. However whenever it came time to actually say the word "sorry", he found himself choking on the word, resorting to holding the microphone under the mouth of (previously silent) bodyguard Jake Hager to get Hager to say it for him.
• Undying Loyalty: For a long time after his departure from WCW during the Monday Night Wars, he had worked solely for the WWE in a wrestling capacity, and had said that he would never work for TNA or an independent promotion in his entire career, despite getting invitations from both, because of his loyalty to the WWE. Then again, given how he was treated in WCW compared to how he's treated in the WWE, his loyalty was understandable.
  • That said, while he did accept an offer to rejoin New Japan Pro-Wrestling for his Wrestle Kingdom 12 dream match with Kenny Omega, he went on record to say that he had called Vince himself as a formality and show of respect.
  • Completely averted, however, after joining AEW in 2019—with the battle lines being drawn in the "Wednesday Night Wars", Jericho has firmly sided against WWE and it will take a miracle for him ever to return to the promotion again.
• Unflinching Walk: Most of his entrance, usually when he is a heel is this. He just walks to the ring looking arrogant and confident, without pandering to anybody.
• Unknown Rival: He has one in former nWo girl April Hunter, who has hated Chris Jericho ever since he broke Chyna's hand. He finally became aware when she showed up to mock his baby face turn and loss at WrestleMania XX while being interviewed by PWI.
• Unrelated Brothers: Averted. Claimed in his book that one of the first promoters he encountered suggested booking him as "Rob Benoit."
• Verbal Tic: "ASK HIM!" has become to Chris Jericho what "HAH!" is to Scott Steiner.
• Villain Ball: In 2008, he — in Kayfabe — wanted to injure Shawn Michaels into retirement... and the latter was about to do just that. However, Chris then invoked Evil Gloating during the speech, and when Shawn tried to leave after telling him off seemingly one last time, Chris tried to attack him... but hit Shawn's wife, Rebecca, instead. That, combined with Chris's Never My Fault and further Evil Gloating about the whole thing, incensed Shawn enough to cancel his retirement just so that he could invoke Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
• Villainous Breakdown: After losing to John Morrison on 9/6/10's RAW and losing his spot in the six-way championship match, he spent the rest of RAW catatonic and silent.
• Villain Song:
  • Don't You Wish You Were Me?, performed by Jericho on the WWE Originals album, although this was only used for a week or two as Jericho's entrance.
  • King Of My World by Saliva.
  • "Judas" by Fozzy for his New Japan run in 2018 and AEW.
• Villain Team-Up: With Edge in 2009, to win the WWE Unified Tag Team Championships. And again with The Big Show when Edge got injured and had to be replaced.
• Wham Line: During the "Festival of Friendship" between him and Kevin Owens on RAW, Kevin got Jericho a replacement List, with Chris citing the old one has become beaten up and shoddy. But then he looks at the first page...
  Chris: How come my name's on this?
  (The camera shows that the back of The List reads "The List of KO")
• When Elders Attack: At WrestleMania 25, Jericho would face Roddy Piper, Jimmy Snuka, and Ricky Steamboat in a three-on-one handicap match. While Jericho would quickly dispose of Snuka and Piper, it was Steamboat who surprised everyone, both in Kayfabe and in Real Life, in keeping up with the much younger Jericho in that match. The match developed out of a feud Jericho had been having with actor Mickey Rourke in re Rourke's role in the movie The Wrestler, and how Jericho had disapproved of the film's theme of respecting wrestlers after their careers start to decline. Rourke, who had a legitimate 6-0-2 record in boxing, knocked out Jericho with one punch after the match.
• While You Were in Diapers: During an argument with MJF on AEW Dynamite, Jericho said that he'd been wrestling Juventud Guerrera in WCW before MJF had even been born. MJF didn't even know who "Juvi" was.
• "World's Best" Character: During his suit-wearing heel run starting in 2008, Jericho began referring to himself as "The Best In The World At What I Do".
• Worthy Opponent: In Real Life, Jericho considers John Cena and Shawn Michaels to be his favorite people on the WWE roster to work with.
• Would Hit a Girl:
  • In Real Life, if you jump Chris, he will punch you.
  • Also in kayfabe, during his 2008 feud with Shawn Michaels by punching out Shawn's wife, Rebecca. Granted, Chris was aiming for Shawn, whom dodged it — unfortunately for Rebecca, who was right behind him; however, Chris then proceeded to squander whatever high ground he had, by invoking Never My Fault and blaming the whole thing on Shawn's perceived arrogance.
  • Earlier than that, his first run as Intercontinental champion came about by feuding with Chyna.
  • He also tried to go after CM Punk's sister after the latter slapped him during their match at Extreme Rules 2012. Naturally, this mashed one of Punk's Berserk Buttons hard, and Jericho got his ass kicked for his trouble.
• You Got Guts: Villainous variant. Following Randy Orton's attack on Vince and Stephanie McMahon (which culminated in him punting Vince in the head and severely injuring him), Jericho interrupted an interview. A defensive Orton expected him to gloat his ass off or chew him out like every other superstar, however Jericho points out he was actually impressed that someone finally managed to put their disapproving boss and his spoiled daughter so bluntly in their place. He smugly adds, however, he feels the need to state this now since Orton probably won't be around for much longer.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The reason Kevin Owens betrays him during their Festival of Friendship on the Feb. 13, 2017 episode of Raw, with Owens revealing that he never saw Jericho as a friend, only as the perfect tool to help him retain his Universal championship.
• Your Mom: During Jericho's feud with MJF, Jericho asserted that he'd do whatever it took and go through whatever trials MJF set for him in order to get his hands on the smarmy weasel in the ring, even if he had to go so far as to have sex with MJF's mother◊... again.

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TV Tropes! You know what happens when you create a trope page about Chris Jericho? (clicks pen) YOU JUST MADE THE LIST!
And after you made the list...this community, this website, the internet, the entire land, this city, this state, this country, this continent, the Western Hemisphere, this planet, the solar system, the Milky Way galaxy, the Milky Way subgroup, the Local Group, the Local Sheet, the Virgo Supercluster, the Laniakea Supercluster, the KBC Void, the observable universe, and the entire universe beyond that...will never...will never...WILL NEVER...EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR...BE THE SAME...uh-gain!

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