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Wrestling: Chris Jericho

The Ayatollah of Rock-and-Rolla

"Armbar!"

Chris Jericho (real name Chris Irvine) is a professional wrestler with a long, storied career spanning two decades and several promotions around the world. 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), holding several Cruiserweight Championships 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" - interruping a promo by The Rock, of all people! - is considered one of his Crowning Moments of Awesome. In the decade 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 Championship), 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 6.)

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

Tropes associated with Chris Jericho include:

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.
Always Someone Better: How he felt about Lance Storm when they first met.
Anti-Climax / Downer Ending: 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".
- 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.
Archenemy: Triple H and Stephanie McMahon for much of the 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.
- CM Punk for the better part of 2012.
Ascended Meme: During his famous Man of 1004 Holds, Jericho listed the "Moss-Covered, Three-Handled Family Gradenza," a phrase he saw in the 1950 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.
Attention Whore: The nature of his "Y2J" persona. This was relevant when he turned heel in 2009, believing 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."
Badass Longhair
Beard of Evil: Jericho tends to sport a Badass Beard when he's a heel.
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 the WWE for good and retiring from wrestling all together for several years.
Blonde Guys Are Evil:
Breakup Breakout: Jericho was once part of a tag team called "The Thrillseekers" with Lance Storm.
The Cast Showoff: 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.
Canada, Eh?
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!"
- 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, brutal, bottom-feeding, trashbag HO!" in reference to Stephanie McMahon.
- Known for coining the insult "assclown," which was taken from Office Space, but popularized by Jericho.
- "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
The Corrupter: Plans on turning CM Punk into an Alcoholic
Costume Porn: ESPECIALLY the light-up jacket he wore during his return on 1/2/12.
Creepy Monotone: During his post-return heel run.
Crucified Hero Shot: His signature pose is this.
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.
Determinator: Once broke his arm the morning before a big SMW show, and still wrestled. Terry Funk of all people went up to him that night and said "you're a bigger dumbass than me!"
Did Not Do the Research: When Ben Roethlisberger was guest hosting and Jericho was staring down the rest of the Steelers, he said that he wasn't going to be intimidated by these mesomorphs (In general, he was trying to find a very wordy way to call them fat.) In reality, a mesomorph is arguably the ideal body type, somebody who can gain muscle and lose fat easily. Had he really wanted to call them chunky, endomorph is the word he should have used.
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.
- Actually, it WAS used as his theme song, briefly. It didn't catch on, and after a week or two he was back to his usual 'Break The Walls Down' theme.
Drop What You Are Doing
Fat and Skinny: Jeri-Show.
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.
Five-Man Band: Fozzy can count as this. Oh, and he's The Hero!
Foe Yay: 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."
Game Breaking Injury: Used in the last week of September 2010 as an in-story explanation for Jericho's absence in WWE while he does his Fozzy tour.
Game Show Host
Genius Bruiser: In Real Life, Chris is quite the intelligent fellow.
He's Back: As of 1/2/12.
Hey, It's That Guy!: On the May 5th, 2011 episode of Attack of the Show!, Jericho made a surprise appearance as an over the top Thor. Hilarity ensued.
Hot Dad
Ho Yay: With The Big Show, when they teamed up in 2009. When they were forced to split up after losing the Tag Titles due to being on separate brands, the writers handled the split as if they were a couple separating.
- Also during the WWE Draft in the late spring of 2005. Jericho was hosting the first round of the draft on Raw, and John Cena was the first Superstar selected from SmackDown. It's not enough to say that Jericho was thrilled to have Cena on the show; he practically squealed with glee when he heard Cena's music. The perky, tomboyish hairstyle he was sporting that night only made things worse.
Hunk: Not quite as Pretty Boy-like as he was in his younger days, but he's still definitely fine-featured.
I Lied: Jericho's response to staying on Raw after promising to retire forever if he lost at Night of Champions.
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 Professional Wrestler can get.
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.
I Was Beaten By A Girl: Had a series of matches with Chyna, bringing this into play whenever Jericho lost.
Insane Troll Logic: So, if you attack and take out Team WWE, Nexus won't have anybody to fight against, so the match can't take place, and Nexus can't take over Raw......BRILLIANT!
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 was addicts, alcoholic and drugs respectively. CM Punk was not pleased.
Jack-of-All-Stats: A Super Junior with high-flying, technical submission and brawling skills.
Keep Circulating the Tapes: Chris Jericho was involved in perhaps the greatest match of 2001, in which he and his partner defeated Triple H and Stone Cold Steve Austin for the WWF Tag Team Championship on RAW. And that match will never be seen on a greatest-hits collection, because his tag-team partner was Chris Benoit.
- Subverted by "Strange Kentucky People", a bizarre tribute video of Jericho given to him by a hillbilly fan during his time in Smoky Mountain Wrestling. Despite the video allegedly hitting the tape-trading scene (alongside the infamous Jim Cornette Dairy Queen fiasco) and many SMW wrestlers confirming the video's existence, it has not appeared on the Internet at all.
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. CMPunk 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 Daniels 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.
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.
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.
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.
- In a call back to the above, Jericho makes another Long List on the 09/27/2010 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.
Made of Iron: Other than a broken arm during his SMW days, has never*
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.
Matrix Raining Code: As seen in SAVE_US.222 and his second WWE run, which also saw it briefly incorporated into his tight designs.
Mean Character, Nice Actor: Chris Jericho is an egotistical, self-centered lying jackass, Christopher Irvine is a well-spoken, clever and responsible member of society.
Mr. Fanservice: A hilarious, athletic hunk provides much fanservice? No way!
- With forearms the size of hams and a face just this side of Bishōnen, how could he not?
- 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).
My Name Is Not Durwood: Jericho's early gimmick in the WWE was intentionally getting other wrestlers' names wrong, calling Mick Foley "Mike" and Chris Benoit ("Ben-wah") "Chris Ben-oy-tah". Made a short comeback when he met Santino.
- "Ben-oy-tah"? Seriously?!
Old Shame: His "Super Liger" character. He was so over in Japan and his skills were so respected that he was handpicked to play an Evil Twin of Jushin "Thunder" Liger (which he compares to the idea of John Cena feuding with evil twin "Don Cena"). His first match in the role was so bad that it was quickly dropped.
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)."
One of Us: Reads comic books, headlines a rock band he created for kicks, and named his son Ash.
- Also played Dungeons&Dragons growing up.
- Just read his books and note the number of geeky references he makes... you'll believe he's Adorkable.
Overly-Long Gag: His long, long introduction to Santino Marella.
Playing Against Type: Despite looking a lot like Hollywood's idea of the boy-next-door Everyman type, Jericho played the role of heel at least as often as that of face.
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.
Real Life Writes the Plot: Jericho punching HBK's wife. While the punch was scripted, Jericho accidentally busted her lip. This provided a lot of fuel for the feud.
- It should be noted that Rebecca was totally okay with it.
The Rival: Chris Benoit during the Attitude Era.
- The Rock, during the InVasion.
This Is Sparta: Until he turned heel in 2008, see Creepy Monotone above.
Red Baron: The Lionheart, Y2J.
Screwed By The Promotion: His run in WCW, where he (along with most of the midcard) was never given a chance to move beyond Cruiserweight/TV title level, in spite of his immense talent and crowd heat.
- His run as the first-ever WWF Undisputed Champion: the storyline had him take a back seat to Triple H & Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley fighting over their pet bulldog, even though he was the world champion defending his title in the main event of WrestleMania.
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 Spinal Tap transitioned into wrestling promos.
- His name is inspired by the Helloween album Walls of Jericho.
Shut Up Michael Cole: 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!
Smug Snake: In full-on heel mode, Jericho is one of these.
- And a Card-Carrying Villain, I'm surprised he doesn't spontaneously grow a mustache and start stroking it when he goes heel.
Special Effect Failure: Under close inspection, the Jack Daniels bottle he smashed over CM Punk's head appears to explode well before impact.
Suspiciously Similar Song: Jericho's main WCW theme, which was a Suspiciously Similar Song version of "Evenflow" by Pearl Jam.
- Jericho's plain-vanilla-face early WCW theme, while not Suspiciously Similar Song version of anything, is now frequently used for sports highlights.
Threat Backfire / Insult 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.
Troll: Y2J was the original Troll gimmick in WWE. Just about every Troll!Heel since him takes a page from his book, with The Miz being the most recent.
- His 2012 return may be a straight example. He spent a good ten minutes prancing in and outside the ring constantly shouting "C'mon, baby! Yay!" before leaving. It seems to have worked as a swerve from Heel Face Return to Face Heel Turn in such a short time, as some booing was heard half way through the celebration.
- And the next week, he took some time to pander to the crowd, and when he brought the mic up to his face...he started crying and had to walk himself off stage.
- And Up to Eleven the following week when he is put in a 3 on 3 tag match, and as soon as he is tagged in proceeds to rev up the crowd and then run backstage, leaving the match 3 on 2.
- This new persona has already earned him the name Jeri-TROLL with the IWC.
- Jericho has admitted he is, as of February 6.
Jericho: And the pathetic thing is that I manipulated all of you without saying a word! I trolled all of you!
Verbal Tic: "ASK HIM!" has become to Chris Jericho what "HAH!" is to Scott Steiner.
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.
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.
Viral Marketing: Jericho seems to love doing this:
- His 1999 WWF debut was promoted with "Countdown to the Millennium" videos that actually counted down to August 9, 1999 (his debut date) as opposed to January 1, 2000.
- Jericho's 2007 return was promoted with mysterious Matrix Raining Code that gave us SAVE_US.222 and later, SAVE_US.X29. X+1=Y and J=9+1, making it SAVE_US.Y2J.
- Jericho's 2012 return went even more cryptic with links to YouTube videos, featuring a Creepy Boy (presumingly named Chris) prophetising his return, joined by a Creepy Girl, who seems to hold the answer to his return.
What Could Have Been: Him & Edge as WWE Unified Tag Team Champions, cut short due to Edge getting injured.
- In his first book Chris mentions that Owen Hart was one of the main reasons he became a wrestler and wanted little else but to be one-part of the Tag-Team Champions with Owen. But, Owen died after Jericho had signed with the WWF/E, but before he had made his debut.
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.
White-Haired Pretty Boy: When his hair is dyed.
Worthy Opponent: In Real Life, Jericho considers John Cena and Shawn Michaels to be his favorite people on the 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. Crossed the Moral Event Horizon by punching out Shawn's wife, Rebecca.
- 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.