Defining the Moment: Chris Jericho

[LSN80]

So I just finished reading Jericho's second book and having read the first one, it helped give me a better perspective on him and his career then I had before! With that in mind, it just seemed natural that I would continue my serieson Defining Moments with Chris Jericho himself!

Jericho's had a diverse and well-rounded career, being one of the last of a dying breed whose worked in territories, Japan, ECW, WCW, and WWE. More then any other, I expect to see many a different perspective on the man's career. One of the biggest goals of said series is to really shed some light as to how we, the IWC, view said wrestler. Through four wrestlers thusfar, it's been great to see so many viewpoints on the same wrestler. There were some moments I had never even considered, and some that had simply slipped my mind. That's what I was hoping to accomplish when I started this series, and all of you have made that happen with Cena, Edge, Taker, and . The next installment of the series is Chris Jericho.


So here's the deal with a career defining moment. It's that time in a wrestler's career that made you take notice of them more than any other. It's the special moment in said wrestler's career that made you look at them differently, as more then the average wrestler. It's not to be confused with the moment you took them seriously as a main eventer. This is the moment you believe the wrestler will be remembered for when all is said and done so far in their career. It's not necessarily confined to a match either, as it can be a promo, segment, a series of events in a row that lead to an amazing climax, or an incredible match. There's no set criteria for this, just your personal opinion. Whether we like the wrestler is immaterial, and this isn't a "first" list. It has everything to do with what really stick out as the crowing moment of said wrestler's career(to this date) when it's all said and done.

There are so many diffeent direction one can go pertaining to Jericho. Jericho had so many twists and turns and stays with different promotions that it's hard to pick just one. But there is one moment for me that stands out, and it's not even one that the WWE(F) even acknowledges....

[YOUTUBE]lMFyeoVmqcg[/YOUTUBE]

The funny thing about this situation was that Jericho was furious about his place on the card, and was planning on telling Vince so earlier in the night, whether it cost him his job or not. He was cut off on his way by Raw's head writer, who informed him he would be winning the title that night from HHH. He started the evening calling Stephanie a "filthy, dirty, disgusting, brutal, bottom feeding ho's", then apologized to all the "hos" out there for comparing them to Stephanie. In doing so, he goaded HHH in defending the title. Add a hot crowd, that was 100% behind Jericho, a lionsault, a fast count from Earl Hebner, and one of the loudest pops Ive ever heard. Truly, for me, this was the defining moment of Jericho's career. Jim Ross' call of the match made it even moreso.

So to me, Chris Jericho "winning" the World Title from HHH in neaby State College, PA was the defining moment of Jericho's career. But that's just me, and now I throw the question to you. What was the defining moment of Chris Jericho's career? Im looking for more then just an example, as I want an explanation as well. I want to know why you feel the way that you do. Feel free to provide a YouTube video if you so wish to make your point! And as always, have fun with this!

 

[FunKay the Inevitable]

Chris Jericho is my all time favourite wrestler. I love the guy to bits. He's done some great stuff as both a heel and as a face. He's done some pretty remarkable stuff in the ring too, with a fair bit of success. Did you know he once beat Steve Austin & the Rock in the same night? Surprising isn't it. But for me his greatest, defining moment was this:

[YOUTUBE]QpK1aCUVvic[/YOUTUBE]​

To me, Chris Jericho was never better than he was in 2008/2009. His feud with Shawn Michaels was a truly brilliant feud from the punching of Michaels wife to Jericho ultimately winning the feud, it was great. This moment was really when the feud got a kick-start. They'd been teasing Jericho turning for a couple of weeks and to see this turn, which reeked of Michaels own heel turn on Marty Jannetty, it was a great segment and a defining moment. This was the end of Y2J and the start of the hypocrite bashing, righteous man.

 

[The_Grimace]

I remember that night i was there in the crowd be it in the nose bleed section lol...ill have to agree with you feeling the electricity in the air when we got the 3 count the place just blew up with cheers and boos from the people thinking trips just got screwed. I also remember turning to my dad who never like Jericho and giving him the the biggest i told you so...only to have to eat the crow when he gave the belt back..but from that moment my dad even knew Jericho was going places in the the WWF ahhh the memories

 

[amazing_blue]

Don't take this the wrong way (I am a fan of Jericho and think he was probably the MVP of the WWE from 2008-10) but I think him losing the Undisputed Championship to HHH at Wrestlemania X8 was the defining moment of his career. I say this because it signified that he was never going to be a true main-eventer the way that guys like HHH, Austin, Rock, Hogan and Cena are despite arguably having more talent than all of those guys when it comes to wrestling. Jericho of course made his debut by interrupting Rock but look at what he was doing in the months that followed - being placed in stupid situations. In 2000 of course he hit his stride which propelled him to becoming Undisputed champ a year later, but that was more of a one-time deal.

After he got buried by HHH time and time again in 2002, he got put back on the midcard. While he is always appearing in multi-man main events (such as Elimination Chamber) he seems more accustomed to the midcard than the main event, despite some runs on top.

 

[Serious Mozzarella]

Chris Jericho is by far my favorite wrestler of all time, and I think he could rank top 5 in objectively the greatest of all time. I'm not going to repeat some of his accolades in wrestling as many, many will, because it would be redundant. You can look at his HQ at the Wrestlezone tournament as well as his first and second opponents to see the titles he's won, the promotions he's wrestled for, and the awards he's won.

Here, I'm going to go into the other half of what makes him the greatest ever.

There isn't really much Chris Jericho can't do, and this includes being a generally, all-around entertaining motherfucker. He can take any, ANY situation and steal the show with it. There was one situation where he took the anger of a fan sitting in the front row and made it into a comedy shitstorm:


In fact, it's safe to say that most, if not all of his post-show shenanigans are gold. Here's one with him and Stone Cold Steve Austin after Raw just fucking around:


Aside from his wrestling, he is damn good on the mic, and his mic work alone made for one of the most compelling storylines in WWE history, with his last feud with Shawn Michaels.


All I can say is that Chris Jericho is easily one of the best performers in history. He's a lock for the WWE Hall of Fame.

 

[achromat666]

Y2J is one of my absolute favorites and this was reallllllly hard to decide. He has a lot of great rivalries, a ton of awesome matches. Guerrero, Benoit, Austin, HHH, Orton, Edge, Rock.... the list goes on.

But a defining moment for me with him has to be the feud that helped push him to the moon in the main event, with none other than the Rock. Not because of the matches, which were great, but because they were both so awesome on the mic, and could do stuff like this:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4J0MBctpy0


It's no wonder Jericho refers to Rock as one of his favorite guys to work with. They obviously had a blast.

 

[#hamler]

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It's got to be Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho at Wrestlemania 19. The match is not only Jericho's defining moment, but this is the moment where Shawn Michael solidified himself as Mr. Wrestlemania. During this time, Chris Jericho had really been buried and lost in the mix after his feud with Triple H. This defining moment rejuvinated his career and gave him somewhat of a fresh start. Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho had fantastic chemistry, from Wrestlemania 19 all the way to their feud in 2008/2009.

This was undoubtedly a phenomenal match which brought Chris Jericho up a level, a level where Shawn Michaels wrestled on. The moment which made this match so great was the ending, the double turn. We all thought Chris Jericho would really shake HBK's hand out of respect. They hugged, and Jericho got the last word when he kicked Shawn in the nuts to make the biggest statement of their match. This was Chris Jericho's defining moment.

 

[HiddenInPlainView]

I would have to say that Jericho's defining moment would have to be his debut on Raw with The Rock!! He left WCW because of their refusal to push him or anyone who wasn't friends with Hogan. And he debuts by interrupting a Rock promo. He was immediately put on the same level with the biggest star in the industry.

 

[midgensa]

He has so many. I mean ... winning the Undisputed Title, the title win that wasn't against Triple H on RAW, the Highlight Reel where he completed his great heel turn by putting HBK through a television.

But for me, it is still his RAW debut. He was perfect and an exact glimpse at how great he would be in the WWE. After that he stumbled a bit (kind of like the beginning of his comeback) ... but that night, interrupting The Rock ... he simply was perfect.

 

[Zigglerfan227]

Ok. I started watching wrestling in 2008. I had known about wrestling for my whole life but I never started watching it until the night after the 2008 Royal Rumble. As a newer fan I had never heard of Chris Jericho (along with others like Jeff Hardy). What made me notice Chris Jericho the most and made me a fan was his match against Jeff Hardy for the Intercontinental championship.

The match is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgZpHAg0KaU


Like I said, Jericho really won me over as a new fan when I saw this match.

Of course as a huge fan I have gone back and seen many of his old matches.

 

[The Brain]

Yours is certainly a great choice LSN but I’m going to fast forward just a couple months to a moment involving the same people. The night you picked was great but I felt the whole thing was designed to put further heat on the McMahon-Helmsley Faction rather than push Jericho. Don’t get me wrong, Jericho of course got a huge rub that night but the immediate aftermath saw Triple H continue his feud with The Rock. My choice is just a little later. Fully Loaded 2000. At this event Chris Jericho went toe to toe with Triple H for over twenty minutes in a last man standing match. At this point Jericho had not really worked with a main event talent on a big stage. He seemed maybe just a little bit out of his league, but he hung with Triple H the whole time. 23 minutes into the match both men were knocked down. Triple H barely made it to his feet at the count of nine before collapsing again immediately after the ten count. Even though Jericho lost the match he proved he could run with the big dogs.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I am not going to go with the choice which would be the most logical (Jericho winning the Undisputed Title by beating The Rock and Austin in 1 night), and also not going to go for the famous "ARMBAR!" promo in WCW.

The thing that springs to mind for me when I think of Chris Jericho is his debut in the WWE as the Millenium Man. I had never seen Jericho's work in WCW at this point, but the pop he got when his name appeared on the titantron was incredible. I immediately knew that this man was a star, and would be a big part of the future of the WWE.

The exchanges with The Rock was brilliant, Jericho immediately got himself over with his mic skills and the pop that he received throughout this segment is one that I have seen very rarely since. I was just getting into wrestling in a big way at that point, and this was a moment that has always stuck in my mind. I immediately became a fan of Chris Jericho after this, and tried to get my hands on as much of his WCW work as I could.

He was never given the chance to run with the big dogs in WCW, and here was WWE immediately giving him the opportunity that he never had, interrupting one of their top guys and then holding his own in the following weeks.

That debut saw the birth of a STAR.

[YOUTUBE]32OPyEAraU4[/YOUTUBE]

 

[LFC till i die]

Chris Jericho v HHH. Fully loaded 2000.

Not only was this a great match but it made me actually give a shit about Jericho. I remember watching this and was rooting for The Game to win but as every second of every minute of their match ticked by i was being more impressed with Y2J even though he lost the match. Proved to me he could really compete with the best.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

The defining moment for Chris was split but started when he was able to walk out on WWE in 2007... Those who say Chris was never a true main eventer etc are shot down with that moment. He was the first guy who was healthy, in demand and just walked... not to TNA but out of the business... That in itself is huge, after all Hogan tried and failed... Rock yep, but Vince financed a lot of his early movie success... Jericho had other things he wanted to do... that had no WWE involvment and did them, at a time that cos of injuries WWE really needed him around... He did primetime TV, movies, sold out concerts around the world... THEN when he chose... the 2nd part... he came back and was better than ever...

If you want a particular promo, or in ring moment, hitting Shawns wife pushed the envelope further than ever but think about it... his debut was great, or the "besmirching of Regal" which really turned the corner for him as a character and potential main eventer. But in reality who else has really had that much else going on that that they can take or leave Vince and the WWE and still be their most valuable commodity?. It isn't Rock... he won't wrestle... Chris will and be the best of the night... but only when he chooses...

 

[Ultra Awesome]

There's alot of good choices in this thread. However, I have to go with something a bit more similar to what THT is saying.

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Chris Jericho's second coming was unlike no other. But what made it so spectacular wasn't the promo or the hype per se, but the impact his return had on both the WWE and his legacy.

Soon after Jericho's return, it was that people started to see Jericho more differently than they once did. Sure, people always had a positive affection for the man, but when he returned -- and whilst he adopted his heel turn as a narcissistic bastard -- people started to believe ideals that Jericho was the best in the world. That he could do anything. He could accomplish anything. Jericho became the best in the eyes of the IWC after his 2nd coming. Thus, the legacy that he had conjured for himself grew much stronger than it would have been had he never came back.

Obtaining championship after championship; putting on amazing matches; making god-like promos; putting over the youngsters -- Jericho did it all. He was... the best in the world at what he did...

 

[THTRobtaylor]

There's alot of good choices in this thread. However, I have to go with something a bit more similar to what THT is saying.

[youtube]z_RxTMzo4P0&feature=fvwrel[/youtube]​

Chris Jericho's second coming was unlike no other. But what made it so spectacular wasn't the promo or the hype per se, but the impact his return had on both the WWE and his legacy.

Soon after Jericho's return, it was that people started to see Jericho more differently than they once did. Sure, people always had a positive affection for the man, but when he returned -- and whilst he adopted his heel turn as a narcissistic bastard -- people started to believe ideals that Jericho was the best in the world. That he could do anything. He could accomplish anything. Jericho became the best in the eyes of the IWC after his 2nd coming. Thus, the legacy that he had conjured for himself grew much stronger than it would have been had he never came back.

Obtaining championship after championship; putting on amazing matches; making god-like promos; putting over the youngsters -- Jericho did it all. He was... the best in the world at what he did...

Great backup...and totally right... Chris got title runs out of left field, beat guys like Batista, Superstar of the Year... and all after many wrote the Orton feud as a fail...but it all came from the uniqueness of his leaving...