Should Chris Jericho have been WCW Champion?

[Mantis]

Jericho was by far my favorite WCW performer in 1998, but he had no business being in the Heavyweight title picture. There were just too many guys above him on the contender's list and no one would take him seriously.

Even his Undisputed title run in 01-02 was underwhelming. It wasn't until 2008 when I saw him as a legit main eventer.

 

[byrnside]

For all of you arguing that Jericho was second fiddle to guys like Savage, Hogan, Sting, Goldberg, DDP, Hart, etc.... I want you to imagine, just for a second, what it would've been like to have seen Jericho face any one of those guys, especially Hart and Savage and even DDP. The feud with Goldberg would've been worth a truck-load of cash simply because everyone would've paid to see Jericho get his ass kicked by Goldberg and Jericho himself has said he would've easily/gladly done the job.

If we're talking about Jericho still leaving in '99, I totally agree, Jericho shouldn't have won the WCW title while he was with the company. However, if he had stayed with WCW, are you honestly trying to tell me that Jeff Jarrett or Booker T were better choices for champions? Don't get me wrong, nothing against Booker T or even Jarrett. I was actually a big fan of Jarrett at the time and Booker T is definitely "Hall of Fame worthy" in my eyes. At the time they were the two guys in WCW I rooted for if for no other reason than they were "fresh" faces... Not only that, they were great, too, but there are very few better wrestlers that stepped foot in the ring from the late 90s until today than Chris Jericho. If WCW was around for even 5 more years, there's no way Jericho shouldn't have won the world title.

Just an aside, the guy that posted before about Jericho jobbing in WWE... When the hell did that happen?!

 

[original1316]

As much as i would have liked to have seen Jericho Become WCW champion I don't think it would ever have happened. The problem is that jericho was one of the better talents that WCW had at the time and if you showed even a little bit of talent then somebody like Hogan, Nash or Hall would step would step on you to stop you taking there place and I believe that if jericho would have stayed then he would never have become WCW champion.

 

[braveh]

You sound like Zbyszko with the ridiculous things you're saying.

How was Jericho a jobber in WWF? Feuded with HHH and the Rock while holding the IC title multiple times. And yes he was jobbed out in WCW but still had a fanbase before he debuted in WWF, on topic though there's no way Jericho would've been WCW champion, it just wouldn't have worked with the way that company was run.

So you have guys like Sting, Bret Hart, Jarrett, Booker...but let's push this short guy with a weird hair-do. Are you kidding me? Of course they didn't push him.

Chris Jericho is very talented. No question about it. But he never had the IT-factor. Never. Never. Never.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

You could say that had The Jericho/Benoit/Sullivan situation been different then yes, Chris could have gotten the title in 2000, if Jericho had still been with WCW then Sullivan would have gleefully pushed Jericho instead of Benoit and his buddies. But he had long left the company and the jump was what galvanised him as a performer. Sure he didn't click in-ring at the start for WWF, but from the first promo he was red-hot as a character.

The fans wanted him to succeed in those early days because they knew how he had been treated in WCW and he had made the "leap of faith", a little like Big Show (who was also nowhere near stellar at the beginning of his WWF run)

It comes down to how he was treated in the Goldberg situation AND the simple reliance on the NWO... Goldberg could have done some good work with Jericho and while Y2J wouldn't have won, it would have been a welcome diversion from all the NWO crap and been an interesting enough dynamic to draw some ratings.

But it was not to be, be it Goldie himself, Hogan, Nash, Bischoff, whoever killed that angle killed Jericho's WCW career, that he later got the Undisputed title in the WWE was almost a "fuck you" to those people.

 

[Rabbid Wolverine]

First off I will say Jericho never got a fair opportunity in WCW... WCW was an old man company... look at the main eventers (Flair, Hogan, Nash, Sting, Savage, Luger etc). Those guys were good/great but theres also a reason Vince said I need to build new stars. If WCW had helped build new stars they would probably still be around... I can only watch the same main event on Nitro so many times before saying this is ridonkulous.

Anybody who says Jericho didnt have "IT" should go back and watch his debut into WWE. And if you werent excited when Jericho came out... I dont know what to say.

I believe with the right management incorporating the older talent with the new talent, Jericho would have been the first "young" champion in WCW in years. WCW never thought about the future and from reading a lot of posts here either did a lot of fans of WCW.