Breaking Down Walls: Drink In These Facts About The Early Life And Career Of Chris Jericho

Chris Jericho may not be the biggest, strongest, or even flashiest wrestler to ever step between the ropes, but he’s certainly one of the most influential. Jericho’s training was as old-school as it comes, and he went on to earn his stripes wrestling all around the world. He was also a cutting edge “love to hate ’em” comedy heel, and arguably the first true Internet darling. Really, you can pretty much divide pro wrestling history into Before Jericho, and After Jericho periods.

Of course, being a pioneer isn’t easy, and Y2J wasn’t always considered a sure thing. Here’s a few facts about Y2J’s long climb to his first World Championship even Jerichoholics may not know…

Chris Jericho’s dad was an NHL veteran.

Chris Irvine was born November 9, 1970 in Nassau County, Long Island. One of the few successful pro wrestlers to come from a legit sports family, Chris’ dad was Ted Irvine, a hard-checking left winger who played 11 seasons in the NHL for the New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings and St. Louis Blues. Chris was never much of a hockey player, but his dad — who went by the nickname “The Baby-faced Assassin” — passed down plenty of toughness that came useful in schoolyard brawls (and Chris’ later career).

He didn’t know wrestling was fake until he was 18.

Poor baby Chris Jericho, more mullet than mind.

When Chris was around seven, his dad decided to hold onto his few remaining teeth, hang up the skates, and move the family back to his hometown of Winnipeg, Canada. The land of gray skies, frozen ears and chili fries doesn’t always have much going for it (trust me), but Winnipeg was a good wrestling town during the ’70s and ’80s, with the AWA and WWF making frequent visits.

Chris would go to all the shows, and once he got old enough to forge a driver’s license, he hung out at their favorite bars, meeting the likes of Hulk Hogan, André the Giant and Shawn Michaels. When not stalking the stars, Chris also worked ring crew for local shows and staged elaborate fantasy wrestling shows with his friends in his high school gym. Despite all this, it somehow, some way, remained real to young Chris. Finally, at age 18, Chris was smartened up by a journeyman wrestler named Catfish Charlie, and needless to say, he was aghast. Chris got over the shock soon enough – the embarrassment took a bit longer.

The Hart Family devoted less than half an hour to training him.

“So, is it too late to ask for a refund?”

One of Chris Jericho’s selling points has always been that he was one of the last men to train under the Hart Family in the infamous Dungeon, which isn’t entirely true. Jericho simply missed that boat, as Stu Hart’s Stampede Wrestling and The Dungeon were closed for business when he began training in 1990.

The Hart Brothers Wrestling Camp Jericho signed up for was owned by third-string Hart brother, Keith, and run out of a bowling alley. According to Jericho, Keith gave Jericho less than half an hour of hands-on training, which consisted of the 19-year-old Jericho being made to take a dangerous back body drop without any instruction, and a few minutes of painful “stretching.” After that, Keith was never seen again and all the training was done by a referee named Ed Langley, who read out of a manual supposedly written by Stu Hart. Eventually Jericho did get to do some training in the actual dank, dungeon-like basement of the Hart Family mansion, but all the teaching was done by Japanese wrestler Mr. Hito. Jericho still speaks highly of his training, and obviously it paid off, but none of it was thanks to any actual Harts.

A family tragedy almost ended his wrestling career before it began.

Chris and his mom in happier times.

Shortly after completing his wrestling training, Chris received a fateful call from his father: “You have to come home right now. Your mom has been in an accident.”

Chris’ parents had split up a couple years prior, and his mom Loretta was now dating another man. Unfortunately, during an argument with the new boyfriend, Chris’ mom fell on her head (the exact details of how are unclear) and was instantly paralyzed. She would never regain her mobility. A heartbroken Chris immediately began to make plans to move back to Winnipeg to be close to his mother, but as soon as she was strong enough to speak, she gave him this message…

“I don’t want you to change anything. I want you to continue what you’re doing. You have a dream and you’re so close to making it happen. I’m proud of you and I want you to do this and be the best that you can be.”

Chris returned to Calgary with a heavy heart, and had his first match a few weeks later. His mother lived as a quadriplegic for another 15 years, during which she absolutely did get to see her son be the best he could be.

Jericho has kept track of every match he’s ever had.

The Man of Over 2,000 Match Results.

Let’s be honest, Chris Jericho can be a bit of a dweeb. As evidence, I refer you to the fact that Chris claims to have recorded the results and details of every match he’s ever had. From his first battle against Lance Storm to his most recent SummerSlam bout with Enzo and Cass, it’s all been dutifully detailed. Hey, how can you expect the fans to obsess over your career if you’re not going to do it yourself?

He nearly got stuck with a He-Man gimmick in Mexico.

After completing his training, Jericho bounced around the Canadian independent scene with Lance Storm for a bit, but his career didn’t really take off until he went to Mexico in 1992. There Jericho became Leon D’Oro (“Golden Lion”) and began to build a resume for himself, but things almost went very differently for our fledgling sexy beast.

Jericho’s first home in Mexico was the Federacion Internacional de Lucha Libre (FILL) out of Monterrey, and the promoter there wanted him to wrestle as He-Man. Like, literally. Jericho was going to have the the loincloth, furry boots, the sassy bob — the whole deal. With his limited Spanish, Jericho desperately pitched the Leon D’Oro name as an alternative, but the promoter wasn’t convinced. It actually came down to a fan vote on a Mexican talk show, and Leon D’Oro beat out He-Man by two votes. Ah, the path not taken.

Jericho and Meng were once arrested for brawling with airport security.

Anybody who wrestled during the ’80s and ’90s is guaranteed to have a crazy story or two about the man monster MENG (Haku to you WWE purists). Here’s Jericho’s best one.

Jericho first met and became close friends with Meng during his run in Mexico, and the two would often travel together. One day Jericho was running late through a Mexican airport, and lost his cool when security insisted on slowly checking the contents of his bag. Things got heated, and Jericho was about to get his ass detained, when a 300-pound angry Tongan rushed to his rescue. Meng knocked two guards aside like bowling pins, then hoisted another off the ground by his lapels…and that’s when the guns came out.

Thankfully, the contents of Jericho’s wallet (around $350) was enough to smooth everything over before they found themselves in serious trouble.

He had a brief stint as an evil Jushin Liger clone.

Throughout the early ’90s, Jericho had stints with a variety of small-to-mid-sized Japanese wrestling promotions, but never got a chance to work for the big boys of New Japan Pro Wrestling. That changed when Jericho landed his WCW gig. NJPW and WCW were allies at the time, and the Japanese company wanted to bring Jericho in to play SUPER LIGER, the evil adversary of the legendary Jushin “Thunder” Liger.

Unlike Jericho’s Mexican He-Man gimmick, Super Liger actually happened – for all of one night. Jericho debuted as Super Liger in the 50,000-seat-plus Tokyo Dome, and well, things didn’t go that well. The match, against Koji Kanemoto, wasn’t terrible, but Jericho had to measure up to Jushin Liger in his mid-’90s prime, and he certainly didn’t achieve that. According to Jericho, New Japan officials took back his costume immediately after his match for “safekeeping,” and to make sure the Liger name wasn’t further sullied. Ouch.

He turned down a chance to wrestle Goldberg in WCW.

One of Jericho’s specialties in WCW was repeatedly challenging guys who either weren’t there, or had no intention of responding. He did it with Dean Malenko to great effect, and in mid-1998, he started challenging WCW Champion Goldberg every Monday on Nitro. Now, nobody particularly expected Jericho would beat Goldberg and end his streak and title reign, but most at least figured there’d be a match. There never was. Had it happened, Goldberg would’ve speared Jericho once, and that would have been it – one of the more disappointing unfinished wrestling storylines of all time.

Well, it turns out there was going to be a Goldberg-Jericho match, but Jericho turned it down. According to Y2J, the plan was to have him go down in three minutes on Nitro, just like every other Goldberg victim, while Jericho felt he had earned the right to lose in spectacular fashion on pay-per-view. A tense meeting between Jericho, Goldberg, Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan was convened, Chris made his case, and Eric and Hogan agreed that Jericho should get a shot at 1998’s World War 3 PPV. Sadly, the moral victory was short-lived – at the next episode of Nitro, Jericho was informed the PPV match was off, and the storyline was being squashed altogether. Needless to say, Jericho didn’t stick with WCW for much longer.

Jericho was supposed to be part of the WrestleMania 2000 main event.

The original ‘Mania 2000 poster, prior to the Jeripurge.

On August 8, 1999, the countdown reached zero, and Y2J Chris Jericho made his spectacular WWF debut. Jericho had been brought in to be the new Shawn Michaels and got to interrupt The Rock in his first appearance for the company, but after that, things rapidly went awry. Jericho’s first few bouts with the company were mediocre, and he accidentally gave Chyna a black eye in a match, which pissed off her powerful DX buddies. Almost immediately, Vince soured on his new acquisition.

Suddenly some pretty big plans changed – originally Jericho was going to be one of the four men involved in the WrestleMania 2000 main event, his face was even on the posters, but that was nixed. Instead, Mick Foley was dragged out of retirement to fill out the match, a move most people (including Foley) now agree was a mistake. It would be another couple years before Jericho got another shot at a ‘Mania main event.

That awful Planet of the Apes segment made Jericho a star in Vince McMahon’s eyes.

Chris Jericho has a pretty laudable record on the mic, but he’s had his share of flops as well. No Y2J moment has ever fallen flatter than his infamous Planet of the Apes segment. You know, the one that began with 5 minutes of aggressive slut shaming, and ended with Jericho hitting Stephanie McMahon with a pie toted to the ring by a couple dudes in cheap monkey costumes? The whole thing was a flaming crater of awfulness, but it may have also saved Jericho’s WWE career.

By mid-2001, Jericho seemed to be permanently mired in the midcard mix, but he still had a reputation for being able to make chicken salad out of chicken sh*t, so when WWF needed to do a promotional tie-in with the 2001 Marky Mark Planet of the Apes remake, it fell to Jericho to make it work. Most people would say Jericho failed in his task, but when he came through the curtain, Vince was waiting to give him a standing ovation.

The segment had single-handedly put Jericho back in Vince’s good graces, and a short four months later, he was the first-ever Undisputed World Champion. Turns out Vince McMahon loves apes, loves ’em, and Jericho standing ape-adjacent was all it took for Vince to see him as World Champion material. No, really. This is how the most successful wrestling promotion of all time is run.

He found out he’d be the first Undisputed Champion in the most crushing way possible.

Of course, as WWE has established over the past 15 years, being World Title worthy doesn’t necessarily make you The Man. Jericho’s ape stunt made him the former, but definitely not the latter. For weeks, rumors swirled that Jericho would become Undisputed Champion at 2001’s Vengeance pay-per-view, but Vince refused to confirm his decision. On the day of the event, Jericho caught sight of The Chairman chatting with The Undertaker backstage and tried to get a straight answer. Without even turning his head, Vince loudly and sarcastically proclaimed

“You can tell that the business is going down the toilet when we’re going to make Jericho the champion.”

…before strutting off like Jericho wasn’t even there. Thankfully, The Undertaker realized crushing your new champion’s spirit before he even wins the belt may not be a great idea, so he gave Jericho a quick pat on the back and these words of encouragement.

“Do it, man. It’s your time. Go out there and kick some ass.”

And kick some ass he did.

So, now you know a little more-a about the Ayatollah of Rock ‘n’ Rolla. Any fun Y2J facts I missed? What are your favorite young Jericho moments? Let’s try and get this thing to 1,004 comments.

(via A Lion’s Tale: Around the World in Spandex, Undisputed: How to Become the World Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps, Breaking the Code: Chris Jericho, Slam! Wrestling & What Culture)

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