Who is Chris Jericho: An All Elite Wrestling primer

He’s wrestled worldwide now he’s ready to mark his territory in All Elite Wrestling. If you don’t know the name Chris Jericho you haven’t been paying attention.

Lionheart, Y2J, The Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla, The Highlight of the Night: Whatever moniker he’s gone by in his career there is one thing synonymous with Chris Jericho and that’s his talent. Many notable members of the wrestling industry have called him one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. It’s hard to argue with that statement given all Jericho has done during his time in the business.

Born Chris Irvine in Winnipeg Manitoba, Canada, he grew up with dreams of becoming a rock star and a professional wrestler. Two lofty goals, to be sure, but he would accomplish both in his storied career. Trained at the famous Hart Brothers School of Wrestling, Jericho would go on to hone his craft on the independent circuit throughout Canada, Mexico and Japan. In 1996, he would sign on as part of Extreme Championship Wrestling and go on to win the ECW World Television Championship. Jericho transitioned over to World Championship Wrestling where he’d win the Cruiserweight Championship and the World Television Championship before making his debut with World Wrestling Entertainment. 

The build-up of “Y2J” culminated with the millennium countdown ending on an episode of Raw is War and Jericho appearing on the stage to one of biggest crowd pops of his career. Jericho remained with WWE off and on for over 18 years. He wrestled some of the biggest names in the industry, on some of the biggest platforms, and won multiple titles including being crowned the first ever Undisputed WWF Champion.

After leaving WWE, Jericho spent time in New Japan Pro Wrestling and the independent circuit, before shocking the world with a surprise appearance at the All Elite Wrestling press conference. There, Jericho announced he would be signing with AEW and would make his debut at their Double or Nothing event to take on his old NJPW rival Kenny Omega.

With Jericho’s career history he could’ve gone anywhere and done well for himself. But as he explained on an episode of his own podcast, Talk is Jericho, he signed with AEW to make a big impact in the upstart company.

"“And then, Tony Khan came in with this offer, that’s you know, the biggest offer I’ve ever been offered in my career. And then you have to stop and think. Okay, if you’re gonna get this offer then you know you’re gonna have some real focus … It’s a little bit hard, because I’ve worked for WWE for 19 years. Love the WWE. But, I put myself into Chris Jericho’s shoes back in 1998 back when I was contemplating leaving WCW and thinking, ‘how much further can I go in WCW under these rules, under these conditions?’ And I realized I probably can’t go much farther … so I put myself in those shoes. Could I walk away from the WWE and go to All Elite Wrestling? A brand new company that doesn’t even own a wrestling ring at this point as far as I know. And after some introspection, the answer was ‘yes, I can do this’. Because what AEW is doing is they’re showing me respect, and they’re showing me that they have a lot of expectations for me. The cart is on my back and I have to do great work, and I have to go the extra mile to help make this work. In WWE, it doesn’t matter what I do. It’s still gonna be WWE. In AEW, it does matter what I do, and I have to be my best, and I have to really use my 30 years, or my 29 years of experience to help build this company. And that was exciting to me.”"

His deal with AEW allows Jericho to continue with outside interests such as a return to NJPW, or another launch of his highly successful Rock n’ Rager at Sea cruise. Jericho also continues to play with his band Fozzy as well as act, write and perform to cement his legacy in both sports entertainment and pop culture.