The Magnificent Seven: The Top 7 Chris Jericho Feuds

Professional wrestling is built around feuds. Sure, professional sports in general have their perennial rivalries. There are closely contested games and heated playoff series. But the world of professional wrestling is storyline driven. Rather than putting on a smiling, PC face for the camera, it’s a heels job to make himself hated, and a face isn’t out line for punching a heel in the face.

So, when we think about wrestling’s greatest stars, it’s only fitting that we would, too, think about their greatest rivalries. For over two decades, Chris Jericho has been one of the elite performers in this business, and as such has played a role in feuds that were violent, thought-provoking, innovative, and even funny. As good as he is, Jericho has been involved some lackluster feuds—unfocused extended squashes opposite Triple H and John Cena, and high-potential but underdeveloped programs with people like Dolph Ziggler and JBL. Separating these weaker pieces from the cream of the crop, this week, I’m taking a look at the top seven Chris Jericho feuds.

#7. Ricky Steamboat

This off-beat feud probably wasn’t supposed to happen. After all, the original intention for WrestleMania 25 was for Jericho to square off with the star of The Wrestler, Mickey Rourke, in a celebrity farce. When Rourke’s people wouldn’t let him get involved, WWE switched to plan B, having Jericho go against three legends, managed by Ric Flair. Purportedly, the legends were to be Roddy Piper, Jimmy Snuka, and Greg Valentine, before wiser voices prevailed and Ricky Steamboat replaced “The Hammer.”

The result was a less than spectacular, but surprisingly good outing at ‘Mania in which Steamboat in particular turned in a memorable performance in his first match in almost 15 years, and his first ‘Mania in21 years. This gave way to the two appearing on opposite sides of a 10-man tag on Raw in which Steamboat dazzled the crowd again, giving way to a one-on-one match between Y2J and The Dragon at the next PPV.

Sure, the feud was lopsided in Jericho’s favor and didn’t have much in the way of historical implications, but the rush of seeing that Steamboat really did “still have it,” complemented by Jericho doing everything in his power to make the matches successful offered up some short-term magic for long-time fans.

#6. Goldberg

It’s telling that one of Chris Jericho’s best WCW feuds happened almost entirely on the mic, almost entirely via Jericho talking, and culminated in just one match—in which Jericho got squashed. Young Jericho offered a lot to WCW. He got back very little in return.

Long before The Miz started calling out John Cena when he knew he wasn’t in the building, lower-mid-card heel “The Lionheart” Chris Jericho got too big for his britches and challenged budding main event star, Goldberg—when he knew Goldberg wasn’t available to answer him, or when he had a jobber dressed like Goldberg on hand to manhandle. The feud never got a proper blow off in WCW after other main event talents allegedly got in Goldberg’s ear and told him working with the smaller, less over cruiserweight would hurt his image—thus, they only got as far as Goldberg spearing Jericho in a non-match to resolve the issue.

Perhaps of greater note, the guys had a much talked about backstage tussle once they were both in WWE in which Jericho purportedly managed to subdue Goldberg with a front face lock long enough for the rest of the locker room to break up the fight. They finally had an on-air match shortly afterward, in which Goldberg picked up the duke to finally put to bed the issue between the two.

#5. Chris Benoit

Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit had a number of superficial similarities and under-sized, uber-talented, under-appreciated Canadians with excellent technical and aerial skills. Just the same, they had some stark differences. Jericho falls in the camp of guys like Ric Flair, John Cena, and The Miz—slick, professional, and talk-show ready. Benoit always had a little more gruff, everyman in him—a darling of serious fans, hardly a marketable mainstream personality. Jericho characters erred toward cocky and silly. Benoit was always deathly serious. As such, the two proved masterful foils for each other, sharing some time in ECW and WCW, but getting a fully realized feud from 2000 to 2001 in WWE when they waged war in the mid-card including a WrestleMania 16 three-way that included Kurt Angle, and a top-notch ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship at Royal Rumble 2001, before a stint of teaming together. The guys never had an all that well-developed storyline issue, but in-ring chemistry and dynamite matches more than made up for that, resulting in program worth remembering.

#4. CM Punk

After dancing around one another in the upper mid-card for a period of years, Jericho and CM Punk finally got a full-on program for WrestleMania 28. The storyline was that of Punk, finally at the top of the proverbial mountain after his pipebomb promo, two epic matches with John Cena, getting screwed out of the title, and getting it back for keeps when he bested Alberto Del Rio at Survivor Series 2011 in Madison Square Garden. Conversely, Chris Jericho was a decorated former world champ, returned for a short-run victory lap, all but gifted a shot at the world title in the biggest show of the year. The two raged into an underrated classic of a back and forth ‘Mania showdown. Rather than blowing off the feud there, Jericho went into uber-dick mode, picking on Punk and his alcoholic father and proceeding to KO the Straight Edge Superstar and douse him in whiskey. This all gave way to a very good street fight between the two at that year’s Extreme Rules PPV, capping a feud that probably did more than anything else to put over Punk’s year-plus title reign.

#3. Christian

For lack of anything better to do, Jericho dipped marginally down the card, and Christian moved nominally up to form an on-again, off-again tag team and alliance in the early 2000s. It was all well and good before the buddies bet one another about which of them could hook up with a Diva first, which resulted in Jericho’s heart swelling ten sizes, a face turn, and Y2J falling hard for Trish Stratus. Christian didn’t like it, and the Creepy Little Bastard harassed Jericho and Stratus alike in the build to WrestleMania 20. Jericho-Christian tends to get lost in the conversation of all-time great ‘Mania mid-card matches, but it’s a forgotten gem, best of all ending with Christian not only getting the win, but picking up the girl for Stratus’s legitimately surprising, red hot heel turn. Jericho would go on to feud with the new couple for the weeks to follow in an entertaining program that gave each of these underappreciated talents something worthwhile.

#2. Dean Malenko

There are noteworthy parallels between this feud and Jericho’s programs with Goldberg and Chris Benoit, for the pompous, comedic heel squaring off with a much more serious ass kicker. This WCW feud arguably caught Dean Malenko at the pinnacle of his largely under-recognized in-ring career, in a period when Jericho was no slouch either, leading to some very good matches between the two. Better yet, the program benefited from a compelling story—Jericho’s iconic “Man of 1,004 Holds” promo, built to mock Malenko’s Man of 1,000 Holds persona; the thrill of Malenko wrestling under a mask to earn a return shot at Jericho’s Cruiserweight Championship only to reveal himself. Perhaps best of all, Jericho got the best of this feud and probably ended up as over as he would ever be in WCW for the effort.

#1. Shawn Michaels

When I conceived of this list, I never had a doubt in my mind that this feud would end up as number one. Yes, the two guys had a good rivalry leading up to WrestleMania 18, in which WWE played up the fact that Jericho had in many ways patterned his ring work, style, and career after Michaels, culminating in a very good match between the two. But six years later, the guys elevated their feud into the stratosphere. After Michaels retired Ric Flair at WrestleMania 24, he became embroiled in a fascinating three-way program with Batista and Jericho in which Big Dave blamed Michaels for unnecessarily ending Flair’s career, and Jericho played quasi-instigator, quasi-peacekeeper, quasi-intrepid reporter, inquiring about HBK’s intentions for Flair, spurious injuries, and the like en route to a full-blown heel turn. And then it was on. After a good match at Judgment Day, Jericho threw his foe face first into the obscenely expensive Jeritron 6000, later took on Lance Cade as a sidekick, and started wearing a suit and using big vocabulary words. The two fought intensely at The Great American Bash, and Jericho punched out Micheals’s wife at SummerSlam. They had a wild brawl at Unforgiven, followed by a sensational ladder match at No Mercy, before finally blowing off their program ina Last Man Standing Match on Raw that November. When it comes to well-crafted build, heat out the wazoo, and multiple tremendous matches, there are but a handful of rivalries in the history of wrestling that can compare to Shawn Michaels versus Chris Jericho.

Which Chris Jericho rivals were your favorites? Rey Mysterio? William Regal? The Rock? Those were all narrow misses for me. Let us know what you think in the comments section. See you in seven.