Top 7 Chris Jericho Personas

For nearly thirty years, Chris Jericho has traveled the highways & byways of professional wrestling. He’s been everywhere and done nearly everything. At this point, it would be easy for Jericho to coast on his laurels and keep playing the hits to get the nostalgic reaction. Instead, he constantly attempts to re-invent himself and finds new things to add to his wrestling persona.

Today, we take a look at the seven most magnificent personas that Chris Jericho has adopted over the years.

7. Lionheart/Corazon de Leon

Back when Jericho got started, he was a lot like other young wrestlers of his time. Fresh-faced, full of energy & enthuiasm & willing to fly around and do crazy moves. He acquired the Leon D’Oro name from a poll taken by Mexican wrestling fans, and it’s fun to wonder if He-Man or Chris Power would have had the same staying power. Possibly, but the lion motif gave Jericho a certain style to work with that fit in with the 80s rocker look. Lionheart wasn’t a fireball personality, but his in-ring ability and look was enough to get him noticed by some of the right people in the United States.

6. The Painmaker

https://youtu.be/ZsECywPlw-s

By the time Jericho returned to New Japan Pro Wrestling two decades after his original stint, he wasn’t the high-flying junior heavyweight people remembered from back in the day. He certainly didn’t want to do a re-hash of his WWE characters. So he reinvented himself into a bitter old man brawler who sneak attacked his opponents at any given opportunity. The Painmaker paints his face & is prone to throwing furniture & screaming during press conferences. Jericho has appeared in AEW under the Painmaker guise for a streetfight with Darby Allin, and one could expect it to happen again if things get a little too hardcore for Le Champion.

5. The Listmaker

During 2016, Jericho became annoyed with the way Raw General Manager Mick Foley was running the show. Jericho made a list of reasons why, then the list became littered with names of people that had done things to annoy him. Jericho was all sorts of hilarious during this time period, with catchphrases like “Drink it in maaaan”, “It” & “Stupid Idiot” getting over. The only real downside of comedy heel Jericho was the lack of babyfaces that could properly get over against him, but that’s been a company-wide problem in WWE for years now.

4. Le Champion

Once Jericho had accomplished everything that one could possibly do in WWE, he moved on to All Elite Wrestling in an attempt to change the universe & forever leave his mark on pro wrestling in the form of a promotion that could provide competition for Vince McMahon. Unfortunately, the Elite were not very thankful for Jericho’s gift to them. After winning the AEW Championship, Jericho drank a little bit of the bubbly and formed an Inner Circle to help ensure that he stays champion forever. They also help make sure that he doesn’t leave the belt at an Outback Steakhouse again. Let’s be honest, 2019 Jericho has a lot of things going on and a lot of things on his mind. He might not be the in-ring technician he once was, but he’s as smart & as arrogant as he ever was.

3. Y2J

Chris Jericho showed up in the World Wrestling Federation in 1999 as the man of the next Millennium. Y2K may have ended up being a flop as far as major crises go, but Y2J became one of WWE’s top stars throughout the first decade of the twenty-first century. Y2J promised to be a showman the likes of which the company had never seen, and whether fans cheered or booed him he was always entertaining in the ring & on the microphone.

2. The Conspiracy Victim

Jericho arrived in WCW as the fresh-faced young Lionheart, but like most people entering the company happy & full of life, he quickly lost touch with reality & became angry with the world. He had plenty of reason to be mad at WCW though, as Jo Jo Dillion and the rest of management were engaged in a conspiracy to keep him down. Jericho’s delusional heel run, which included the emergence of Ralphus, a “feud” with Goldberg & a list of 1,0004 holds, put him on the map as a personality & created millions of Jericholics. He was one of countless names that WCW failed to capitalize on in the late 1990s.

1. The Best In The World At What I Do

https://youtu.be/CUYTx_0uSIo

After years of being one of WWE’s most entertaining personalities, Jericho wanted to tone things down and go in a completely different direction. Basically, he wanted to be an adult. So he cut his hair short, wore suits when he wasn’t wrestling & short tights when he was, and delivered monotone promos using an extensive vocabulary of words many wrestling fans hadn’t heard before. He was the only honest man in any building he set foot in. He refused to be the subject of any merchandise. Jericho ditched every positive characteristic that had gotten him over during his time in WWE & became a new, unique, compelling character. It’s something he’s continued to do at times over the past decade.