Posts Tagged ‘Chris Jericho’
Why I Love Pro-Wrestling: WWE 30 Day Challenge Pt. 6
March 11, 2019
Why I Love Pro-Wrestling: Chris Jericho
August 20, 2016
Consuming everything in the world of Sports Entertainment is hard and one of the ways I keep abreast of everything going on and learn more about my hobby is through podcasts. While I feel obligated to throw a shout out to the #OG538 and Rough House Podcast, I learn also learn a lot from listening to Talk is Jericho. Chris Jericho is an old hand in the business now but was just reaching fame when I started really watching. While I was not there for his emergence into the mainstream, I have been a fan for a long time. I have also read two out of three of his books and I am a regular listener to his podcast. So let us take a little look at Chris Jericho (Drink it in, maaan).
I was a latecomer to being a Chris Jericho fan. I was a huge fan of the WWF during the Attitude Era. It hit just when I was old enough to really get into it. I had first become a fan during the cartooniest era of the WWE and while I liked it, it was hard to admit that I liked it in public. When the Attitude Era hit, like a lot of people, I became the biggest fan of The Rock, Mick Foley, Degeneration X, The Brothers of Destruction and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Like I have said before, I did not watch a lot of World Championship Wrestling at the time. So my first look at Jericho was on WWF programming. The new millennium was on its way but mysteriously, a clock started to show up during every WWF show for weeks and it was counting down. The problem was, it would reach zero before New Year’s Eve. So, the mystery was what the clock was counting down to. This was during a time before the Internet knew everything before it happened and I was genuinely clueless.
So, several weeks later on Monday Night Raw it was time for the clock to hit zero. However. I forgot about exactly when it was supposed to hit zero even though it had hours and minutes on it. The Rock hit the ring and was delivering one of his patented awesome promos that I loved. The Rock was the ultimate ingredient in sports entertainment. Whatever you added him to was automatically better and I was always pumped to see him talk and fight. So I was absolutely shocked when the clock appeared right in the middle of his promo and a siren loudly blared as the clock was dangerously close to hitting zero. The Rock paced the ring like an angry tiger and, even behind his sunglasses, you could sense that he was glaring at the stage. The clock hit zero and some of the most awesome entrance themes I had ever heard blasted over the speakers. Then a weird guy with blond hair and a big mouth strutted around the stage. He went word for word with the Rock and later I saw that he was dynamite in the ring.
As the weeks went on, I started to get more and more sold on Chris Jericho. He feuded with Chyna at a time when a lot of guys refused to do so. He went toe to toe with Kurt Angle and it was clear that this Y2Jericho guy was talented and fun to watch. Kurt was (is?) a legend and the two were both on fire as they definitely showed me that my old favorites were not the only game in town. He feuded with his good friend Chris Benoit after that. I know Chris Benoit is a sore spot in the business but he was a legend in the ring and that can never be denied. Anyway, facing Benoit and Angle gave Jericho a chance to show off all of the aspects of his style. He was a high flier, a technical expert, a brawler and pretty much whatever else you needed him to be. Jericho trained in the Mexican Lucha style, worked in Germany, learned the Japanese style in WAR and even worked for Jim Cornette for a little before joining WCW. Of course he was going to be good!
Jericho was consistently staying at the top of the heap and was facing the biggest names in the company. Finally, it was time for Jericho to get a serious shot at the Heavyweight title. The thing was, at the time there was two of them. Jericho became one of the biggest talkers and combatants in the infamous Invasion angle which I really should talk about at some point. He fought hard against his old foe The Rock while spending a lot of time verbally jousting with Stephanie McMahon. He was hilarious and a serious bright spot for the business in those years. He was a force to be reckoned with and it was obvious that the fans were behind him a hundred percent. Finally, he won both heavyweight titles in one night and became the first ever Undisputed Champion (the WWE likes this storyline a lot). Finally, he was honored with what was technically the first heavyweight belt of his career. He had gotten the Cruiserweight title in the WCW and the European, Tag and Intercontinental belts in the WWF but it just isn’t the same.
He stuck around as champ for a while. He formed a tag team with Christian. He entered into a feud with Shawn Michaels where he claimed he could do anything that Shawn Michaels had done in his career. He went about proving it and he entered the Royal Rumble to replicate Shawn’s beginning to end Royal Rumble victory. They ended up screwing each other over and eliminating each other. Jericho kept his eye on Michaels and vice versa even as they fought other people. Finally, Jericho fought Shawn Michaels in an awesome Wrestlemania match that got intensely personal and left room for a feud down the line. Jericho set his sights on the championship again and competed in the third Elimination Chamber match of his career (and the third one ever). Not satisfied with that, he invented the Money in the Bank ladder match even though he lost the very first one and has yet to win one. After feuding with John Cena he was kayfabe fired.
Eventually, he left the company to tour with his band Fozzy and explore new opportunities. I have come to love Fozzy and I really love Jericho’s vocals. Jericho is not a bad actor but he never really got a breakout role like The Rock got and his charisma in the ring never fully translated. So it was not a huge surprise when Jericho returned. He had left a heel but he came back a babyface and it was very refreshing. However, a pivotal moment in Jericho’s career came a little later. Jericho had taken acting classes and rubbed elbows with professional actors in his absence and now he had a lot of new ideas. He started to berate the audience and spoke in overly verbose promos where he removed a lot of what had made people love him before. In those days, he evolved from great performer and pretty good heel into an awesome heel. He wore suits and acted like the biggest jerk in the world. It was great.
Now? Well, Chris Jericho tried to be a babyface again but it is clear that he was just born to be an awesome heel. At his age, he was too goofy and hokey as a good guy. He came off less as a threat in the ring and more like that uncle you had who was in a band. He was dubbed Cool Dad by the fandom and, although he was still great, it was clear that he was just not clicking as much in that position. Finally, we got the heel turn we needed him to have. He embraced the darkness and went heel again by feuding with the “Phenomenal One” AJ Styles. Now, he is still one of my favorite parts of WWE Raw. He has embraced the role of the silly heel. He still kicks the crap out of babyfaces but he also throws fits, lies horribly and hurls childish insults at his opponents. While I know I take him for granted somewhat, he puts a smile on my face with his antics all the time. Lately, he has teamed with Kevin Owens and I can’t wait to see how that goes.
Why I Love Pro-Wrestling: Surprise!
December 15, 2015
Storylines in fiction are interesting machines. They’re born of teams of writers who are utilizing performers and other assets to the best of their ability. They try to take what’s in their head and match it with the mission statement set out by the creator or showrunner while appealing to a wider audience. With sports entertainment the writers are joined by the performers who have some input as to what their characters are and where their characters are going. This creative input varies from performer to performer and creates a sort of politics as people jockey for screen time.
Not only that, but talent can suddenly become unavailable due to real life injuries and writers are sent scrambling to change storylines. As with any other form of fiction, it’s hard to shock the audience in a real and organic way because most people’s minds consider the possibilities of what’s coming next. They also risk alienating fans by jarring them out of their comfort zone. I happen love those moments when the writers and performers can surprise me and make me wonder what could happen next.
How about some examples?
Seth Rollins Defects from the Shield
Speaking of injuries, Seth Rollins was a breakout star this year but that might not have happened without his shocking moment over a year ago. In May 2014 the Shield was a dominant force in the WWE as a tight knit trio who stood together as brothers. The group consisted of the “Lunatic Fringe” Dean Ambrose, “The Juggernaut” Roman Reigns and “The Architect” Seth Rollins. On June 1 2014 the Shield was engaged in a war with their boss’ team Evolution. The Shield and Evolution had absolutely destroyed each other to the point that Batista had even walked out. It was easy to see that Evolution would need to add another member to their ranks and there were plenty of candidates. Then June 2, 2014 rolled around. Triple H came out to the ring with a smirk on his face and, like a sleeper agent suddenly coming to life, Seth suddenly wailed on his ‘brothers’ with a steel chair. I remember actually yelling “No!” at my television screen.
The moment ended up being great for everyone involved. The Shield had been a tight unit and, as with any good tag team, it was hard for each member to have singles success while part of a group. Seth Rollins became The Authority’s pet wrestler and eventually held the World Heavyweight title and United States title at the same time while the bosses pulled the strings for him. Dean Ambrose got even crazier and became a common man hero character whereas before he had been an antagonist with a screw loose. Roman Reigns became a bonafide superhero and fan favorite and even though he’s a big, musclebound guy he makes a lot of waves as an underdog. Growth comes from change and sometimes change is most effective as a sudden shock.
Brock Lesnar Ends the Streak
In my previous Why I Love Pro-Wrestling post I went on at great length about the legend of the Undertaker and how much I’ve loved his story. While I didn’t go into minute detail, one thing I left out was The Streak. Wrestlemania has long been described as WWE’s equivalent of the NFL’s Superbowl. It’s a yearly event where they try to put out their biggest matches, often ending or shifting storylines into a different gear. Wrestlemania is also partly responsible for the advent of the sports entertainment payperview event to complement a company’s television offerings. The Undertaker fought in his first Wrestlemania match against the legendary “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka and the Undertaker won. After that, the Undertaker went on to win every Wrestlemania outing and usually with supernatural flair. Every year the legend grew and every year they teased an end to The Streak. After twenty Wrestlemania victories it was beginning to look like he would retire before losing at Wrestlemania. Enter Wrestlemania 30 and “The Beast” Brock Lesnar.
Brock Lesnar is a monster speciment who first made his splash after a very, very short NFL career which ended up being a single preseason in 2004. With his build and demeanor it always seemed to me that he was more well-suited to fight than to play ball. He took the WWE by storm at a time when it desperately needed fresh blood. He became a crossover star when he fought for real in UFC and then returned to WWE to fight in even more scripted combat. At Wrestlemania 30 he returned and defeated the Undertaker. That wasn’t the shocking happening because, as I said, Lesnar was such a ferocious beast. What shocked me was that Lesnar beat Undertaker so badly. The supernatural powers that the Undertaker drew upon were nothing against the onslaught and it really helped Lesnar’s career.
Chris Jericho is Beaten by Dean Malenko
World Championship Wrestling was a titanic wrestling company and, like most titanic wrestling companies, it had more talent than it could deal with. They hired Chris Irvine aka Jericho to a fairly lucrative contract but they apparently hadn’t thought much beyond that. At that time, WCW was getting a lot of mileage out of its cruiserweight division. The formula was that they would use the admittedly aging big names to draw in crowds and keep them entertained with young, talented performers who were relatively unknown. The formula worked. Stars like Hogan and Savage were putting on less than stellar matches while upstarts like Jericho, Mysterio, Benoit and Dean Malenko were lighting up the place. Cruiserweights like Jericho pretty much did what he want because as far as the writers were concerned, their storylines didn’t matter.
Jericho was the ultimate blowhard and after he had won the Cruiserweight title from Dean Malenko he ridiculed Malenko constantly. Dean was on the injured list so Jericho didn’t fear any reprisal. Week after week and Jericho retained his title by hook or by crook and continued to belittle Malenko who was a great talent. Finally there was a battle royal to come up with a challenger for Jericho’s title. The battle royal was hard fought as Jericho stood by and mocked all of the competitors. Finally it came down to Cyclope and Juventud Guerrera and then Juvy jumped out of the ring and eliminated himself. What the !? Jericho entered the ring to face his opponent which is when Cyclope unmasked and it was Dean Malenko. Dean proceeded to beat the tar out of Jericho for every mocking statement and it elevated both stars if only for a moment.
The Montreal Screwjob
Hold on, don’t yell at me yet. I know this one wasn’t exactly planned and written with everyone’s best interests at heart. The Monday Night Wars were a brutal and cutthroat time in sports entertainment history and a lot of people did things they can’t ever take back. Both WWF and WCW were in heated battle and were constantly poaching talent from each other. All sorts of shenanigans were happening. Madusa jumped ship and showed up on WCW and dumped her WWF title belt in a trash can on live television. Rick Rude showed up on live television on WCW while still showing up on taped WWF programming. Both companies were looking for every chance they could find to screw each other over using the performers as pawns. In the middle of all this, the WWF was in dire financial straits and was starting to fear the reaper.
Brett “The Hitman” Hart was the World Heavyweight Champion and he was riding high. He was highly skilled and his family name was (and is) one of the most respected names in sports entertainment. The WWF had promised and signed Hart to a contract worth millions of dollars and they no longer had those millions of dollars. Vince McMahon allowed Brett to check in with WCW to see if they could offer him a comparable deal to let the WWF off the hook. WCW was definitely interested so it came down to those involved to decide when Brett would lose his title. Out of fear that Brett would be convinced to leave the company with the title, Vince changed the end of Hart’s match with Shawn Michaels. He had the ref ring the bell and screw Brett, letting him leave the company on a bad note.
Vince wanted to gloss over the event and move on but the fans wouldn’t let it go. Eventually, the WWF embraced the momentum and Vince transformed into an evil boss character. When that character went up against the anti-hero Steve Austin, every put upon employee saw their greatest fantasy being played out. The feud (and a few other stoy lines) brought the WWF out of its financial slump and eventually led to them winning the Monday Night Wars. All on that one shocking event.
Why I Hate Pro-Wrestling
August 24, 2014Just kidding, I love it but there are some things I hate about it. Let’s talk about them from time to time. Shall we?
Dangerous Behavior
Last episode I talked about sports entertainers purposefully putting themselves in potentially career-ending or life-ending situations. This can be exciting and, in the right arena, it can mean a higher box office or ratings. (I exclude pay-per-view buyrates because under the current system they barely still exist.) I worry about the performers when they do this but I know that they plan these things out and should be alright as long as a mistake isn’t made.
The problem is that an accident isn’t the only way somebody can get hurt in or out of the ring. When a performer gets injured the industry suffers, the performer suffers and we all suffer. When Dolph Ziggler suffered a concussion he spent months recovering and all that time the company was down one talented performer. The same thing happened with Daniel Bryan’s ongoing neck surgeries. His momentum was killed and we’re left wondering when he’ll be back. That is if he returns at all.
Edge (Adam Copeland) had so many neck surgeries he had to retire in his late thirties but at least he was still walking. Darren Drozdov was injured and left in a wheelchair for life. Owen Hart fell several stories to his death in the middle of the ring because of a stunt gone wrong. The lists of performers goes on and on those are all just from accidents.
Performers can hurt each other or themselves for a multitude of reasons and none of them are good. I like my Pro-Wrestling more fake than real so that the performers that I enjoy get to have long, fruitful careers. Here are some of the horrible reasons that wrestlers get hurt besides accidents.
1: The performers are angry at each other in real life
Most performers seem to be alright with keeping their emotions in check while they are in the ring. Most of the time when performers hate each other, this sort of combat is done outside of the ring. The only way we hear about it is through rumors or years later when they do documentaries on it. It probably happens a lot more in the independent promotions where conditions are worse. Since it’s easier to get fired this way, most people seem to decide against scrapping backstage or just don’t report it. Besides, it’s embarassing for people to find out you lost a real fight.
Bret fought Shawn for real backstage and even ripped some of his hair out.
Jacques Rougeau punched Dynamite Kid’s Teeth out.
Blue Meanie was given a hellish blackeye by JBL.
2: Trying to prove their worth
Trying to hold onto your spot seems to be one of the hardest things to do in wrestling. The only thing harder is trying to get to a higher spot on the card. This causes young performers to try their hardest to nearly kill themselves for a shot at the big time. If they don’t get too injured it sometimes works…. unfortunately. When these tactics work, it encourages the next young guy or girl to nearly kill themself for their big break. It worked for the examples below but it probably did not for countless others you will never hear about.
Mick Foley took the Nestea plunge onto concrete
Chris Jericho wrestles with a broken arm
JT Smith intentionaly screwed up moves for attention (No video)
3: People working stiff
Some performers are known for “working stiff” which means that their strikes and maneuvers are done as real as possible. When they work this way means that they are actually laying into their opponent pretty much as hard as they can. Most of them do it because it looks better or because they want to test their opponent. This has a tendency to make the other person work stiff to keep from being steamrolled. This turns a fake fight into a real one really quickly. The business tends to give these guys a pass because they legitimize the product but it’s still dangerous.
Vader and Misawa being Stiff as Hell
Why I Love Pro-Wrestling: Bad Guys
May 18, 2014
Pro-wrestling can be stupid and it can be mindless and it can be all of the things that the stereotypes say it is. It can be these things but I watch it for the same reason that people keep watching long running shows Saturday Night Live or The Tonight Show. Is every episode golden? Probably not but when the show is on its game, it is on its game. That’s what wrestling is to me. I watch it for its potential on any given night to thrill me or give me something to complain about.
Yes, pro-wrestling is “fake”. Just about everybody on the planet knows that by now. Just about everybody on the planet should be at least vaguely familiar with the concept of suspension of disbelief. I appreciate Pro-Wrestling for its storylines, impressive athletics and showmanship.
Important Note: I’m looking for a term to replace Pro-Wrestling for my own use. My brother was an actual wrestler in middle school and high school. I respect the guys who wrestle in school, college and the Olympics. Pro-Wrestling is not an actual athletic contest even though it recquires actual athletic skill and it’s important to understand that. This is why I do not use the term “amateur wrestling” since it belittles a great sport.
Here’s reason one in what I love about Pro-Wrestling (in no particular order)
Bad Guy’s That You Love to Hate
I love it when a bad guy performs so well that I look forward to seeing them again. I love to hate them while somewhere in my head, I’m cheering the performer and writers. To further explain, here are some examples from outside of the world of Pro-Wrestling: Loki from Avengers, Logan from early Veronica Mars and Lindsey from Angel. Now for some Pro-Wrestling examples.
Mattias Clement must have watched a bit too much Zoolander because he debuted with a gimmick as a professional model who became a competitor for NXT. He takes endless “selfies” of himself before, after and sometimes during the match. He’s arrogant, obssesed with his looks and, to make it even worse, he wins matches. I mean, click the link above and tell me you don’t want to punch this guy in the face? That might not be a good idea since hitting him in the face puts him into a raging tantrum that actually helps him win. I like when his music hits because even if he wins, he is probably going to be hit in the face.
That’s 3 Man Band as their entrance theme makes clear. Heath Slater is a wannabe rock musician from down home in Atlanta. Jinder Mahal is a rich Indian from the Punjab region. Drew McIntyre is a brutal competitor from Scotland. Together, they form an annoying but entertaining band that plays no instruments and can’t sing. They lose just about every match they’re in but they are never boring. It is definitely fun to watch a group of guys who don’t realize that they are losers. They have nothing to back up their arrogance but that doesn’t stop them from believing they are the best around.
Aiden English is a character that I ran into during my career in the theater arts. A theater performer who thinks the world of himself. It’s not a stretch to say I have met this guy, in fact I can give you a list of names. Mr. English is, as implausible as it sounds, trying to launch a Broadway career through pro-wrestling. He thinks he’s the greatest performer and competitor the world has ever seen. His pale skin and the way he kind of hunches over makes him look like he is unsuited for both Broadway and NXT, where he currently wrestles. Still, he wins matches by being an underhanded opportunist. The theater nerd in me loves how he sings parodies of songs from musicals on the way to the ring (including a song from Dr. Horrible at one point).
Chris Jericho has gone through many different transformations but when he was a heel (bad guy) back in WCW he was so enjoyable. While most heels were cocky and cool and bragged about how they would beat the crap out of the good guy, Jericho went another way. He would still brag and boast and try to top everybody else. In a memorable segment, he countered Dean Malenko’s moniker of “The Man of 1000 Holds” by saying that he was the “Man of 1004 Holds” and then tried to list them all. However, when faced with a threat he would often cower and when he was beaten he would whine and cry and make excuses. He treated each and every promo like a comedy sketch and made the most of his camera time.
Wolf of Words 