The 8-Ball 1.13.12: Top 8 Chris Jericho Matches

Before we begin, I would like to, as I always do, make it clear that this is a personal list based on my opinions. Everyone has different opinions. That is what makes pro wrestling fans so interesting. Almost no two fans like the same exact things. So enjoy this edition of The 8-Ball where we look at some of Chris Jericho’s greatest matches.

The 8-Ball is back and, in the words of Y2J, the World will never-eeeevvvveerrrr….be the same again!

In the past decade it is hard to think of too many wrestlers in the WWE who have been as interesting as Chris Jericho. He became the first Undisputed WWE Champion, he is a 9 time Intercontinental Champion, and he has been having some of the best matches and programs with just about anyone the WWE puts him in the ring with for over ten years now. Plus, they guy is always reinventing himself and in his wake he leaves dozens of copy cats trying to pull off similar gimmicks.

Chris Jericho started out his career being trained by the Hart family. He then proceeded to wrestler all over the World. He wrestled in the NWA, in Japan, in Mexico, and even made a pit stop in a little company known as ECW. Until 1997 when Jericho found a home in WCW’s cruiserweight division were he made a name for himself.

In 2000 Jericho had one of the most memorable debuts in WWE history during one of Rock’s promos and his amazing debut was a sign of many other great things to come.

So with Chris Jericho returning to the WWE (again) I thought I would take a look at some of his greatest matches. Now it was difficult to pick out the best matches of a guy who has had so many brilliant encounters with some of the best wrestlers ever, but based on my personal opinion these are some of Y2J’s greatest outings. I can’t wait to see how his return pans out. I still have my fingers crossed for a match between CM Punk and Jericho at Wrestlemania so we can see who the real “Best in the World” is.

So join me again as we peer back into the 8-Ball to look at some of Chris Jericho’s greatest matches.

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The 8 Greatest Matches of “Y2J” Chris Jericho

Honorable Mention: Chris Jericho vs. The Rock (WWE Royal Rumble 2002)

This match took place not long after the dreadful Invasion angle had finally ended and a month after Chris Jericho defeated The Rock/Steve Austin in one night at WWE Vengeance to become the first ever WWE Undisputed Champion. Jericho was still trying to build creditability as a champion so I suppose by putting him in the ring with The Rock on pay-per-view they were trying to put him over, but I don’t think they really succeeded in that.

While he may never have really been a good champion in this run he still put on what I consider to be one of the best Royal Rumble matches in the history of the event. The two had a great back and forth match that was plagued with run-ins, knocked out referees, and a finish which saw Jericho use the ropes to win. Now in most cases I’m okay with a heel using cheap means to win, but in this case I think it took away from the match which is why it missed out of The 8 Ball.

My problem is that Jericho beat The Rock via underhanded means only a month earlier when he won the titles at Vengeance. So I thought this was a case where the match would have gotten a lot more attention had Jericho been put over clean. I also think Jericho, himself, would have benefited from it a lot more. Crappy booking aside, this was a really entertaining match. I think “Y2J” and “The Great One” had way more chemistry in the ring than anyone gives them credit for.

#8: Chris Jericho vs. Eddie Guerrero (WCW Fall Brawl 1997)

The opening match of Fall Brawl 1997 is also the first match on this edition of the 8-Ball.

This was Eddie Guerrero’s rematch from a match he had with Chris Jericho from the final Clash of the Champions event. The match was all about the WCW Cruiserweight Championship. I find it odd that Jericho was playing the babyface and Guerrero was playing the heel as both or more notable for portraying the opposite persona.

The entire match moves at a very fast pace as you can imagine a cruiserweight match might. However, you can always see shades of Jericho’s tutorage from the Hart’s as he often kept Guerrero on the mat.

Eddie spent much of the match trying to build an offense against Jericho’s mat based strategy which he employed during much of this title defense. Every time Guerrero got out of a hold and began to get some offense in Jericho would ground him. Guerrero and Jericho at this point in their careers represented the two different types of cruiserweight wrestlers. In this match Chris Jericho primarily wrestled a mat based game and Guerrero used many high impact aerial moves as he tried to capture the title. However, both men have been known to use both styles prominently throughout their careers.

The match really represents the potential that WCW had. They had access to great talent, but never managed to make their most talented performers “stars”. The cruiserweight division in WCW is probably the greatest thing WCW ever accomplished. This division would go on to birth several future WWE World Champions like Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Chris Benoit, and yes even “Y2J” Chris Jericho.

In the end Guerrero won the Cruiserweight Championship with the Frog Splash in what is truly one of Chris Jericho’s hidden gems. This was such an entertaining match.

Eddie Guerrero won the match and his victory set up the infamous Mask vs. Title match between himself and Rey Mysterio Jr. at Halloween Havoc a few months later. Years have passed and both Jericho and Guerrero would go on to become World Champions and two of wrestling’s most popular stars.

#7: Chris Jericho vs. Christian (WWE Unforgiven 2004)

This match had been brewing for a long time. Jericho and Christian had gone from being tag team partners to mortal enemies in the course of just a few months. After months of fighting, Jericho injured Christian’s back in a steal cage match on Monday Night Raw.

While Christian was away an injured Edge, the reigning Intercontinental Champion, promised “Y2J” a title match as soon as he, the future “Rated R Superstar,” was cleared to wrestle. However things soon changed and Edge was stripped of the title due to the fact he could not defend the title. As fate would have it Christian came around the same time demanding he be crowned the new champion. Jericho happily disagreed with the man who he had unfinished business with, “Captain Charisma.” So we got a ladder match to decide the title’s fate.

The match took place on what was a very lackluster pay per view and really stole the show in my eyes. What I love about ladder matches, especially good ones, is that most of the time you forget what the opponents are fighting over. You become more interested in seeing what the next move will be or how the grounded opponent will stop the person from ascending the ladder to win. To me it is one of the best gimmick matches at building tension.

Jericho walked away the winner with his 7th title reign as Intercontinental Champion after a nearly 25 minute match. In all honesty I could have watched the two Canadians go at it for another 25 minutes.

#6: Chris Jericho vs. Dean Malenko (WCW Uncensored 1998)

The long feud between Jericho and Malenko stemmed from Jericho claiming he was a better wrestler than him but the kicker was that “Y2J” refused to have a match with Malenko. This finally lead to Jericho defending his title against him at the 1998 pay per view; WCW Uncensored. This match is another one of Jericho’s hidden gems from his days in WCW’s Cruiserweight division. I say hidden gems, but in all reality I’m sure most fans who were watching WCW at the time would not consider this match “hidden” at all. Anyways, he was wrestling the man I consider to be the greatest cruiserweight wrestler of all time for what I consider the most prestigious titles in WCW history. I mean think about it…who would want a belt held by David Arquette? If I were in WCW I’d want the Cruiserweight Championship.

The early going of the match saw each man trying to wear down the other with submission moves until about five minutes into the match when Jericho attempted to leave the arena and lose the match, but retain his title. Malenko broke the count as Jericho decided to come back to the ring.

Jericho did a good job of out wrestling one of WCW’s top mat wrestlers at the time and continued to keep Malenko from gaining any momentum.

The pace of the match continued to increase as Jericho stayed in control for a majority of the contest until the final moments of the match were it looked like Malenko was going to sneak out a victory, but Jericho caught the “Man of 1,000 Holds” in a hold of his own, The Lion Tamer, and retained his Cruiserweight Championship in a long forgotten, but brilliant, match.

#5: Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (WWE Wrestlemania XIX)

I have watched TONS of Chris Jericho matches while writing this article, more than you could imagine, and I knew this match would make it somewhere on my countdown. I have always enjoyed this match and after watching it again I was shocked when I realized that this match is almost a decade old. It felt like it could have occurred just yesterday.

The early moments of the match featured a wide array of back and forth wrestling. You could tell the two were trying to wrestle a similar game. The match was really entertaining to watch as Jericho played off the WWE fan’s knowledge that HBK had a surgically repaired back that was supposed to have ended his career. He spent almost the entire time working on his back which made perfect sense from a story perspective. The last half of the match was really the most suspenseful and entertaining as the entire crowd at Safeco Field made this match feel like the main event for a WWE Championship.

The interesting thing is that the match happened because the storyline was that Chris Jericho wanted to step out of HBK’s shadow which set the seed for a angle HBK/Y2J would have years later in 2008. Maybe that is why their 2008 feud was so good. The fans already knew of Jericho’s dislike and hatred of Shawn and his jealously of HBK’s career. Sorry, that was just a though. Take it as a grain of salt if you disagree.

Anyways, Jericho may have played the heel here, but after awhile you can tell the fans stopped caring about who was the heel and babyface and started to care more about the match itself. That is when you can tell a match is really good. When you start to enjoy the wrestlers actual wrestling instead of actually caring about who wins you know a match is special. In the end Jericho’s own frustration got the best of him and Michaels got the win with a roll-up to end what is considered by me his very best outing at a Wrestlemania to date. After the match we got the infamous hand shake that turned into a kick to the groin for HBK. Of course the “The King of the World” had to have the last word.

A night that was supposed to be remembered for matches like McMahon/Hogan, Austin/Rock III, and Angle/Lesnar it seemed, and even to this day, that Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels “stole the show” as they say. While Angle and Lesnar’s match is still considered one of Wrestlemania’s best matches in recent memory, when you mention Wrestlemania XIX to someone HBK and Y2J’s battle is more often than not the first match people want to talk about. At least it is from my experiences anyways. I think that says a lot.

#4: Chris Jericho vs. Triple H (WWE Fully Loaded 2000)

One of Chris Jericho’s first opportunities to “dance” in the main event was also only the second last man standing match in WWE history. The match, which took place in Dallas Texas, was supposed to be the big blow off from a feud that steamed from “Y2J’ mocking Triple H’s new wife Stephanie McMahon, even calling her a “bottom feeding hoe.” The match ended up being very, very brutal as I’m sure you can tell from the photo above.

“The Game” dominated almost the entire first half of the contest giving Jericho almost no offense at all due to the fact that he had walked into the match already injured. I think this was one of Chris Jericho’s first chances to wrestle with “the big boys” so they wanted to create the illusion that Jericho was a bit outmatched and made it seem like he had to struggle to get an upper hand. I think this helped the match tell a story. Jericho did a great job playing the underdog in this match, which is role I have a hard time seeing him, play being that he played such an effective heel in his last run with the WWE.

While Triple H may have been in control in the beginning towards the half way point in the contest Jericho found his rhythm and began to create some offense. Jericho never got to stay in control of the match long as the entire match followed the pattern of Jericho struggling to keep up with “The Game”. This was also during the time when Triple H was having some of the best matches that he would ever have. During this time it seemed that PPV match after PPV match would go on to be one of the classics of his career. This match with Jericho is not different, in my opinion.

In the end Jericho lost the match just barely after both men went through an announce table. While Triple H walked away with the win, Jericho would leave the match proving that he could indeed hang with the best WWE had to offer.

#3: Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio (WWE The Bash 2009)

I’m sure that I will get tons of comments saying that I ranked this match too high and that it is overrated because of all the praise it got a few years ago, but I think this match is truly brilliant and one of Chris’s most entertaining matches ever. I’ve seen their matches from WCW, but for me this one is far better and I think it has a lot to do with the story behind this feud. Jericho played the heel role beautifully here as he tried to unmask Mysterio by putting his Intercontinental Championship on the line.

Chris dominated most of the early going as most of Rey’s early high risk moves don’t pay off. The rest of the match was Rey trying almost every high risk move to keep Jericho from holding him to the mat in submission maneuvers. I think that is what makes this match so good to me. I love the dynamic of submission based wrestling countering the high flying style. Jericho and Mysterio clashed in their styles of wrestling and it made the match very interesting. Chris Jericho really brought out the best in Rey Mysterio as every time they worked together in the ring Rey seems extremely motivated and tried moves he doesn’t usually use in the ring anymore. It seemed like he felt very comfortable and secure in the ring with Chris.

Jericho lost the match and his record setting 9th Intercontinental Championship to Rey that night. The series of matches Rey had with Jericho made Mysterio relevant again in a lot of ways.

Rey had been battling injures for the past few years and always seemed to get hurt just as he started to build momentum. However this time Mysterio managed to keep it and went on to hold the World Heavyweight Champion on Smackdown the following year.

It is curious that one of “Y2J’s” greatest matches of all time is a match that did less for his career than it did for his opponent. When Jericho was drafted to Smackdown in 2009 he had his pick of people to work with and he chose Rey over other names like The Undertaker and Edge. I think it was because he knew what Rey was capable of in the ring under the right conditions. They really complemented each other nicely in the ring, and this was another great storyline involving “Y2J.”

#2: Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit (WWE Royal Rumble 2001)

This match occurred in one of the last years were the Intercontinental Championship actually meant anything. Don’t believe me? How about this fact; the last time the Intercontinental Championship was defended at a Wrestlemania (besides the laughable 25 second match from JBL and Rey Mysterio a couple of years ago which I’m refusing to acknowledge) was at Wrestlemania 18. That was a decade ago!

The two Canadians spent the first five minutes or so actually wrestling. Most ladder matches start out with one opponent getting knocked out and the other bringing in a ladder. However, this match played a little differently than most ladder matches.

Benoit and Jericho played this match very smart. They made it apparent to the viewer that they wanted to make sure their opponent was fully incapacitated before they climbed the ladder. Which seems like what should happen in every ladder match, but this is not usually the case. Regardless, this made the fans more interested in the actual wrestling instead of who could get up the ladder the fastest. It was actually a very smart way to wrestle a ladder match. Some credit should go to J.R. and Jerry Lawler for pointing this out to the viewers.

Even though they actually wrestle in the first few minutes of this match there are tons of brutal moments in this match. In the middle of the match Jericho was on the outside and as Benoit flew through the ropes to attempt a suicide dive on Y2J he got hit in the head with a steel chair before he even touched the ground. That was such an awesome moment and this match is full of stuff like that.

It seems that it is very rare now days that we get a feud over the Intercontinental Championship. We get feuds involving the Intercontinental Championship, but it is rare we get a feud that is over the title itself.

At any rate this is one of the greatest matches of the 21st Century and certainly one of the greatest ladder matches of all time. By the way this isn’t even Jericho’s best ladder match in my opinion so that should speak volumes about his greatest ladder match, which you will see up next.

The match ends with Jericho winning the Intercontinental title for the 4th time and perhaps without him knowing it at the time he ended one of his greatest matches standing on top of a ladder.

#1: Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (WWE No Mercy 2008)

How odd that three of Chris Jericho’s greatest matches turned out to be ladder matches. If someone didn’t know any better they might assume that Chris Jericho was a “ladder match specialist”. I think Jericho is just very versatile in his style of wrestling. The fact that a few of his best matches are ladder matches just speaks volumes about how good he is. Jericho has always been considered a mat wrestler and for a mat wrestler to have three excellent ladder matches means that he is much more than what people perceive him as. Chris is much more than a mat wrestler. He is one of those special talents in the wrestling business that can have a five star match no matter what the conditions. Very much like his opponent in what I consider to be his greatest match of all time, Shawn Michaels.

Michaels and Jericho had been having what many called (myself included) the feud of the decade with some of the best writing and promo work involving the two athletes in a long time. Jericho was on a mission to step out of the shadow of Shawn Michaels and basically end his career and spit on his legacy. After injuring Shawn’s eye at the Great American Bash and punching his wife at Summer Slam, HBK became a different person. He had a mission to. It was all about revenge. At Unforgiven the two had an “Unsanctioned Match” in which Shawn finally got a measure of revenge. However, the story didn’t end there. Later that night Jericho won The World Heavyweight Championship.

So after months and month of amazing matches, promos, and writing we finally got the blow off match to one of the greatest things to happen in the WWE in a very long time and it happened to be in a match the two men knew very well, a ladder match.

Many people say the ladder match has been taken as far as it can go. Many people on the internet and elsewhere think that nothing more innovative can be done with the ladder. Well if this is true Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho sure did there damndest to try and prove them wrong.

Many people talk about ladder matches being “spot fests”. I assume they mean the match is dumb and has no thought or story. If that is so then this match is the smartest ladder match I have ever seen.

I agree with them to some extent. The best ladder matches are the ones were you forget about the ladder and are more worried about the actual story. Jericho and Michaels do this and also pull off huge spots, but you never feel like you’re watching a “spot fest”. They use the ladder in an effective and smart manner every time the abuse each other with it.

When I was watching this match live, and even before, I knew it had potential be one of Jericho’s best matches, but I didn’t think it would end up being the match of his career, but to me that is exactly what it became. Not only that, but I believe his feud with Michaels will be the highlight of “Y2J’s” career.

At the end of the match after Jericho won you can hear Michael Cole say “Jericho claimed winning this match up would allow him to take his place as one of the greatest champions ever.” I don’t think Jericho will be remembered as one of the greatest World Champions of all time. However, I do think Jericho will be remembered as one of the greatest pro wrestlers of all time and this match truly solidified that fact for a lot of people. To me I think being remembered as one of the greatest performers of all time is much greater of a compliment than being remembered as one of the greatest champions.

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Since I have a little extra time this week I thought I’d reply to a couple of comments from you guys.

From Rich,
“No Savage dies?”

I had it listed as an honorable mention, but I was so busy last week that I was not able to finish it. It was a huge loss and I hate that we will never get to see him again. It would have been so gratifying to be able to see him accept his WWE Hall of Fame induction or even return in some fashion to the WWE, but we will never see that. I thought it was a huge moment of 2011, and Savage is one of the first big legends of the 1980s era to die. It must really resonate more with fans who were kids during his time in the WWE. Anyways, sorry I didn’t have the time to give him the mention he truly deserved. There will never be another “Macho Man” Randy Savage…

From Ron Mexico,
“The only moment that you left off which I would have included was Mark Henry winning the World title. Sure, he’s not the best wrestler but his dedication and improvement was admirable.”

To me Mark Henry’s rise to the World Heavyweight Championship does not really count as a “moment” because it was more of a slow burn, and while I think it is great to see Henry achieving success, no one moment of his fantastic 2011 really stuck out to me. Either way, I hope they keep Henry at the level he is at.

From Guest #2514,
“Interesting that this list has 7 great WWE moments and only 1 TNA moment, and the TNA moment is only memorable because of how bad it was. I’m sure many people will accuse you of bias, but I would have no problem believing that TNA really was devoid of any truly ‘great’ moments this year… and any great moments that they did have (ie. [Blank] makes his return) would have been ruined by the booking.”

As I said in last weeks column, to me the incident at TNA Victory Road just left a dark cloud over their entire 2011 for me. I nearly included Storm and Roode’s Championship wins as a tie at number eight, but I couldn’t help but feel like that it just didn’t even compare to all the attention that the Sting/Hardy match got. So sorry if you feel like I snubbed TNA again in this column. I did enjoy some of TNA’s stuff this year, but as a whole their 2011 was pretty terrible so i thought I would echo that by featuring only the low point of the company’s year.

From Guest #3455,
“The Rock comming back is the biggest moment of the past decade. It also attracted 3 times as much publicity as the CM Punk angle. And that is just something that overrated flash in the pan, ratings disaster of a champion, jealous little bitch will have to deal with. He will never be on the same leavel as The Rock, he is not even on same level as Cena.”

1.) Yes The Rock coming back was a huge moment, but after he made his return my interest in him waned. I was not a big fan of his participation in Wrestlemania either. I marked out like a 6 year old when he made his return promo don’t get me wrong, but to me Punk’s moment was so much more gratifying. 2.) You guys need to stop thinking that McMahon picks his champion based on what his ratings are. John Cena is on the show regardless of whether or not he is holding the belt, so if the ratings are down its not Punk’s fault, its not Del Rio’s fault. Yes the product that is on TV has an effect on ratings, but to me it’s McMahon and his marketing/advertising committee’s fault is the ratings are not up to snuff.

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Well that is all I have for the 4th edition of The 8-Ball. Be sure to come back next Thursday for the 5th edition. Also take a look around the rest of 411mania for other great articles. Have a great week, guys!