Chris Jericho

Some Lesser Known Facts About Chris Jericho

• Does Chris Jericho smoke?: Yes

• Does Chris Jericho drink alcohol: Yes

• Chris Jericho’s first stint with the squared ring came not as a wrestler but as a ring crew member with the independent wrestling platform- Keystone Wrestling Alliance.

• Despite being born in the United States, Jericho is still billed as a Canadian wrestler. Notably, Ted Irvine, Jericho’s father, was an Ice-Hockey player who played for the New York Rangers. However, shortly after his birth, the old man retired and moved his family back to Canada, where Jericho was raised. Thus, Canada is Y2J’s home-country and not his birthplace.

• After spending a brief period as a ring crew, Jericho joined the Hart brothers’ school of wrestling at the age of 19. There, he met wrestler Lance Amstrong and the two extensively traveled across the globe, becoming part of many independent promotions in countries like Japan, Germany, Mexico, etc.

• In 1995, Jericho signed with Paul Heyman’s Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and ended up becoming the ECW Television Champion, twice. During this time, he caught the attention of his next employer, the now defunct WCW.

• After having spent 2 years with the WCW, the wrestler then joined the WWE in 1999 and since then has been a part of the promotion, though making sporadic appearances in the latter part of his career.

• The above-mentioned sporadic appearances have partly happened because of his musical career. Jericho is the lead singer of the rock band- ‘Fozzy’ and has to travel for live concerts/recordings every now and then. Notably, as of January 2017, Fozzy has six music albums and one live album to its name.

• Quite ironically, the lead singer was evicted from the singing reality show, Celebrity Duets (2006), in the very first episode itself. For those who do not know anything about the show, Celebrity Duets was a reality show, wherein accomplished singers were teamed up with not-so-popular/amateur singers to perform duets. Each week a team was eliminated until a winner was crowned.

• He participated in yet another reality show in 2012, this time, however, it was the popular dance reality show, Dancing With The Stars. There, Jericho was paired up with dancer, Cheryl Burke, who had been crowned the winner twice out of the 3 seasons she had participated in. Jericho was, quite expectedly, evicted in the 5th episode, thus ending up in the 7th position among a total of 11 teams.

• Both the WWE and its rival promotion TNA has used Fozzy’s music as the theme song for their PPV events. While the WWE used the song ‘Enemy’ from the band’s album ‘All That Remains’ as the theme for No Way Out (2005), TNA used the same song the following year for their Bound For Glory pay-per-view. In addition, Jericho himself made use of his band’s song, “Don’t You Wish You Were Me”, as his entrance theme in 2004.

• Aside from wrestling, singing, and dancing, Jericho has one more talent to boast off in his résumé, and that is hosting. He had hosted two TV shows, namely Downfall and Redemption Song during one of his hiatuses from pro-wrestling. However, both these shows proved to be a failure on the small screen; while ‘Downfall,’ a quiz based reality show could only manage five episodes, ‘Redemption Song,’ which seemed to be an amalgam of shows American Idol and The Bachelor, couldn’t garner good TV ratings. In addition, Jericho has been regularly featured on many of the VH1 countdown shows.

• Through his biography, Jericho claims that he is the real mind behind the creation of the Money in the Bank contract concept. However, interestingly, despite being the inventor of the idea, Jericho has never been able to pull-off the briefcase in as many as 5 MITB appearances.

• It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Jericho once carried a championship belt across four companies and three continents. In the early stages of his career, Jericho clinched the NWA Middleweight Championship in Mexico. After winning the title, Jericho carried and defended his belt in Germany, America, and Japan for 11 consecutive months, finally dropping it to wrestler Ultimo Dragon at the last destination of his tour. Therefore, in a nutshell, one can say that Jericho carried his title across four companies, in four countries in three continents.

• Chris Jericho is so far the only WWE superstar to have won both the Superstar of the Year (2008) and the Tag Team of the Year Slammy Award (2009).

• In an interview, he revealed that his ring name and his finisher name was inspired by a German Band’s album named “Walls of Jericho”.

• There are also some reports which suggest that Jericho has even served as a manager for wrestlers Wade Barrett and the Usos.

• Extremely fond of body ink, Jericho is usually seen sporting five tattoos, three of which are inked on his left arm. While he has tattooed his wife Jessica’s name on his ring finger, the letter F, on the back of his hand, stands for his band’s name- Fozzy!

• Jericho, along with former NFL Quarterback Tim Tebow and former Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones, is the proud owner of “D1 Sports Training and Therapy,” a sports training facility located in Florida.