Featured Article: Chris Jericho

Breaking Down the Walls

Success can be measured in many ways. For some, it’s how much money you make. For others, it’s simply being happy with yourself and your situation. Chris Jericho was already happy with himself, but his situation was another story.

As he faced his own personal fork in the road, Jericho knew he had to make a decision. Should he accept a big-money contract to stay with World Championship Wrestling (WCW), or take a chance and join the World Wrestling Federation in his quest for self-satisfaction?

It’s been over a year now since Chris Jericho debuted on Raw is War. And as Jericho looks back on that memorable Monday night in Chicago some fourteen months ago, he shudders to think that he once had second thoughts about jumping ship.

“Coming to the World Wrestling Federation was the greatest move I ever made for my career,” says Jericho. “It’s the best wrestling company I’ve ever worked for, and I’ve worked for pretty much all the companies all over the world. I have a long way to go, but I’m a million times better now than I was when I first walked through the doors on August 9, 1999. I can’t believe now that there was ever any question in my mind whether I should come here.”

Jericho didn’t want to rush into his decision for fear of making the wrong choice. He spent many long hours seeking good advice on what to do. After searching himself, Jericho called on friends – both inside and outside the sports-entertainment business. He called on family members. But when push came to shove, he called on someone who’d been in his corner all the time, his father. As Ted Irvin remembers that conversation, he knew that his son was doing the right thing.

“Chris is a very strong-willed young man, and has been since his teens,” says Irvine. “We talked quite a bit about that decision, the reasons, the pros and the cons. He did appreciate what WCW had done for him, but he also felt there were some things for his own personal growth, that he didn’t know if he’d be allowed to do the way he wanted to. He felt that the World Wrestling Federation would give him the opportunity that he saw was a long-term benefit to him.”

To say he made the right choice would be an understatement. Week in and week out, his role in the Federation grows in prominence and importance. He’s held the Intercontinental and European Championships. He’s been involved in angles with some of the Federation’s biggest stars, including The Rock, Triple H and Chyna. But even more important than the confidence the Federation has shown in him as one of its premier young Superstars is the fact that Chris Jericho is happy.

“I wanted to come here and make an impact,” says Jericho. “I did that. Then, my dream was to become the Intercontinental Champion. I’ve done that twice. I wanted to be the World Champion. For twenty minutes, I achieved that,” he laughs. “When the tide started changing, and people started to like my character, I became a babyface, a good guy. I wanted people to be entertained when they came to the arena. I’ve achieved that.”

His accomplishments have not been missed by his father, either. Irvine saw that his young son had a dream. And as he watches him on TV each week, he is filled with a father’s pride.

“He thought he could do it,” says Irvine. “He worked very hard. Where he’s at right now is just astronomical. He started nowhere and wrestled for next to nothing. I’m proud of his tenaciousness, that he stuck with something which at first didn’t seem to be a heck of a career. That’s where my pride in Chris comes from.”

Things are indeed going well these days for “Y2J.” Nevertheless, he feels far from complete, and is yet to be satisfied. Jericho is a bit of a perfectionist, and he’s always thinking of ways to improve.

“You have to always be trying to get better,” Jericho says. “As far as my interviews, I want to constantly keep them fresh so it’s not the same thing. I don’t want...to ever get stagnant, to ever get boring. I always have to stay on my toes to improve on myself. Because if I ever sit back and thin, ‘Ah, this is perfect. I’ve got it,’ then that’s when you start to lose it.

“I’m constantly watching the guys who’ve been here longer than me and who are higher up in the food chain,” he goes on. “I don’t know if that’s the right word, but guys I respect, like the Undertaker, Triple H, Steve Austin or The Rock. Just to watch how they do things and to see how they react to certain situations, that’s what makes you better – from watching the guys who have been around longer than you and adapting your style to fit what they know.”

Measuring by crowd reaction alone, Jericho’s studies are getting him high marks with the fans. He’s one of the most popular Superstars in the Federation. And in stark contract to his brash, arrogant and smart-mouthed in-ring persona, Chris Jericho is one of the most humble Superstars behind the scenes.

Once the cameras are turned off and the mic is out of his hands, the least-likely side of “Y2J” one would expect to find is that of a devout Christian with a great love of music, a sports-entertainer who laments the fact that he can’t devote as much time as he’d like to charity because of his hectic schedule. But that’s what you get with Jericho, recently named Manitoba’s Sexiest Man by a newspaper in that Canadian province.

“I wanted to be either a wrestler, a pro hockey player, or be in my own [rock] band,” says Jericho. “There was a genre called Christian heavy metal. I wanted to be in a Christian heavy metal band. I thought that was cool. [My faith] is very important. I don’t think I could’ve gotten this far or survived this long in this business if I didn’t have the beliefs that I have.”

And just as dear to Jericho as his faith is his total love of music. As a kid he was a huge fan of ‘50s and ‘60s rock ‘n’ roll, including Elvis Presley, The Beach Boys and The Beatles. The young Jericho would often mimic those artists for his parents.

“I remember when I was younger I used to perform concerts for my parents,” says Jericho. “I think a lot of people did. I pretended I was in The Beach Boys. I’ve always enjoyed being a performer, a ham.”

As he entered high school, Jericho’s musical talents became more contemporary. After buying an Ozzy Osbourne album, a new “metalhead” was born. By 1984, his interest in heavy metal music was so pronounced that Jericho started his own band, in which he did everything from playing both bass and lead guitars to singing and playing the drums. As Jericho recalls, stereotypical garage bands were no strangers to him.

“I was in a bunch of garage bands. Once was called Primitive Means,” says Jericho. “That was kind of a punk-metal band. Another was called Semitar. We played heavy metal stuff. I was also in a disco-metal band called the B.T.W.F. Orchestra. That was cool. So I’ve been playing in bands. Even when I got into wrestling, I still played.”

“I was influenced by Iron Maiden, Metallica, the heavier bands,” he continues. “Those were the bands that I really enjoyed. And I really liked Ozzy. [Bands like Poison and Cinderella] were a little bit to “poppy” for me. I was always into the heavier stuff; ‘power metal’ is what it’s called. Actually, I can still play almost every song by those bands up until 1988.”

Though Jericho remembers those days of banging drums and blaring guitars with nostalgia, it’s a bit of a different tune for his father. Used to creating noise of a different sort during his 13 years as a left wing in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Boston Bruins, Los Angeles Kings, St. Louis Blues and New York Rangers, Ted Irvine saw it as nothing more than a racket.

“Well, with the music, like every parent, some of the music he listened to I still don’t understand,” Irvine laughs. “His friends loved music. They won contests and contributed to the high school dances. We’d always tell them to quiet down. Thankfully, now he doesn’t do it at the house anymore; they’ve got other places to play. You always tell your kids to tone it down, but they loved to do it. So it was better to have them in the basement practicing than out on the streets.”

As he moved into college and his course load began to pick up, Jericho’s music-playing days in the Irine home began to wane. Although the times when he would play in his bands (others of which included Mr. Filthy, Blacstone Menace and Great Caesar’s Ghost) decreased as more and more attention became directed at the world of sports-entertainment – they didn’t totally end. It was just a matter of reshuffling his priorities.

Having played hockey all his life, Jericho was used to being an athlete, even more so than being a musician. In addition to spending time on the pond, Jericho was also an all-star water polo goalie in high school. So with musical ambitions temporarily on hold, Jericho decided to capitalize on his athletic prowess and set out to become a sports-entertainer.

“I gave up on the whole rock star ideal 10, 12 years ago when I decided I wanted to be a wrestler,” says Jericho. “It’s kind of the best of both worlds. You have the performing, especially our shows. The World Wrestling Federation is more of a rock show than rock shows are nowadays. There’s more pyro and excitement [and] guys with long hair than if you went to a Pearl Jam show. There’s a definite parallel between [the lives of a sports-entertainer and a rock star]. We see a different town every night. We’re out there entertaining the fans, entertaining the people.”

“I still love what I do. I love wrestling,” he continues. “Right now, it’s a fun thought, the music business, because it’s something different. But I’m not going to be so egotistical as to think I can do it better than I do wrestling, or that I can even do it well. But I would love to have fun and give it a try. Right now, and hopefully for the next 10 years or so, wrestling will be what I do. That’s my priority first and foremost, because that’s what I love to do best.”

Put a microphone in Chris Jericho’s hands and he’s sure to get a rise out of you. As an only child, he’s had lots of experience seeking out attention. But whereas some talkative people really have nothing to say, with “Y2J” it’s the complete opposite. Fans and fellow workers alike marvel at what the self-proclaimed “Ayatollah of Rock ‘n’ Roll-a” will say next. Some think that he’s so good at what he does it’s hard to tell when he’s in character or out. But either way, Chris Jericho has only one thing in mind – sheer entertainment.

“Whether it’s as a good guy or a bad guy,” Jericho continues, “either way, as long as every single night when I finish performing, people in the arena say, ‘I had a good time tonight, and Chris Jericho was entertaining.’ That’s my biggest expectation. Champion or no champion, the most important thing is to be entertaining. That’s my number one, most important goal.”

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