For many fans when discussing who the greatest pro wrestler is in history many names such as Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, and The Rock get mentioned almost instantly. While the case may be true for some mentioned in a certain aspect of the business if we are talking about an all-around package its safe to say the money is firmly on Chris Jericho. Even early in Jericho’s career in 1997 where he wrestled for WCW and a brief 6-month excursion to NJPW, fans would very early on be shocked at the brilliance of Jericho with classic Cruiserweight bouts with Juventud Guerrera and Rey Mysterio. Following the much-deserved success and praise at times in WCW, Jericho would then go to the big leagues and join the then WWF, many superstars in the Attitude Era who had jumped ship from WCW would get a mediocre debut in WWF until one night on August 9th at RAW is WAR in Chicago, a millennial clock would count down to zero as The Rock would be in the ring cutting a promo on The Big Show, as the countdown finished and the lights went out, JERICHO, would appear on the titantron to one of wrestling’s biggest pops in the Attitude Era. To get such a high impact and memorable debut such as Jericho did, everyone could tell big things were in his future.

Throughout the Attitude Era, Jericho wouldn’t quite be in the main title picture but more so the Intercontinental title picture having countless classic matches with the likes of Kurt Angle, Chyna, and Chris Benoit. While many fans were thinking a Jericho World title win could be approaching fast, no one was prepared for Vengeance 2001 as Jericho would pull double duty, facing The Rock for the WCW Championship and Stone Cold Steve Austin for the WWF Championship, Jericho would actually make history pinning both Hall of Famers to become the first ever Undisputed Champion in WWF history and 4th overall grand slam champion under the original format. While The Rock vs Hulk Hogan would outshine every match on the WrestleMania 18 card, the nod was still given to Jericho and Triple H to be the last match on the show and the true main event, despite losing to HHH Jericho would get his WrestleMania main event just a mere 3 years into the company. For the next 2-3 years (2003-05) despite continuously putting on a show every night and great matches and rivalries with Christian and John Cena, Jericho would get burned out and would take a brief time away from wrestling to pursue other avenues he enjoyed such as his rock band, Fozzy.

After returning in 2007 and breaking another WWE record in capturing his then 8th Intercontinental title reign, one of the greatest strengths of Jericho would come to the forefront in his feud with Shawn Michaels in April 2008, what was meant to be a brief one and done type match for the two turned into a 6 month iconic feud including memorable spots like Jericho punching Shawn’s wife accidentally and the great World Heavyweight title ladder match at No Mercy 2008 cementing this feud as one of the best wrestling feuds ever. Following that Jericho would go on to be a dual tag team champions with Big Show and have a show-stealing feud with Cm Punk at Wrestlemania 2012 and the following years WrestleMania, 2013, would show another of Jericho’s greatest abilities by giving a newcomer, Fandango, a huge moment at Mania by pinning him.

The true magic Jericho possesses is his ability to just about get every single thing he touches over with the crowd, whether it be the bizarre amount of scarfs he would wear to the ring, his countless catchphrases and even his most recent, list of Jericho. When an artist only has to look at a clipboard to get every fan on their feet laughing and cheering is truly a talent only the best of the best can get, even taking the crowd on a 6 month best friend journey with Kevin Owens despite being heels made the two one of the most over duos in the company which all culminated to one episode of RAW in Vegas on February 13, 2017 in which before Owens would defend the Universal Title against Goldberg, Jericho would want to show his appreciation to Owens with a festival of friendship. Everything went smoothly as Jericho would give Owens his own painting of the two of them and even a spoof actor trying to play Goldberg, everything would take a quick turn as Owens would reveal he had a present for Jericho as well, and thus began one of the biggest heart-wrenching moments and lines in wrestling today, Owens would get Jericho his own list but as Jericho would look at the list he would say ‘Why is my name on this list?’ as Owens would then viciously attack him setting up a beautiful angle and match to take place at Wrestlemania that year.

Now we get to what really makes Jericho the standout he is, November 5th, 2017, after Kenny Omega had just competed in a match in New Japan Pro Wrestling when all of a sudden a vignette would play on the screen, Chris Jericho would appear with a picture of Kenny Omega in hand, challenging him to a match at the following years WrestleKingdom as he tore the picture in half. Jericho set the wrestling world on fire with this new adventure he was on by jumping on the NJPW hype train that was rolling through the universe. Jericho and Omega would steal that year’s WK show by putting on a brutal and classic NODQ US Title match. After Omega would win many fans would think what’s next for Jericho? Until the very next night at NJPW’s New Year Dash, a show for New Japan in which new storylines are weaved in for the next year, as NJPW IC champion, Tetsuya Naito, would celebrate a victory in the ring, a masked man would appear and attack him to the gasp of the audience, the mask was pulled down to reveal Chris Jericho as the attacker and setting up a future title bout between the two, another night Jericho would set the world on fire. In June of this year at Dominion, the two would come head to head for the Intercontinental title, after many counters and the hard-hitting offense of moves from both competitors, Chris Jericho would shock everyone as he captured the IC title. Throughout the summer this year Jericho would continue to spark the buzz around independent wrestling as he revealed on his podcast, Talk is Jericho, that he had pitched an idea that was turned down by Vince McMahon in which Jericho would return to WWE with NJPW’s IC Title and challenge WWE’s own IC Champion, Seth Rollins, for a champion v champion match at Summerslam, fans then could see just how in-tune Jericho really was for creating monumental moments and buzz in this era of pro wrestling. Despite being turned down by Vince, Jericho would go against a previous statement he had made in which he said ‘i will never work for an American promotion because its disrespectful to Vince’ as he would appear as a masked Pentagon Junior at this year’s groundbreaking PPV ALL IN, once again attacking Kenny Omega and setting up a future bout at his very own wrestling themed cruise taking place in October.

So what makes Chris Jericho the goat of professional wrestling? Its a combination of a lot of things including, his ability to continuously re-invent himself and his character, his success in just about every promotion and angle, his classic feuds, an unselfish attitude to help rising stars, his underrated mic work and continuing longevity all throughout his career, its no question that wherever Jericho goes, the buzz and wrestling world follows him.

Is Jericho the GOAT of pro wrestling? If not who is? Comment below!