10 Reasons Why Chris Jericho’s Post-WWE Run Is His Best Ever
The Alpha. The Painmaker. The Champion.
This isn't a sequel. Not entirely, anyway.
When Chris Jericho left WWE for what most assumed to be another tour-based sabbatical in 2017, he walked away from a run few saw coming when it commenced rather unremarkably a year or so earlier. A busted babyface flush, his heel turn on AJ Styles was a passable welcome-to-the-company programme for the 'Phenomenal One', but was also one of the first to expose WWE's inability to deliver upon dream matches within their rigid and frigid formula. A follow-up series with Dean Ambrose was actively disastrous for both. Sad clowns, both 'Y2J' and 'The Lunatic Fringe' were cast as opposing idiots intent only on destroying each other when they'd finished destroying jackets, pot plants and other assorted props. The 'Ambrose Asylum' steel cage payoff was so f*cking wretched that people used it as a stick to beat TakeOver: Toronto's divisive Adam Cole/Johnny Gargano main event with.
As noted, Jericho's tenure was transformed by his relationship with Kevin Owens and everything it yielded during that time. The celebrated Festival Of Friendship was just one of several career highs from a spectacular relationship spawned out of weekly attempts to pop each other on camera.
But all of that, was very much then. Chris Jericho has changed. Changed again. Changed himself. Changed "The Universe", even, from the very moment he shockingly walked away from it...
(EDIT: This was written before Jericho's affection for "a little bit of the bubbly" went viral and the mad b*stard lost his World Title belt)
10. "I Am The Alpha Of This Business"
A genuine dream match completely and utterly out of the blue, Chris Jericho's maiden New Japan Pro Wrestling appearance featured him in an unknown location tearing up a picture of Kenny Omega to inform his challenge to 'The Cleaner' for Wrestle Kingdom in early 2018.
In doing so, he pretty much tore up the rulebook for the wrestling landscape as we knew it.
As later discussed in interviews following his shocking initial spell with the group, Jericho noted that Vince McMahon gave him full permission to do the angle on his time off from WWE, implying a) that both McMahon and Jericho assumed he'd probably be back around WrestleMania season the following year and b) that the Chairman didn't particularly see NJPW's usage of Jericho as any kind of business threat.
Dead wrong on both counts.
The build-up lit a fire not just in Jericho but in a wrestling audience thirsty for new frontiers. New Japan's steadily increasing western audience told their friends about the familiar face, who looked on earnestly for what else the product offered outside of a brand new 'Y2J' problem. Jericho labelled himself 'Alpha' for the good of the marketing against Omega, but very quickly found himself living the gimmick.