10 Life-Saving Wrestling Moments
6. Curt Hennig Saves Chris Jericho
When the man finally leaves his boots in the ring, a lot of wrestling fans might feel a twinge of guilt.
At one point or another, Chris Jericho has received scathing criticism from all corners. It stems from the inherent cruelty of being a professional wrestling fan throughout the episodic weekly model: the more risky bumps a pro wrestler takes for your entertainment, the less entertaining it is. The dangerous sacrifice is ignored and conflated with a rock band releasing a Greatest Hits for your da at Christmas. It's really not the same, particularly since Jericho has recognised wrestling's way of getting stale and sought to reinvent himself.
But for most, your writer included, he sometimes had the nerve to not evolve quickly enough. Yes, you take the bump that paralysed Hayabusa in every match, but come on guy: "Rooty tooty booty" was sh*te patter!
At some point or another, with wrestling operating as it does, you've all grown tired of one of its most entertaining and tenured figures. He has mostly avoided injury, too, and never had that cruel "I miss them now" feeling, but came very close in 1997.
Even if this was, fortuitously, the planned spot, the angle and trajectory still elicits a certain terror and required some terrifically nifty footwork from Curt Hennig to avoid a quite awful landing.