As a pro wrestler, you should always believe in yourself. It's a cutthroat business, and if you don't "sell" yourself, you can find yourself being eaten alive. Chris Jericho is confident in himself, and in his in-ring abilities. He has never been the biggest or the baddest, but he has been able to build connections with live audiences with his character, which allows him to "wow" them with what he does in the ring now that they're paying attention. Unfortunately for him, he arrived on the scene and was recruited by the wrong company if he truly wanted to rise to the top. His work in ECW put him on the map, and when he signed with WCW, some people saw it as a step down, even with the greater level of exposure and financial security. WCW was already in the middle of pushing larger-than-life workers, especially the ones that had been stars in the WWF, but a little less than two months before Jericho's debut with the company, Hulk Hogan turned heel and officially formed the nWo. Once the nWo was around, you weren't getting any sort of ascension in WCW unless you were in the group (or named Goldberg), and even then, unless you were Hogan or Kevin Nash, it can be argued that you still had a "glass ceiling" to work through. He tried and tried to "sell" himself to Eric Bischoff and WCW management, but they just weren't having it. He delivered an entertaining feud with Dean Malenko, but nothing came of it. He pushed for a feud with Goldberg that the fans were actually really excited for, but because Goldberg and Bischoff viewed him as "too small", it never happened. Jericho became frustrated, and because he says he was always using WCW as a "stepping stone" to try and wrestle for Vince McMahon (his dream since he became a wrestler), he saw this as his time to put the feelers out for the WWF. One illegal meeting with Vince (he was still under WCW contract when he had a meeting at McMahon's home) later, and it was time for his dream to come true. Jericho becoming a huge star with the WWF only validated everything he believed about his worth to a company, and it further shows what a mess WCW was. Look at all of the non-nWo and non-Goldberg talent WCW had on its roster, almost all at the same time, and they still blew it in epic fashion. That takes an incredible amount of skill in and of itself.
Columnist/Podcaster/Director at LordsOfPain.net for nearly seven years, with nearly 2000 total columns written. Interviewed and/or involved in interviewing the likes of Tyler Black/Seth Rollins (twice), Diamond Dallas Page, Jimmy Jacobs, Christopher Daniels, Uhaa Nation and more.
