8 Wrestlers Who Broke All The Rules
6. Chris Jericho - The Veteran Who Craves The Challenge
Chris Jericho has long been one of the smartest people in the wrestling industry, with the Canadian having his finger regularly on the pulse when it comes to changing his character up and making sure that he remains fresh and engaging.
Why Jericho warrants a spot in this article, though, is for how he opted to walk away from WWE in order to return to New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Jericho isn't the first big name who decided to try their hand elsewhere, but Le Champion is a rare breed who went against what had for so long been declared the norm of pro wrestling. By that norm, it's the path of signing with WWE, becoming a main event star, then either seeing your in-ring days out in WWE or maybe heading to IMPACT Wrestling for a lighter schedule.
For Jericho, he made the call to return to NJPW at the age of 47 purely for the chance to mix it up with the likes of Kenny Omega and Tetsuya Naito.
Other top stars may have left WWE to work elsewhere, but nobody of that status (and, frankly, that age) had walked away from WWE to head to NJPW simply for the love of the profession and to match-off against some of the hottest talents in the game.
At 47 years of age, anybody else would've happily re-signed with the safety blanket that is WWE as they looked to wind down their in-ring days. But no, not Chris Jericho.