Chris Jericho is without a doubt a child of so many talents. Basically, he is known to the world as one of the most successful wrestlers in history. But in addition to fighting, he was always fascinated by music, so in the early 2000s he founded the group Fozzy. But that's not all: Jericho’s oratorical talent was also revealed at the WWE show, which was later successfully applied to radio and television. Chris is also a writer, today all three of his books have considerable popularity. It would be strange if such a multifaceted showman did not try his hand at cinema. And although Chris Jericho, whose filmography is not so extensive, has not yet become a real star of the big screen, but he certainly conquered television forever.
A dream come true
The name given to him at birth is Christopher Keith Irvine. The pseudonym of the future wrestling star was influenced by the history of the ancient city mentioned in the Bible, Jericho, because he was brought up in a Christian family and is a deeply religious person.
Chris Jericho was born on November 9, 1970 in the United States, in the town of Manhasset, New York State. His father, Ted Irvine, was an NHL hockey player, so the family moved to Canada, the city of Winnipeg, where Christopher spent his childhood and youth. The boy changed many schools, but still received secondary education, and after that - and higher education. He has a journalist diploma.
At the age of twelve, the young Canadian decided that he was impressed by two paths - wrestling and music. He was inspired by Owen Hart to practice wrestling, and later it was at the Hart Dungeon school that the future repeated champion was trained. Chris debuted in professional sports in 1990, his first fight ended in a draw. At the beginning of his career, he traveled around the world, speaking in many federations of Europe, America, Asia. He was very popular in Japan, where he made many friends, such as Eddie Guerrero, Dina Malenko and others.
Enchanting success
The next item in the conquest of world fame was the United States. Chris Jericho successfully lit up on ECW, but didn’t stay there for a long time - already in 1996 he signed a contract with WCW, where he received two champion titles: television and in the middle weight category. It was at this time that Chris's charisma revealed itself most vividly, and he became the favorite of the audience.
Three years later, the Canadian came very effectively to the WWE World Wrestling Federation . On August 9, 1999, Chris Jericho appeared in the ring under the new pseudonym Y2J. He requested a challenge to China and decided to fight her for the intercontinental title, since he considered that the woman was unworthy to bear the title of champion, and defeated her. Later, he lost this title several times to other fighters and returned it again.
In the early 2000s, after a series of victories, including in the battle against Dwayne Rock Johnson, Jericho received the title of the first Undisputed WWF Champion. Further fights went with varying success, and in 2005 the popular wrestler left WWE.
Another dream
At the beginning of the new millennium, another project, which Chris Jericho dreamed of since childhood, was realized. Music has always been a part of his life, according to the Canadian himself. He never left her, but did not bring her to a professional level. Until he met backstage WWE with a member of the band Stuck Mojo, whose fan he was, guitarist Rich Ward. The musician was a fan of Chris, among other things, they turned out to have common musical tastes and the guys decided to try playing together.
After an injury in the ring (Jericho injured his ankle), the athlete had free time, which he completely gave to his new project - the cover band Fozzy Osbourne, later reducing the name to Fozzy. In addition to Chris and Rich, other Stuck Mojo members - Dan Dryden and Frank Fonter, as well as a certain Ryan Mallam joined the team. Artistry, Canadian charisma and excellent vocal abilities ensured the group a great start.
Heavy metal in blood
Due to the fact that Fozzy initially only performed covers for famous hits, they came up with a legend to stand out among such bands. Its essence is that Fozzy spent more than 20 years in Japan, and upon returning to their homeland, they learned that many teams became popular by stealing their songs. After filming a video of this legend and launching it on MTV, the Fozzy members provided increased attention to their self-titled debut album. In the second Happenstance album, released in 2002, it was decided, in addition to covers, to add songs of his own composition. While the group was gaining popularity, its composition managed to change several times, but the founders remained regular members.
The song of Chris Jericho and his collective called Enemy, released as a separate single in 2004, was even taken into service by WWE. The third album of 2005, All That Remains became the team’s own full-fledged creation, which switched from cover versions to original tracks. Due to the return of the main star of the group to the ring, the next studio album saw the light only five years later.
Conquering a new peak
The talented Canadian decided to prove himself in another field. Becoming a star of television screens on the WWE and WWF shows, the wrestler and musician decided to become an actor. His first test is the television movie Enemies of 2006. Like all previous endeavors, this was also a success. But today there are not many projects that starred Chris Jericho. Films with his participation: the comedy Super McGruber, the horrors of Fema Alibino and the action movie Era of Relationship; and the series in which he can be seen: Z Rock, “In the Cube”, “The Real Aron Stone” and the TV show “But I'm Chris Jericho!”
Second coming
In 2007, the famous wrestler returned to WWE in triumph, before which viewers of the whole country were intrigued by short clips in the Matrix style appearing on television screens during commercial breaks, they mentioned biblical texts and the phrases “The Second Coming” and “He Will Save Us” . During the speech of the reigning WWE champion, the same phrase appeared on the show. In 2007-2009, he repeatedly participated in battles for various titles, eventually becoming the ninth time Intercontinental champion. Chris Jericho also repeatedly won in team fights, in particular in 2009 and 2010. The Canadian put his own ultimatum: either he wins the title at PPV Night of Champions, or leaves WWE. He kept his promise - having lost the battle and getting injured, he left with dignity, going on a tour with his group.
Ups and downs
Having recovered from his injury, the eminent wrestler decided to return to the show again and did it, as usual, completely unique. He again launched strange videos on TV in the fall of 2011, which now featured children with mysterious words. Following were the strange appearances of Chris in January 2012 on the WWE show, when he simply was silent and left, and he completely lost the first fight after returning, because his victory would be too obvious a move. In the same year, in several battles, including the show WrestleMania and Extreme Rules, Chris Jericho lost to Punk. And in 2013, he had several confrontations with Fandango, and with varying success.
If the Canadian lost at WrestleMania, then he won the Extreme Rules. A little later, he again met in the ring with his sworn enemy Punk and again lost to him, and after that several more crushing defeats occurred, including in the battle for the intercontinental title. In 2014, Chris returns again and continues to successfully perform at WWE and WWF to this day. Throughout his career, the wrestler managed to become the owner of many titles and awards, he is a nine-time Intercontinental champion and the first Undisputed champion in the history of WWE, and is not going to stay there.
Now
Today, Chris Jericho has a lot of activities, and it is completely incomprehensible how he manages everything. Canadian actor, wrestler, musician also became a writer, releasing as many as three books. He is the hero of several computer games. He also tried himself in hockey, where he showed unexpectedly good results, which is not surprising, because this is a family legacy. Since 2005, he led his own show on the radio. Since 2010, Chris Fozzy's band has released three more albums and continues its musical activity. He currently lives in Florida with his wife Jessica Lee Lockhart and has three children.