Chris Jericho is one of the greatest of all time. I can say it with full confidence that Jericho is the greatest mind in all of professional wrestling. Period. He has done it all. He has wrestled all across the globe and held gold almost everywhere. In January of 2019, Chris Jericho signed with All Elite Wrestling and has been wrestling for the main rival of WWE for 22 months now. The figurehead of The Inner Circle hasn’t held back in voicing his brutal opinions regarding the product that WWE produces through the use of social media or even on national T.V sometimes ever since the two main wrestling promotions in North America went to war with each other. Chris Jericho even went so far as to call himself the “Demo God” given how AEW Dynamite has been dominating against NXT in the 18-49 demographic consistently. Chris Jericho has taken every shot possible at WWE catching the attention of millions of people including WWE of course which begs the question at hand here: Why in the world would WWE give Chris Jericho, currently their biggest critic, the biggest honour they could give to a wrestler?
Well, here’s why:
First of all, Chris Jericho has given a lot to WWE during the 18 years (on and off) he spent over there having an integral role backstage and in the writers’ room. Chris Jericho gave WWE the entire Money in the Bank concept which is probably the most fan favourite gimmick match after the Royal Rumble of course. Money in the Bank is something that WWE still does to this day and since 2010 even has a whole pay-per-view dedicated to it and that would be enough of a reason to put Jericho in their hall of fame but the list doesn’t just stop there. Jericho has also been involved in some major storylines that have gone massively over with the WWE crowd and whenever he has been on the active WWE roster he has been the hottest act on T.V, be it the list of Jericho or the save_us.Y2J debacle. He has always been a massive draw for WWE and has become a household name.
WWE owes a lot to Jericho considering how multiple times Vince passed hard on his creative ideas yet regardless of that he still gave it his best. Sure WWE gave Jericho a lot during his early years at WWE including the WWF Undisputed Championship and a Wrestlemania main event, but look at how he gave back in later years putting over younger talent like Fandango and Kevin Owens just for the benefit of WWE. Jericho gave back more than he ever gained from WWE during his last few years there, appearing at Saudi shows, coming back to promote pay-per-views and often hosting the highlight reel every once in a while, yet still, his character was mishandled by the Vince, pushing him to look for greener pastures first in Japan and then in AEW. Him taking shots at WWE might be partly justified as they are fueled by his frustrations towards WWE creative and how they have been sub-par with their product compared to what AEW produces.
Moreover, it doesn’t matter what company Jericho wrestles for because I think that Jericho has contributed so much to wrestling as a whole that he has a right to be in wrestling’s biggest Hall of Fame which is currently under WWE. This man has been wrestling for thirty years and not once was he ever irrelevant through reinvention, keeping up and also because of his genius. Pick any time of his career and you would see that he was one of the main attractions of whatever card he was on. That is consistency which should be rewarded by inducting him into WWE’s prestigious Hall of Fame.
Over the years there have been countless wrestlers that have turned their back on WWE and seemingly burned bridges but one thing that wrestling fans know is that never say never when it comes to wrestlers coming back to WWE. After all, names like Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart and the nWo have all been inducted in the WWE hall of fame despite their disputes with Vince and his creation. Jericho doesn’t even come near these names when it comes to burying WWE on record so it’s quite likely that Vince would take Jericho into his Hall of Fame with open arms as he should because why not? Who wouldn’t want one of the greatest wrestlers of all time in their Hall of Fame even if they said a few bad things about the company?
I think Jericho has a pretty strong case of being inducted in WWE’s Hall of Fame and maybe even headline the class he would be in. What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.