Roundtable: 20 Years Of Y2J

In this edition of The Wrestling Estate roundtable, we’re celebrating 20 years of Y2J.

Should Chris Jericho have left WWE for AEW?

Sam Gladen: I think so. He was becoming a comedy act in WWE, which may have been by his behest, but in AEW and NJPW he has consistently shown that he can still play that cocky jackass heel that we all love to hate. Jumping ship may have been the best thing for his career.

Steven Jackson: Chris Jericho made one of the best decisions of his career leaving WWE for AEW. Jericho can finally show his full creative skills outside the shackles of WWE, and lend guidance to the younger talent coming through the promotion. A brilliant decision with no negatives at all.

David Gibb: Yes! He had nothing left to prove or accomplish in the WWE.

John Corrigan: Right now, it seems like the best decision for him. But who knows how he’ll be regarded years from now. Will Vince give him the Macho Man treatment? Also, WWE desperately could have used him this year, with ratings plummeting and interest in the product at all-time lows.

Anthony Mahalis: You know, I would have preferred that he didn’t go to AEW, but I can’t fault him for it. I’m sure he really believes in the company and maybe he felt WWE was getting too stale.

Juan Bautista: Yes, he already accomplished so much and while there were feats he still hadn’t achieved, the timing was absolutely right. In order to maximize what’s left in his tank, it was the best move.

Chad Gelfand: He should have left because he basically accomplished all that he could accomplish in WWE at this point. Chris Jericho is someone who likes to be creatively fulfilled and reinvent himself, he was finding it more challenging to fill that void in WWE. Ever since he’s been working with NJPW and AEW, Jericho has seemingly had a career renaissance and seems as happy and creatively fulfilled as he has been in a long time.

Jack Goodwillie: Should Jericho have left WWE for AEW? Yes. Should Jericho have made a monologue-style podcast where he gave a play-by-play of why he left? That’s debatable. But this scenario is old as time. Take the middle-aged man with about 10-12 years left in the workforce before he retires. He’s a company man, hard worker, but somewhere along the line something changes in his company and an opportunity comes along to help build a new company and add to his accomplishments. What does he do? Well, if he says no, he has to spend the rest of his life thinking, “what if?” There is no precedent in wrestling for what Jericho did, but I respect the heck out of him for taking a risk when he really didn’t have to.

How would you rate his WWE career?

Gladen: I don’t think it’s absurd at this point to count Jericho among those in the conversation of best ever. His run spanned for nearly 20 years and, for a majority of it, he was a main draw on a card. The last few years of part timing notwithstanding, there is no one working his style who has stayed active as long as he has.

Jackson: Rating a wrestler’s career is incredibly hard, but Chris Jericho’s is definitely Hall of Fame worthy. Making an impact everywhere he has wrestled, untouchable on the mic and a fantastic role model to follow, Jericho’s career can only be rated as one thing…a Hall of Fame career!

Gibb: I give Jericho’s WWE run a B+. He was consistently used at least solidly, and at times was booked extremely well. He also consistently delivered above-average to excellent performances in the ring. The only thing keeping him from getting an A is the fact that they didn’t get more out of him early in his run, when he ostensibly had extra cache as a high-profile defector from Nitro at its peak.

Corrigan: Just below Bruno, Hogan, Austin, Rock, Lesnar. Jericho was never “the guy,” but he sure as hell was an elite player and super popular (or uber-despised) character for decades. You always felt that he was giving it his all no matter what creative threw at him.

Mahalis: His resume is first-ballot hall of fame worthy. That’s not even up for debate. He’s one of the best to ever lace ‘em up.

Bautista: I would give it a 10. He is a nine-time Intercontinental Champion, a multiple-time World Heavyweight Champion and held the Tag Team Titles various times. He’s done what only a handful of people have been able to by reinventing himself as both heel and babyface. He managed to stay fresh while his peers grew stale.

Gelfand: Jericho is simply one of the best of all-time. From being the first-ever Undisputed Champion to one of the top players in the Attitude Era and having one of the all-time greatest feuds with Shawn Michaels, Jericho has proven that he’s one of the best the wrestling business and WWE have ever seen.

Goodwillie: What’s the scale? The guy won every title, had a career-defining feud with Shawn Michaels (twice!), reinvented himself a handful of times and opened doors for smaller wrestlers to become main eventers in a land of full of giants. I’d put Jericho’s collective WWE run against the best of the best. Where his run ranks among the runs of Hogan, Rock, Austin, Triple H and Cena just depends on personal preference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPQYWQCFupg

What is your favorite Chris Jericho match in WWE?

Gladen: Rob Van Dam vs. Jericho from Unforgiven 2001. Unforgiven was one of the first DVDs I ever saw after being introduced to wrestling and the fact that those guys got up the next morning, let alone worked huge PPVs this month, is wild.

Jackson: Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels from WrestleMania XIX. They both told a beautiful story and the match had one of the most shocking post-match segments in history.

Gibb: This is a difficult question because he was around in WWE for so long and had so many different matches. When I close my eyes and try to imagine a badass Jericho match, though, it’s the cage match with Batista where Jericho busted the big man open with the bolt from the cage, leading to blood being banned for several years.

Corrigan: vs. Chris Benoit in the ladder match at Royal Rumble 2001. It’s a shame those matches will be tainted for many fans, but I still enjoy them.

Mahalis: There are too many to choose from, so I will give a cop out answer and say anything with Shawn Michaels, Chris Benoit or Kurt Angle.

Bautista: vs. Batista in a steel cage on Raw.

Gelfand: I loved Chris Jericho’s ladder match with Shawn Michaels at No Mercy 2008. The match was fantastic and culminated what was the feud of the year in 2008.

Goodwillie: It may be a hot take, but one bone I have to pick about Jericho’s WWE run was that there was a LOT of matches you’ll look at on paper, then go back and watch and think to yourself, “that should have been better.” WrestleMania 20 vs Christian? Decent, but should have been better. CM Punk at WrestleMania 28? Should have been better. Edge at WrestleMania 26? A match I liked a lot, but one that really flies under the radar. For what it’s worth, I always thought Chris’ best work came against his best rivals: Triple H, Chris Benoit and Shawn Michaels, which is why I’ll always be partial to the unsanctioned match with Michaels at Unforgiven ’08.

What is your favorite Chris Jericho moment/angle in WWE?

Gladen: The entire Jericho/Owens storyline. It was the height of silly Jericho, who just wanted to support his friend, followed by one of the most satisfying heel turns in history with the debut of the list of KO at the Festival of Friendship.

Jackson: I loved the moment when Chris Jericho turned heel in 2008 and threw Shawn Michaels into the Jeritron! The fact history repeated itself for HBK with him now being Marty Jannetty was some of the most genius booking I’ve ever seen.

Gibb: I remember the first time Jericho entered in the short trunks, high boots and short hair in 2008. He looked ready to grab the main event bull by the horns and wrestle it to the ground, and it was exciting.

Corrigan: Punching Shawn Michaels’ wife at SummerSlam 2008. Nobody saw it coming.

Mahalis: It may be his first return to the company after he was “fired.” The whole code breaker stuff was cool. An underrated moment is when he and The Rock were roasting Stephanie, Rhyno and Booker T.

Bautista: The List of Jericho and smashing Shawn Michaels’ face in the Jeritron during the Highlight Reel.

Gelfand: Once again, I have to go back to the Jericho/Michaels ’08 feud and the angle that sent this feud to another level where Jericho accidentally punched Shawn Michaels’ wife Rebecca. The emotions were real because Jericho actually connected with the punch and it created one of the most memorable WWE angles of all-time.

Goodwillie: This is an easy one. Remember when Jericho upset Triple H for the WWE Championship on Raw back in April 2000, only to have it overturned later in the night? I always felt like that moment flew under the radar, but if you watch the clip back, you’ll see just how early the fans were willing to accept Jericho as a world champion before he actually became one two years later.

Now that he has jumped to AEW, will Chris Jericho be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame while he’s still alive?

Gladen: Not while being an active member of AEW. What will happen is AEW will do a year or two of TV with Jericho being a weekly attraction and slowly transitioning into a part-time talent before retiring and being the first inductee into the AEW Hall of Fame (ideally the only entrant for several years, he deserves it.) Only then when he’s fully retired will Vince bring him back to be inducted.

Jackson: I really have no idea. I know Y2J and HHH have a lot of heat with one another so that will be a huge hurdle to overcome. But Vince McMahon has always understood the global appeal Chris Jericho has, so Vince could easily go over HHH’s head. Jericho definitely deserves to be in the hall, but I don’t know if he’ll get in.

Gibb: Yes, definitely. They inducted Billy Gunn, who works there as an agent, and they inducted Flair as part of the Four Horsemen while he was working for TNA. With that said, the induction could come at the end of Jericho’s AEW in-ring commitments if he decides to hang his boots up with a big WrestleMania weekend match-and-induction sendoff.

Corrigan: Nope. Vince will probably pass away by the time that Jericho retires, and Triple H will certainly hold his defection against him. I’m expecting Jericho to get the Macho Man treatment.

Mahalis: Still alive? Yes. It could all hinge on the success of AEW. If it flames out relatively quickly or ends up as TNA 2.0, Jericho won’t have to wait very long after he retires. However, if AEW ends up being late ‘90s WCW, then he probably has to wait a longer time. I mean, Kurt Angle got inducted while still an active competitor and he left WWE high and dry when he was its most valuable asset.

Bautista: It will come down to a few factors. How Vince sees him now and how Triple H feels about him. It was supposed to be Undertaker vs Jericho at the first Saudi Arabia show, but they pulled him from that match when he worked a NJPW show. He has all the career achievements to be in the hall of fame, but ultimately, it will come down to personal feelings.

Gelfand: He will. While WWE certainly isn’t happy that Jericho jumped to AEW, time heals all wounds, and ultimately, WWE will appreciate and recognize Jericho for what he has done in WWE.

Goodwillie: Of course he will. If we’re to take Jericho at his word, the decision to jump to AEW was anything but personal. He still cites Vince McMahon, along with the late Paco Alonso and I believe Genichiro Tenryu as his three favorite people to work for in wrestling. Chris has about four or five years to go before he’s wrestled his final match, and when that day comes, the WWE Hall of Fame will always be there.

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