Christopher Keith Irvine (born November 9, 1970),[2] better known by his ring name Chris Jericho, is a Canadian American professional wrestler, musician, songwriter, radio personality, television host, actor and author. He is signed to WWE, competing on its Raw brand. He is also well known for his time in the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), and internationally in Canadian, Mexican and Japanese promotions.
Jericho has won 30 championships between WWF/E, WCW, and ECW - the three most prominent American promotions in the 1990s. He is credited as being the first Undisputed WWF Champion, having unified the WWF Championship and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship in 2001.
In WWE Jericho is a six-time world champion, having won the Undisputed WWF Championship once, the WCW World Heavyweight Championship twice and the World Heavyweight Championship thrice. He is also a record nine-time Intercontinental Champion, and the fourth WWE Grand Slam Champion.[1]
Outside of wrestling, Jericho formed the band Fozzy in 1999 as their lead vocalist. Their self-titled debut album consisted mostly of cover songs. Their 2005 album All That Remains, featured all original music, as did their 2010 release Chasing the Grail. He also competed in the 2011 series of Dancing With The Stars, lasting until the sixth week. Prior to this, he hosted the ABC game show Downfall.At age 19, Irvine entered the Hart Brothers School of Wrestling where, on his first day, he met Lance Storm. Two months later, he was ready to start wrestling on independent shows, making his debut on October 2, 1990, in a draw against Storm. The pair then worked as a tag team, initially called "Sudden Impact". Meanwhile, he took the name "Jericho" from the Helloween album, Walls of Jericho.[5] Jericho and Storm worked for Tony Condello in the tours of Northern Manitoba with Adam Copeland (Edge), Jason Reso (Christian), and Terry Gerin (Rhino).[2] The pair also wrestled in Calgary's Canadian National Wrestling Alliance (CNWA) and Canadian Rocky Mountain Wrestling (CRMW). In 1991, Jericho and Storm started touring in Japan for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, where he would befriend Ricky Fuji, who also trained under Stu Hart.
In the winter of 1992, he traveled to Mexico and competed under the name Leon D'Oro, and later Corazón de León, where he wrestled for several small wrestling companies, as well as the largest in the country, Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). In CMLL, Jericho took on Silver King, Negro Casas, and Último Dragón en route to an 11 month reign as the NWA Middleweight Champion that began in December 1993. After leaving Mexico, Jericho would wrestle in Hamburg, Germany for six weeks as part of a tournament run by Rene Lasarteese.[2] His burgeoning wrestling skills also took him to Japan in 1994 where he competed for Genichiro Tenryu's Wrestling and Romance (later known as Wrestle Association "R") (WAR) promotion, facing the likes of Gedo and Último Dragón, to whom he lost the WAR International Junior Heavyweight Championship. He would also become a member of the heel stable Fuyuki-Gun (also known as Team No Respect) with Gedo, Jado, and Hiromichi Fuyuki under the name Lion Do, and would go on to team with Gedo to become the first WAR International Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions.
1994 also saw Jericho reunited with his former teammate from CRMW, Storm, as the Thrillseekers in Jim Cornette's Smoky Mountain Wrestling promotion, where they feuded with the likes of Well Dunn, The Rock 'n' Roll Express, and The Heavenly Bodies. In December 1995, Jericho competed in the second Super J Cup Tournament, hosted by WAR, losing to Wild PegasusOn August 26, 1996 Jericho made his first appearance with WCW, and on September 15, he appeared at his first pay-per-view show in a match against Chris Benoit at Fall Brawl.[6] In January 1997