The intrepid performer had caught Vince McMahon’s eye: At the turn of the new millennium, Jericho was teased on WWE programming with a countdown clock that played on cultural anxieties about the Y2K bug until he made his debut on the August 9, 1999, episode of Raw is War, interrupting The Rock. Jericho would continue to bother various characters in WWE’s roster. Still, his first real feud was with Chyna—the two had a groundbreaking rivalry that transformed into an unlikely friendship when they accidentally won the Intercontinental Championship together, turning them into a team (a storyline which was bizarrely wiped from many WWE records).
There’s no real way to summarize Jericho’s various feuds within WWE succinctly: He went after every men’s title possible, had interactions with almost everyone on the roster, including the company’s biggest names, and switched between the heel and face alignments with ease — sometimes playing a smarmy, over-arrogant upstart and other times playing an adventuresome hero with a sharp wit. His tag team with Christian created longstanding memorable moments throughout the so-called “Attitude Era,” and his matches with the ill-fated Benoit are considered technical masterpieces by many. Although he exited and re-entered WWE several times between 1999 and his last run in 2018 (his ultimate friendship/feud with Kevin Owens was perhaps his most charming), his frustrations with the creative process at the wrestling mega-corporation resulted in a final departure from Vince’s brand.
Nonetheless, shortly after being written off WWE — now in his late forties — Jericho emerged as an unlikely contender in NJPW, challenging the much younger Kenny Omega. Omega, who was quickly garnering a reputation as one of the most dynamic performers alive. Jericho had slowed down a bit in the ring, but his dastardly mic skills and new, ominous persona garnered widespread critical approval — his fight with Omega was his first five-star rated match and his first sanctioned match of his outside WWE in about two decades. Because of conflicting news reports, it remained unclear if Jericho was a “free agent” or not — but he pursued both IWGP Intercontinental Title and the IWGP Heavyweight Title, capturing the former briefly.
Industry-wide rumblings about the formation of a kind of super-indie following the widespread success of the All In event in 2018 were finally realized with the announcement of the creation of All Elite Wrestling in 2019. Jericho was one of the brand’s first signees. His appearance as a leading star helped to bring legitimacy to the newly-formed company. After defeating Kenny Omega, Jericho was named the inaugural Heavyweight Champion. A hilarious kerfuffle involving the drunkenly misplaced heavyweight belt allowed Jericho to continue exploring the more comedic aspects of his character. He lost the title to Jon Moxley in early 2020, but remains the leader of the Inner Circle faction and continues to proclaim himself “Le Champion”—despite his lack of a championship.