The basics

Professional name: Chris Jericho
Real name: Chris Irvine
Billed height: 6'0"
Billed weight: 226 lbs.
Birthday: November 9, 1970
Signature moves: Walls of Jericho (Boston crab), Codebreaker (running double knee facebreaker), Lionsault (second rope springboard moonsault), running enzuigiri


The early years

Christopher Keith Irvine was born in Manhasset, New York on November 9, 1970. His father, Ted Irvine, played for the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League at the time. During the season, the Irvines would live in New York and then spend the off-season back home in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Chris lived in various cities throughout his dad's career but Winnipeg was home.

Chris went to school in Winnipeg and earned a degree in journalism at Red River Community College.


Wrestling

He first became interested in wrestling while watching with his grandmother as a child. He moved to Calgary, Alberta to enter the Hart Brothers Wrestling Camp when he was 19 and spent about three months there learning the craft from some of the best teachers in the world.

Lance Storm was in the same training class, and they were the only two students in that class to graduate. Once done training, Chris worked his first pro match on October 2, 1990, at the Moose Hall in Ponoka, Alberta, against Storm. It was also Storm's first match. The match ended after a 10 minute time-limit draw.

As Jericho worked for independent groups in and around Calgary, a promoter told him he needed a name. He came up with Jericho. He got the idea from the Bible and also liked it because he had an album by Helloween called "Walls of Jericho."

In 1992 Chris got a chance to work for a small company in Mexico which led the way to EMLL, which was a bigger group. He worked there for two years. From there Chris got the opportunity to go work WAR in Japan. He worked there for two years as well. This was the time when he came up with the "Lionheart" moniker. While working in Mexico and Japan he had to come up with another name because the Mexican and Japanese people couldn't pronounce "Jericho." He came up with Lionheart because a lot of the other wrestlers in Mexico and Japan had animal-themed names and characters.

While still in Japan Chris met up with Chris Benoit. Benoit helped Jericho get in to Extreme Championship Wrestling where he made his debut in February of 1996 and had some of the most enjoyable times of his career, he later revealed.


The big time

Later in the year Chris met then-World Championship Wrestling boss Eric Bischoff at an independent show in Los Angeles. Chris later gave him a call and was hired. He made his WCW debut in September of 1996. In just under three years with the company, he became WCW Cruiserweight champion on five occasions and also held the WCW Television title once.

Chris Jericho was inducted into the Canadian Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1997.

In the Summer of 1999 Chris Jericho left WCW and signed with the World Wrestling Federation. He made his WWF debut on August 9, 1999. He was billed as "Y2J," the "New Millennium" of the World Wrestling Federation.

In his first two years with the World Wrestling Federation, Jericho won the Intercontinental Championship on four occasions, the Tag Team Championship twice, and the European and Hardcore titles as well.

In 2001, Jericho made the jump to main event status as he defeated The Rock at October's No Mercy for the WCW Championship. In December at Vengeance, he became the only man to defeat The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin in the same night, and became the first ever Undisputed WWF Champion.

That night, December 9 in San Diego, California, he also became the first superstar to have held five different WWF titles (Intercontinental, European, Hardcore, Tag, World).

In 2003, Chris Jericho was named one of the 50 greatest WWE Superstars of all time by WWE Magazine.

Shortly before the 15th anniversary of his first match, Chris Jericho's wrestling career was put on hiatus after losing a "you're fired" match to John Cena on August 22, 2005. Jericho later issued a statement to explain his decision and what his future holds, including touring with Fozzy as well as TV and film work.

During the September 24, 2007 episode of WWE RAW, a short and mysterious video full of seemingly random numbers and words was aired. Fans took note of this and tried to find the meaning behind it. By slowing the video down, some claimed to find links to Biblical passages and things related to Chris Jericho. The most visible phrases in the video were "SAVE US" and "2ND COMING." Each following week for nearly two months saw another video with more messages aired on WWE programming. Talk of Jericho returning to wrestling had been common since his initial departure, but with these videos and their many supposed Jericho-related clues, rumours of the return of Y2J was one of the biggest stories in all of wrestling.

On November 19, all the guessing and hoping came to an end as Chris Jericho indeed returned to WWE, his "second coming," as he called it. He was back to "save us" from Randy Orton and promised to bring excitment, electricity and "100% Jericho."

In interviews following his return, he said that some much needed time away and the process of writing his autobiography renewed his love for wrestling.

On September 7, 2008, at Unforgiven, Chris Jericho added another trophy to his collection as he became World Heavyweight Champion by winning a Scramble Match that also featured Batista, Rey Mysterio, Kane and John Bradshaw Layfield. Reigning champion CM Punk was unable to compete and Jericho was named his last minute replacement after already facing Shawn Michaels in a grueling unsanctioned brawl earlier that night.


Away from the ring

On July 30, 2000 Chris Irvine and girlfriend of two years, Jessica Lockheart, were married.

On October 24, 2000 Chris Jericho fulfilled another of his lifelong dreams as his band Fozzy released their first album. The self-titled record was made up of 10 tracks; eight covers of classic metal songs from the likes of Motely Crue, Judas Priest, and Ozzy Osbourne among others, as well as two original songs.

July 30, 2002 saw the release of Fozzy's second album, Happenstance. While the cover tunes returned, more emphasis was placed on the original tracks, a sign of things to come from the band.

On September 24, 2003 Chris became a father when Ash Edward Irvine was born.

On July 6, 2004 Chris Jericho was honoured by both the Province of Manitoba and the city of Winnipeg with Manitoba's Order Of The Buffalo Hunt and the key to the City of Winnipeg, respectively.

January 18, 2005 marked the release of Fozzy's third album, All That Remains, but this time something was different. Gone were the wigs, the storyline and the covers. In was a record full of great original material that may well be covered itself in the future. The album also features guest contributions from the likes of guitarists Zakk Wylde, Marty Friedman and Mark Tremonti, as well as rap artist Bonecrusher. The album was released on Jericho's own label, Ash Records.

On March 6, 2005 Y2J took another step toward surpassing Howard Stern for the title of "The King Of All Media" as his radio show, "The Rock Of Jericho," debuted on XM Satellite Radio.

Chris Jericho as Premier of Manitoba? On April 1, 2006, The Winnipeg Sun ran a story claiming that Y2J would be running for the head of the PC party. Most noted the date and thought that the story was an April Fool's joke. Two days later the paper confirmed that it was indeed a joke and that there was no truth to the story.

On April 6, 2006 Jericho made a guest appearance with The Groundlings, an improv comedy group based in Los Angeles, California. The show went so well that he was invited to become a regular guest.

At the Hamilton Tiger-Cats vs. Toronto Argonauts CFL game in Toronto on Saturday, June 17, 2006, Y2J did the pre-game player introductions.

June 24, 2006 saw Jericho make his film debut as Android Apocalypse aired on Sci-Fi. Speaking about his role, Jericho said, "It's not a huge part, but my character ends up getting killed and that's why the whole movie takes place. It's a key role, not a big role, but it's a great way to get my feet wet."

Jericho took part in another comedy performance, this time in Toronto with the award-winning sketch troupe The Sketchersons on July 16, 2006.

Prior to the July 17, 2006 MLB game between the Texas Rangers and the Toronto Blue Jays in Toronto, Jericho threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

The Irvine family had a very busy week in mid-July 2006. From the July 18 Wrestling Observer.com update: The play Opening Night with Chris Jericho in a featured role opens tonight in Toronto at the Centre for the Arts. Jericho's wife Jessica just gave birth to twin girls, Cheyenne Lee Irvine and Sierra Loretta Irvine. The births were premature, at the 27 week mark, and they are 2 pounds 7 ounces and 2 pounds 5 ounces. Both are already off the respirator and breathing on their own but will remain hospitalized for 8-10 weeks. Chris rushed out of Toronto at 6 a.m. Tuesday to Florida, and then flew back yesterday for final rehearsals for the play, before he comes back Sunday after the three-night run. Jericho plays a nearly 50 year old salesman who on his 25th anniversary, takes his wife to opening night of a play even though he really wanted to stay home and watch the World Series.

On August 29, Chris took part in the FOX series "Celebrity Duets" which featured legendary musicians teaming up with celebrities in a series of duets. The winner received $100,000 to be donated to the charity of their choice. After performing Willie Nelson's "Mendocino County Line" with Lee Ann Womack, and Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" with Peter Frampton, Chris was the first eliminated from the competition. Despite the early exit, he enjoyed the experience. "Celebrity Duets was one of the best experiences I've had and I'm sooo happy I did it. I'm also very happy with both of my performances."
Click here to read more of his comments on the show.

Jericho announced on November 28, 2006 that his XM Satelite Radio show, "The Rock Of Jericho," would be cancelled as of December 31, 2006. In a note posted on his MySpace page, Jericho says the cancellation was due to a change in the inner structure of XM and hopes to be able to continue the show in some way. On December 9, it was announced that the December 3 show had been its last, forgoing the final four weeks that were previously scheduled.

In the spring of 2007 it was announced that Chris Jericho would star in a horror film. The movie, titled "Albino Farm," is based on a legend of the same name based in southern Missouri and the Ozark Mountains. The movie is projected to be released in 2009.

Jericho contributed a spoken-word part for the song "Repentance" from Dream Theater's "Systematic Chaos" album, released June 6, 2007.

On October 25, 2007, Chris Jericho's autobiography A Lion's Tale: Around The World In Spandex was released by Grand Central Publishing. The book is an in-depth look at the first nine years of his wrestling career and the international journey he took to achieve his dream of becoming a WWE wrestler. The book was met by overwhelming positive reviews and was accompanied by a 20-stop book signing tour between October 25 and November 15. The book debuted at #22 on the November 18 New York Times best-seller list in the hardcover non-fiction category.

Following the success of A Lion's Tale, most assumed that a second book chronicling his time in WWF/WWE would eventually be written. This was confirmed on February 28, 2008 when Lance Storm, who had selected A Lion's Tale as reading material for his "Book Marks" book club, posted Jericho's reactions to the readers' reviews. The book, named "UNDISPUTED ATTITUDE," is set for a Fall 2009 release from Grand Central Publishing.

In June 2008, Jericho received the Distinguished Alumni Award for 2008 by Red River College.

In August 2008 it was announced that Chris Jericho would be the host of a new reality series on Fuse named "Redemption Song." The series follows ten troubled women as they compete for a last chance at musical stardom. The show will premier on October 29.