What Could Have Been: Chris Jericho WCW Edition

[Nash Diesel]

After the major success of last week's Sean Waltman thread I bring to you: WCHB Chris Jericho WCW Edition

As most of you know Jericho made his mark in WCW starting out in the CW division, tearing down the house with his brothers Malenko, Benoit, Guerrero as well talent like Ultimo Dragon, Rey Misterio, and Das Wunderkind.

He then rose up to the TV title picture while also having some pretty entertaining bits with Goldberg during Goldberg's boom.

Which brings me to this thread.....Could Jericho have been inserted into that main event scene, or was it too early? What could have been if Jericho stuck around and didn't go to the WWF. Would he have made it up the ladder? Think even going as far to when Russo signed with WCW, would we have seen Jericho instead of Jeff fucking Jarrett as a former 7 time WCW World champion?

[Kneeneighbor]

Too early to thrust him into the Main Event but he should have been higher on the card than he was. Then as with much of wCw as the older crowd aged he could have been pushed forward but we know that didnt really happen for anyone there.

[Rancid_Planet]

Too early to thrust him into the Main Event but he should have been higher on the card than he was. Then as with much of wCw as the older crowd aged he could have been pushed forward but we know that didnt really happen for anyone there.

The 83 weeks pod episode about Jericho in WCW is a great companion piece to this thread topic. Eric could not help but sound like he knew Jericho could have eventually been as big for him as he became for Vince.

[The Law]

He should have gotten a match with Goldberg, but it really should have just him being squashed. Which I think is what Jericho had proposed anyway.

The thing with WCW 1998 was they were so loaded with stars it was really tough to get into the main event. They had Hogan, Goldberg, Sting, Kevin Nash, Luger, Savage, DDP, Ric Flair. Now, if Jericho sticks around into 2000 there's a ton of upward mobility because most of those guys were gone. But by then WCW is fucked anyway and Jericho wouldn't have saved them.

Was he ready for the main event at that point? I don't really think so. It's not like he came into the WWF and they put him on top right away, he was in the same spot he was in as part of WCW for a couple years.

[Badger]

Even though he had a couple of years before he fully breaked through to the main event, I think he jumped ship at exactly the right point of his career and the Radicalz followed suit. He knew the glass ceiling was too high with the same old guys in the top spots so he moved.

WCW Jericho was just fantastic all around. From deliberately mispronouncing names, , Armbar, the CW title feud with Malenko, Armbar, Ralphus, Greenberg, Armbar! Incredible charisma and mic skills.

[ysanthl]

I feel like it was to early. Not matter if it was Bischoff or Russo. I feel like he could have been upper mid-card, flirting with a random main event feud ala Goldberg. But I feel he would have almost been like Raven was in WCW. Just a handy upper mid-carder that can have good matches and feuds with most everyone. But never quite getting through to the actual main event. I agree that he jumped at just the right time and really found his way.

[Badger]

Also 1999 was the year it really started to go downhill creativity wise after the Fingerpoke of Doom. Jericho was miserable but got out of that rut signing with WWE. He got thrown into the spotlight immediately interrupting the Rock to initially get him noticed, but they also didn't push him too hard after so his progression seemed more natural.

[Kneeneighbor]

I was so pissed the day he beat HHH for the title then they stripped it from him later in the show.

[lotjx]

I was so pissed the day he beat HHH for the title then they stripped it from him later in the show.

This

[Nash Diesel]

What bugs me about Jericho-Goldberg is that Goldberg didn't even wrestle at World War 3 which I always thought was extremely weird for WCW to have their biggest name on the card even if it would've been a simple squash. They were cool with him defending against Curt f'n Hennig of all people at Bash at the Beach 1998 but Jericho wasn't good enough?

Listening to 83 Weeks and the Jericho episode recently is what inspired this particular choice and hearing the bs reasoning is just beyond me. Then they wind up doing a real feud and match years later in the WWE lol.

I'll be honest, I never really understood the point of Jericho and Goldberg having anything going on in WCW if there was never an intended match or storyline payoff to begin with. It seemed like such an odd thing to do, just have some midcard dude constantly call out your biggest star just to have him get speared in the aisle as the blowoff?

Imagine if for 2-3 months you had Santino calling out John Cena and it finally ends with Cena just AA'ing him on the ramp and calling it a day lol. Just weird booking that WCW was known for and can't blame Russo or even Bischoff for because that was WCW's thing. Weird shit.

[3puppies]

Listening to Jericho talk about it over the years, he admitted he was trying to start something with Goldberg in order to get himself on a PPV - even if he got squashed which was all he wanted, it would still mean PPV money. The difference was that Jericho - even back then - was smart enough to realize that if WCW wasn't going to bite on what was becoming and would have been a really hot angle, they really had no plans for him ever.

And Bischoff stated that back then, Goldberg was so green, and so much a mark for himself, he didn't even get the concept as to what Jericho was trying to do - build intrigue, make the crowd want to see Jericho get squashed and Goldberg look unstoppable. It simply made no sense to Goldberg back then that a little guy like Jericho was calling him out and there was no explaining it to him.

Of course, Jericho making fun of Goldberg for weeks was completely on Jericho - they had given him a live mic, and promos were not scripted back then.

[Nash Diesel]

Listening to Jericho talk about it over the years, he admitted he was trying to start something with Goldberg in order to get himself on a PPV - even if he got squashed which was all he wanted, it would still mean PPV money. The difference was that Jericho - even back then - was smart enough to realize that if WCW wasn't going to bite on what was becoming and would have been a really hot angle, they really had no plans for him ever.

And Bischoff stated that back then, Goldberg was so green, and so much a mark for himself, he didn't even get the concept as to what Jericho was trying to do - build intrigue, make the crowd want to see Jericho get squashed and Goldberg look unstoppable. It simply made no sense to Goldberg back then that a little guy like Jericho was calling him out and there was no explaining it to him.

Of course, Jericho making fun of Goldberg for weeks was completely on Jericho - they had given him a live mic, and promos were not scripted back then.

Right but they never once told Jericho "Stop doing that" Goldberg tried to, but nobody that mattered in the office did. They encouraged it. So that's what I'm saying....Why let Jericho build something on t.v. that seemed like it was leading toward World War 3, if you had zero plans.

To me, and obviously to Jericho and many others, that just seemed like par for the course with a lot of WCW booking, especially at that time. We weren't too far away from the fingerpoke of doom at this point. And I don't think WCW truly recovered from Starrcade 1997 and that bullshit ending. I mean, if you can't do something positive with Bret fucking Hart, good luck with a guy like Jericho.

Is it also safe to say that Jericho was basically a WWF guy in WCW? His style, not wrestling, but his character, it felt out of place for the most part. But he's also always said the end goal was WWF. He used everywhere else simply as a commercial to sell himself to Vince. Seemed to work out perfectly if you ask me.

[Kneeneighbor]

Right but they never once told Jericho "Stop doing that" Goldberg tried to, but nobody that mattered in the office did. They encouraged it. So that's what I'm saying....Why let Jericho build something on t.v. that seemed like it was leading toward World War 3, if you had zero plans.

To me, and obviously to Jericho and many others, that just seemed like par for the course with a lot of WCW booking, especially at that time. We weren't too far away from the fingerpoke of doom at this point. And I don't think WCW truly recovered from Starrcade 1997 and that bullshit ending. I mean, if you can't do something positive with Bret fucking Hart, good luck with a guy like Jericho.

Is it also safe to say that Jericho was basically a WWF guy in WCW? His style, not wrestling, but his character, it felt out of place for the most part. But he's also always said the end goal was WWF. He used everywhere else simply as a commercial to sell himself to Vince. Seemed to work out perfectly if you ask me.

I think even in 1997 wCw was way behind in how to book for an ear with so much TV and a monthly PPV. They just threw shit out there each week which wasnt apart of a program. Just a chance to get a guy on and win over someone else that they also didnt have a plan for. So telling Jericho go out there and fill 5 min was in their mind a good idea.

[3puppies]

Jericho also says it was really the Wild Wild West back then. There was no agent or writers telling them anything other than maybe "you've got 6 minutes" and so and so is going over.

The whole saga with Jericho, Chavo and Pepe / Jose is a perfect example of how there really was no direction, they just did everything themselves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBaKKK0FQBs

[Nash Diesel]

Jericho also says it was really the Wild Wild West back then. There was no agent or writers telling them anything other than maybe "you've got 6 minutes" and so and so is going over.

The whole saga with Jericho, Chavo and Pepe / Jose is a perfect example of how there really was no direction, they just did everything themselves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBaKKK0FQBs

It just shows how much of a well-oiled machine the WWE were/are. They had so much more time to centralize how to do a lot of stuff because they were a real wrestling promotion. WCW was a traveling broadway show about wrestling basically. And Bischoff wasn't born into the business like Vince, he wasn't a promoter, and he had a "creative" team that were basically him and active wrestlers measuring dick sizes.

If Ted Turner was on the job like Vince, WCW would have probably ran a lot smoother. That's why the WWE runs so smoothly is because they have a set hierarchy that is respected because of the 60-70 year history of doing this shit.

That's probably why it took Jericho a little bit to adjust to the way the WWE do things is because when you look @ Jericho's climb to the WWE, he was working for wrestling companies that basically let the talent, for the most part, do their own thing. Smokey Mountain, ECW, WCW, then he gets to WWE and it's like, well, the substitute teacher's gone and the real teacher is back lol.

[Rancid_Planet]

I was so pissed the day he beat HHH for the title then they stripped it from him later in the show.

This

That was some goooood heel heat right there.

I wanted to jump through the tv and strangle the fucker.

[Badger]

That phantom title win did wobders for Jericho too garnering sympathy heat, though I really wish he'd beaten HHH in their Last Man Standing match. Up until theending that's one of my favouriteever matches.