When exactly does he turn heel? I've been watching all of Nitro from 96 and right now i'm in the middle of 97 and i'm sick to death of generic baby face Jericho. I just watched Super Brawl and at the end of Jericho's match with Eddie they hinted at a heel turn slightly but not that much. Omg sucha horrible bland boring baby face, can't wait for his heel turn.
And please tell me he ditches that horrible 80's feel good music he comes out to after he turns.
First of all, this was the 90s. And in the 90s, Pearl Jam and Nirvana were staples of the grunge movement which was seen as edgy and cool. WCW was trying to appeal to the teenage audience. This is why DDP got the generic Nirvana 'Smells like teen spirit' theme, Raven got the Nirvana 'Come as you are' theme, and Chris Jericho got a version of Pearl Jam's 'Evenflow'.
For the time, it was cool. I was a teenager during that time and remembering liking pretty much all of WCWs theme songs. A lot of them sound generic to you, but I heard them on WCW programming so long they became iconic. Theme songs were a big deal back then. I can still hear Psicosis' theme song and mark out. Which is sad.
as much as jericho and wwe hate to admit it, the lionheart heel character was a revalation while y2j relied mostly on calling stephanie mcmahon a ho. He was the top mid carder in wcw they way he and wwe talk about his wcw was career youd think he was like alex wright or psychosis. He ultimately made the right decision but he left wcw because he was a midcarder to wwe where he was a midcarder and as much as i love him but he wasnt a legit main eventer till he returned in 2007
He threw his first "temper tantrum" after losing on the last Nitro of 1997. He cut his first heelish promo before his next match on the first Nitro of 1998. So, depending how you view it, the last Nitro of 1997 or the first Nitro of 1998.
Jericho did great with his heel turn. Became one of the best parts of their programming throughout 1998/99. In '98 he worked his way up the undercard. Had a good run as Cruiserweight champion, and then graduated to TV title champion.
persoanlly I thought he was a million times better in WCW. Everything from his promos to his security to his goofy hair style. He had a ton of great matches with guys who were in their prime.
Not saying he sucks in WWE, but I bought into his character more in WCW than I did in WWE.
Jericho gave Dean Malenko probably his greatest feud ever and it was all down to Jericho singlehandedly carrying it the entire time. All the promos dissing Malenko's family, mocking his "Man Of 1000 Holds" gimmick, the cocky smug cowardly personality, Jericho really got underneath everyone's skin and fans wanted to see Dean shut him up and beat him so badly.
When Ciclope unmasked and revealed himself to be Dean Malenko at Slamboree 1998, that was probably the biggest pop Dean has ever received in his career and if it wasn't for Jericho's great heel work, Dean would never have gotten a reaction like that.
his promos in his late WCW run were pure gold. even though the matches were boring. but the promos and the storylines were so good they made my day more than once.
I always wanted a Monday Night Jericho shirt. That was the best "WCW" shirt ever (not considering nWo, as they were basically labeled as an Outlaw company, kayfabe wise)
And I noticed on a lot of the WWE Network Nitro's, Jericho's music is overdubbed with Break The Walls Down. I was hoping to hear some of that cheesy 1990s goodness. There's a TON of instances like this, with WCW wrestlers using their much later WWE themes, and the ECW shows having some of the most bland, generic themes I've ever heard. You figure they would atleast want to try to emulate the original themes or do some sort of remix to them if they don't own the rights, but instead, they just go through their generic music library and pick something that they find fitting, which most times, isn't.
Jericho's heel run in WCW is one of the most brilliant, ingenious runs of all-time. The guy was pure gold... platinum, in fact. I enjoyed him much more during that WCW heel run than I did at any other point in his career.
If I remember correctly, he was having tantrums in a slow heel turn and eventually attacked Mysterio during a tantrum after a loss before Mysterio's match with Juventud. Threw him in the good old Liontamer with full neck bend, etc
The thing I remember most is, it looked like Juvi was going to spring in and dropkick Jericho off, but tripped and missed the rope and just fell on his butt. Juvi then just made a "get out of the ring motion" and Jericho got out of the ring. He was heel from then on.
But I still have it on VHS lol. Juvi falling on his rump was funny
Edit: Actually found it online. Doesn't fall on his butt like I thought I remembered but definitely missed the rope and lands all wrong lol
It drives me nuts hearing Jericho totally rubbish his time in WCW and act like they never did anything with him. I eventually got around to watching every episode of Nitro from the late 90s which I downloaded a few years back and Jericho got a huge push and was featured on TV almost every week in tons of segments, interviews, promos and matches. The ads for his Monday Night Jericho T-shirt played multiple times on every show for months on end. If anything he was one of WCW's bigger stars of 1998. So Goldberg wouldn't work with him, big deal. Goldberg was a main-eventer and Jericho was a mid-card comedy act so it just wouldn't have worked as a serious program. Jericho still got a rub from the limited involvement he had with Goldberg anyway so I don't see any problem there.
The way he tells the story you'd think they gave him a small handful of promos on Thunder for a month when rather he was consistently featured on almost every Nitro for about 6 months or more and had his merchandise plugged constantly. Maybe he just wasn't having much effect on the ratings in his segments so he was eventually de-pushed? Either way, he's totally dishonest about it all.
Letting him beat Austin and Rock in one night doesn;t mean Vince didn't think he was ready. He clearly thought he was ready enough to go down in history and have that big achievement under his belt, as well as becoming the first undisputed champion.
It was the run that followed that indicated Jericho probably wasn't ready, which is why the titles got given to HHH.
However - if Jericho had somehow won that undisputed title as his face character - it would have been a huge success.
Vince neven intended to have Chris win the two belts that night. The plan was Kurt Angle. They just changed their plan cause it was too obvious. Vince never thought Chris was worthy(anyway not at this stage of his career) he had Jericho become Undisputed Champ to swerve people. Then his true champ got the belts at Mania.
he simply wasnt built for that type of spot in the company. he was where he belonged, in the mid card. what do you mean would have happened if he got his supposedly deserved push, he would have been the next hulk hogan? he would have bored the shit out of people and would have watered down the whole product. he wasnt built for beeing a maineventer in the 90ies
It drives me nuts hearing Jericho totally rubbish his time in WCW and act like they never did anything with him. I eventually got around to watching every episode of Nitro from the late 90s which I downloaded a few years back and Jericho got a huge push and was featured on TV almost every week in tons of segments, interviews, promos and matches. The ads for his Monday Night Jericho T-shirt played multiple times on every show for months on end. If anything he was one of WCW's bigger stars of 1998. So Goldberg wouldn't work with him, big deal. Goldberg was a main-eventer and Jericho was a mid-card comedy act so it just wouldn't have worked as a serious program. Jericho still got a rub from the limited involvement he had with Goldberg anyway so I don't see any problem there.
The way he tells the story you'd think they gave him a small handful of promos on Thunder for a month when rather he was consistently featured on almost every Nitro for about 6 months or more and had his merchandise plugged constantly. Maybe he just wasn't having much effect on the ratings in his segments so he was eventually de-pushed? Either way, he's totally dishonest about it all.
He wanted to be a main eventer. When he realized Bischoff didn't think he was good enough to climb the ladder, he ended up bouncing to WWF. Very easy to understand.
- Vic
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