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Devon Malcolm

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16 minutes ago, Tommy! said:

We all agree Fozzy is painfully mediocre though, yeah?

On its best day it would struggle to pass as painfully mediocre. They were at best mildly amusing when doing the novelty covers act it started out as, then in typical Jericho fashion he thought it was better/bigger than it was, and they got exposed when Chris decided they should a serious band. Rich Ward (the bands guitarist whose popped up playing Britt Baker’s theme at a couple of PPVs) has been playing Jericho like a fiddle for years as a result for the payday 

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12 hours ago, Louch said:

Every wrestler should think they are better than they are. Made for better shows when talent stood up to ideas they thought were beneath them. 

There's valuing yourself more than a salty promoter, then there's valuing yourself better than 99% of the rest of the men that have ever done the sport, and 99.99% of the fanbase consider you. Jericho legitimately considers himself one of the best of all time, and while he's been excellent for longevity and reinvention, he's never been even the best in any roster he's been wrestling for at any particular moment. He's been decent box office but never spectacular, his best matches make a good highlight reel but there's a lot of sameyness about the matches inbetween, his best years for being a "name" will be recorded as over 20 years before he retires, and yet he talks about himself in the third person in terms like "when you're in the ring with a star the level of an Austin, a Michaels or a Jericho" when speaking candidly. He dines out on the "first Undisputed champion" thing like he's Ric Flair reincarnated, and even into the 20s thinks he gave birth to AEW as well as carrying it like a proud mama kangaroo. I think every time he hears anyone give their Mount Rushmore of wrestling and he doesn't hear his own name, Jericho probably kicks the cat.

56 minutes ago, Tommy! said:

Worked well for Ahmed in 98,

 

38 minutes ago, Louch said:

To be fair he was too good to be jobbing to Kurrgan

 

34 minutes ago, Tommy! said:

He had such a big opinion of himself he walked out and played right into WWFs hands who wanted him gone because he was dead in the water by then. 

The man deserves credit for sticking around as long as he did. Farooq gave him a full blown shit kicking at the Garden and he came back for more. That level of ignorance to how much the locker room despised him is Jericho levels of delusion! 

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36 minutes ago, air_raid said:

and even into the 20s thinks he gave birth to AEW as well as carrying it like a proud mama kangaroo

To be fair, I think it's been forgotten what a major signing this was at the time and immediately separated AEW from all the other shitty promotions that had tried to make a grab for the number 2 slot. His signing made people really take it seriously. Equally, I think it's also fair to say that Jericho was a huge part of carrying the company in the early days and especially in the first few months of the empty arena pandemic shows where he was the main focal point of the show. 

For all his faults I'm not 100% convinced that AEW would be where it is today without him there in the early days.

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54 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

To be fair, I think it's been forgotten what a major signing this was at the time and immediately separated AEW from all the other shitty promotions that had tried to make a grab for the number 2 slot. His signing made people really take it seriously. Equally, I think it's also fair to say that Jericho was a huge part of carrying the company in the early days and especially in the first few months of the empty arena pandemic shows where he was the main focal point of the show. 

For all his faults I'm not 100% convinced that AEW would be where it is today without him there in the early days.

Jericho was the best TV wrestler star they had there are the start. And you don’t get the likes of Mox joining without that Jericho credibility. He had name value to people beyond the niche new Japan fan market of the Elite . He was able to help steer talent towards the right things to do.
 

He deserves a massive amount of credit not only in getting the company over, but in the elevation he gave those that worked with and against him. Christ look at the drop in quality Sammy had when he didn’t have Jericho around doing quality control on his stories. Also him on commentary for the ten weeks of the Atlanta Gym shows added name value when otherwise it could have crumbled.

Jericho rates himself higher more than most who have done it? Cause he is up there in the 3rd tier of greats chat when you look at the breadth of his career. He might not be on any mount rushmores other than his own, but he’s probably had the last of the type of career he’s had. With how wrestling’s changed the last 25 years no one is gonna do what he done again. 

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1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

To be fair, I think it's been forgotten what a major signing this was at the time and immediately separated AEW from all the other shitty promotions that had tried to make a grab for the number 2 slot. His signing made people really take it seriously. Equally, I think it's also fair to say that Jericho was a huge part of carrying the company in the early days and especially in the first few months of the empty arena pandemic shows where he was the main focal point of the show. 

For all his faults I'm not 100% convinced that AEW would be where it is today without him there in the early days.

I agree. TNA launched with Jeff Jarrett, a few ex ECW and WCW mid carders and people brought in for short runs (Shamrock, Macho Man). They weren't seen as real competition until they got Angle who didn't move the needle that much. And they were always a long way away in terms of recognition and popularity even when they bought back the Monday Night Wars with Hogan, Bischoff and Sting. Jericho was a Marquee name signing and immediately made it look like they were meaning business. 

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7 minutes ago, Louch said:

And you don’t get the likes of Mox joining without that Jericho credibility.

Moxley called Jericho before signing because he wanted to know if AEW was for real and Jericho convinced him to sign. Jericho and (oddly) Jim Ross signing with AEW was one of the main things that got them their TV deal with TNT.

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If you listen to Jericho speak, you'd think he's the whole reason AEW happened with any level of buzz. Disregarding All In completely, which was the brainchild and commitment of a group of other people, was successfully executed and led to the interest in creating the company as an entity, before Chris was involved. Yes, he was the biggest name they managed to get involved, and played a big part in the early success, so you might get away with calling him AEW's Hogan. But to hear him talk, he's their Vincent J, Vincent K, Hogan, MTV and first WrestleMania combined.

31 minutes ago, Louch said:

Jericho rates himself higher more than most who have done it? Cause he is up there in the 3rd tier of greats chat when you look at the breadth of his career. He might not be on any mount rushmores other than his own, but he’s probably had the last of the type of career he’s had. With how wrestling’s changed the last 25 years no one is gonna do what he done again. 

He's had the last of his type of career from territories to the Big 3 as was that's still going, and the last from that era that did anything in the next generation of promotions like TNA/ROH (e.g. Flair and Foley) and the only one that wrestles for a 2020s company like Elite. But I still don't think it gets him into an argument for "one of the best ever" depending on how many you want to comprise "the best". Maybe top 1% was poor maths by me considering how many men actually have made a living doing pro wrestling, but if you consider what he actually did in terms of match quality, characters, drawing etc and "success" measured by how he was booked by the industry leaders - I think he won a version of the World title recognized by WWE six times which is fairly average among his peers of Attitude-2017, equal with Batista who won six between 2005 and 2010 alone - and getting to have a couple of WrestleMania title matches, one of which on last, which played second fiddle to Rock/Hogan and as a match was crap. In terms of great matches, he had them, but I think of him as like wrestlings Wayne Rooney - OK, he did a lot of great things, but for how long he was at it, they should have been more often than he managed. No consistency.

I think of Jericho has being one of the best midcarders of all time but rarely looked like he belonged at the top level unless he was verbally sparring with The Rock or wrestling Shawn Michaels. Yes, he's had a unique and long career, but I couldn't call him one of the best of all time by the combination of criteria that I'd consider. He's been, by and large, the best at being a solid 7 or 8 at everything for the longest time in the widest variety of places. But apart from a brief spell when wrestling was at its hottest, he's never been one of the best at particularly anything. IMHO.

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He's only ever been good in two short periods - when the Shield started and that feud with William Regal in FCW. Otherwise he's a one trick pony with piss weaker offence than Booker T. He's fucking shit.

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You are wrong. He's very good and has been having cracking matches for the past 2-3 years. So there.

Can't say I enjoyed him in his post Shield WWE run though where he was acting like a muppet, had shit hair and his arms got so skinny they looked they were going to fall off.

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