Chris Jericho Isn’t A Fan Of His First WrestleMania Match

Chris Jericho has rightfully cemented his place as a legend of the squared circle. The leader of the Jericho Appreciation Society has wrestled for top promotions around the world. That being said, not all of his matches can be winner.

After a creatively-unfulfilled career in Ted Turner’s WCW, Jericho landed in Vince McMahon’s WWE (then WWF) during the latter years of the Monday Night Wars. His debut against The Rock is one of the greatest debuts in pro wrestling.

Months later, the Millennium Man found himself in a triple-threat match against two other future stars of the company in Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit. The three were booked in a two out of three falls match at WrestleMania 2000.

Jericho recently appeared on The Kurt Angle Show to talk about various things including the triple threat match at WrestleMania. As the Lion Heart put it himself, he isn’t a fan of the match because it made no sense.

“It was a three-way match and whoever won the first fall won the first belt, whoever won the second fall won the second belt. Kurt was in the unenviable position of losing both his titles without being pinned.’ I pinned Chris for one, he pinned me for the other.

“He won the Intercontinental and I won the European. Chris won first and I won second. It didn’t make sense. Why would you have the Intercontinental Championship decided first, which was a famous legendary belt, and the European title second, which is not as high up.

“I remember going to Pat (Patterson) and saying, ‘We should change the order of who wins first or who wins the titles. If you want me to win last, put the Intercontinental Title on me and the European on Chris. If you want it to stay the same, have me win the European first.’

“I wasn’t trying to politic for the Intercontinental Championship, although it would come across that way. I was like, ‘I can’t talk to Vince about this because he’s going to think I’m trying to politic for the Intercontinental Championship.’

“I went to talk to Pat because he’s smart about what’s going on. ‘Ah, it doesn’t matter. It’s what Vince wants to do, it’s not worth fighting for.’ None of us had any power at the time anyway, so I just did it. I remember thinking, ‘it makes no fucking sense!’

“Considering it was the three of us and all the great matches the three of us had together, I remember thinking that one didn’t go the way I wanted it to. Maybe it was just me, I don’t even think I watched it back, maybe the crowd wasn’t too hot, but something about it, I just didn’t feel worked.”

Jericho went on to win the Intercontinental Championship a record nine times during his time with the WWE. He also has the distinction of being the company’s first-ever undisputed champion.

What’s your take on this story? Sound off in the comments!