Wrestlers Who Had Heat With Chris Jericho

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Now in his 50s, Chris Jericho's longevity in wrestling is something to marvel at. The 30-plus-year veteran of the industry has had stops all around the world. He has wrestled on some of the biggest stages imaginable at the highest possible level for as long as any wrestler in the history of the sport. With Jericho's longevity comes the opportunity to make enemies inside and outside the ring. Being the distinguished veteran he is, Jericho's personality is arguably his greatest asset, as his peers tend to have a strong opinion of him, whether positive or negative.

Though Jericho may not be everybody's cup of tea, he has more than done his part to smooth things over with former foes. Several wrestlers have made nice with Jericho over the years, and even if they have not, many would be hard-pressed to deny Jericho's standing as one of the greatest, most influential wrestlers of his time. Nevertheless, one typically does not reach the heights Jericho has in professional wrestling without ruffling a few feathers along the way.

Here are 18 wrestlers who have or have had heat with Chris Jericho over Le Champion's three decades in wrestling.

The relationship between CM Punk and Chris Jericho has been tense, at best, ever since Punk's controversial exit from WWE in 2014. Perceived beef between the former WrestleMania opponents began when Punk made a vague remark about cutting people out of his life with agendas in his infamous appearance on Colt Cabana's "Art of Wrestling Podcast." "So if you're out there and I stopped talking to you, it's because you had an agenda," Punk said. "You weren't checking in on me because you were f*****g concerned about me. You wanted to be like 'oh, I spoke to Punk' and you wanted to use our private conversation as some sort of a weird f*****g way to grab hits, or whatever the f**k you call them." Enough people perceived the comments to be about Jericho that it caused "Y2J" to respond via the now-defunct TweetSecret app to deny having any sort of agenda when it came to Punk.

Seven years later, Punk and Jericho once again found themselves on the same wrestling television show. Upon arriving in AEW, Punk became the biggest signing in company history since Jericho and began to quickly assert himself backstage. However, Punk now appears to be on the outs with AEW after his infamous press conference and subsequent backstage brawl with The Elite at "All Out" in 2022. After the altercation took place, Fightful Select reported that Jericho, unhappy with Punk's actions, approached him, calling him "a cancer to the locker room, and a detriment to the company." 

Meanwhile, Jericho has also spoken on tensions between himself and Punk dating back to WWE stemming from an incident at a live event revolving around watching the gold medal men's hockey game at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Rob Van Dam and Chris Jericho are on good terms these days, but Van Dam used to take issue with "Y2J" for the ways in which he would involve himself in backstage politics. One particular encounter between the two ended with an irate RVD beating the tar out of Jericho on live television. 

The story goes that Van Dam was booked to do a run-in during a Jericho match on "WWE Raw" in an attempt to showcase the angry, more aggressive side of his character. Agents and producers had already been in Van Dam's ear throughout the day, reminding him to think of something that makes him angry before hitting the ring. "Jericho said something to me before he went out there," Van Dam explained on "Monte & The Pharaoh." "I already at this time was having issues adapting to the politics there that Jericho had already been familiar with. Chris said to me, 'pretend like I hit on your wife.' It was the last straw."

Van Dam proceeded to do exactly what he was instructed to do, but carried the anger with him for days following the angle and has openly spoken about his strong distaste for negative energy. Jericho and Van Dam have since buried the hatchet with Van Dam having made a few appearances on "Talk is Jericho" over the years. 

The animosity between Chris Jericho and Bill Goldberg began in WCW, where Jericho had a front-row seat to Goldberg's main event push. While in WCW, Jericho poked fun at Goldberg, at times parodying his entrance and introducing Ralphus, an overweight middle-aged man, as his own personal security. By the time Goldberg reached WWE, Jericho had a four-year head start and was already established as one of the company's top heels. During Goldberg's first night on "WWE Raw," Jericho recalled in his book, "Undisputed: How to Become World Champ in 1,372 Easy Steps" that Goldberg had been ranting about his perceived inability of Jericho to properly sell for his opponents.

"I marched straight into the dressing room and saw [Kevin] Nash sitting in the corner like a giant praying mantis acting like he owned the place, while Billy Boy [Goldberg] sat across from him with a self-indulgent smile on his face," Jericho wrote. "Throwing caution to the wind, I stood in front of him and stared directly into his eyes. 'I heard you were saying some stuff about me during my match. I don't know if you realize it, but things have changed. This isn't WCW. If you have something to say to me, say it to my face.'" Jericho went on to detail the "fight," which ended with Jericho catching Goldberg in a front face lock. 

Years later, Goldberg appeared on "Talk is Jericho" to bury the hatchet with Jericho once and for all, even admitting to "Y2J" getting the better of him in the fight. "You know, things in life happened for a reason and I believe that one was because of the true animosity you and I had for each other," Goldberg told Jericho (h/t TJR Wrestling). "It was a stage that was set by other people and we just followed out the storyline. You know, I will apologize to the end of my days for that."

Braun Strowman is probably not the most popular man in his own locker room right now, let alone in the modern wrestling landscape. Strowman, who recently returned to WWE, has made his share of controversial remarks in the past, but put a target on his back when he sarcastically tweeted that his match with Omos at Crown Jewel in 2022 received a 47-star rating. He also took shots at wrestlers with a more acrobatic style, referring to them as "flippy floppers" who bag groceries at Kroger.

Several wrestlers, many of which share a locker room with Strowman, did not take kindly to "The Monster Among Men's" comments, but Chris Jericho also took the time to weigh in. In response to Strowman's tweet (which has since been deleted), Jericho himself tweeted, "I used to bag groceries." Jericho and Strowman have worked together in the past on "Monday Night Raw." Jericho even tried to give Strowman one of his scarves in an attempt to appease the monster in a memorable "Raw" segment. 

Following Strowman's divisive tweet, it appears questionable whether the two will ever be spotted in the same ring again. However, with several wrestlers having made amends with Jericho over the years and vice-versa, anything is possible.

Matt Riddle and Chris Jericho ended up in the crosshairs of one another in 2019 despite working for two different companies. Riddle is one of Bill Goldberg's biggest critics, but upon trashing Goldberg for his performance against The Undertaker at "Crown Jewel" 2019, a Twitter user tweeted Riddle a passage from one of Jericho's books about his experience with Bob Brown in Winnipeg. In the passage, Jericho wrote of the importance of building up opponents instead of cutting them down for factors such as age and physical attributes. Jericho, perhaps unaware of the context, quote tweeted the user, telling Riddle to "listen and learn."

Riddle did not take kindly to Jericho's tweet and responded in a lengthy video dressing down former WCW wrestlers such as Goldberg, Jericho, and Lance Storm. "Jericho, you came at me," Riddle said. "'Listen and learn, kid.' I'll beat the s**t out of you. I don't understand that; I don't get it. You're soft as hell. Maybe [you could pose a threat] back in your prime but even then, I would have beat the s**t out of you then, so listen and learn from me, bro. Shut your mouth." Jericho then responded with a video of his own, mocking Riddle's physical appearance while referring to him as a "minor league wannabe" in the video's caption.

Chris Jericho recently found himself in the middle of another social media spat with a member of the WWE roster when Shotzi Blackheart made a joke about a fall he took in the 2021 Blood and Guts match. Without replying directly to a clip from the match, Shotzi posted a GIF of a young woman gracefully falling backward onto a bed. Wrestling fans quickly caught on to what the GIF was in reference to, however, grabbing the attention of Jericho himself. "Y2J" took major offense to the tweet, telling his fans during his "Saturday Night Special" stream on his YouTube channel that anyone who wants to chide wrestlers for putting their bodies on the line "can really f**k off." "I could say some names," Jericho added. "There's a couple of chicks in WWE who said some stuff and they should probably not have said that. They probably weren't trained any better, and in six months they'll probably be asking us for a job anyways and I'll remember that, so we'll leave it at that."

Jericho's strong response prompted Shotzi to explain herself in an interview with talkSPORT. "I meant no offense to Chris Jericho," Shotzi said. "I thought, honestly, the match was great. But, you know what, like, take a joke. Take a joke, bud! It's just a GIF. Laugh at it and move on. It's live TV. Things happen, it's pro wrestling. Don't take life too seriously is all I have to say." 

Given the fact that Kevin Nash is the one who coined the term "vanilla midgets" used to degrade WCW's cruiserweight division, many might be surprised to find there is no current animosity between Nash and Chris Jericho. However, this was not always the case. 

Their political issues in WCW aside, the real beef between Nash and Jericho stemmed from an interview Nash gave to Grantland in 2012 when he said wrestling died when the late Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero, two of Jericho's best friends in wrestling, became world champions. "Has business been the same since that WrestleMania?" Nash questioned. "Has it come close to the Austin era? Has it come close to the NWO or the Hogan era? You put two f*****g guys that were great workers that were the same height as the f*****g referees, and I'm sorry, man." He then compared wrestling promotions that put "a 5'7 guy as [their] world champion" to porn movies starring men with small members.

Jericho took offense to the comment, tweeting that the WWE's worst year for business was 1995, the year Nash, known as Diesel at the time, held the world championship. Nash has since clarified his comments in his episode of "Timeline: The History of WCW" for Kayfabe Commentaries. While he admitted he and Jericho never saw eye to eye, he did detail a story of drinking vodka with Jericho on a plane during the time Nash filmed his parts for "Magic Mike." Nash also came to the defense of Jericho after NBA Twitter shamed Le Champion for looking "old and fat."

Few wrestlers have spewed venom in Chris Jericho's direction in recent years the way Vampiro has. The two have long had issues with one another dating back to their time together in Mexico. Jericho detailed the initial heat between the two in his first book, "A Lion's Tale," accusing Vampiro of lying to his face, politicking behind his back, and intentionally pitching him bad ideas in an attempt to sabotage his career. Responding to comments Jericho has made over the years, Vampiro went on a pointed rant against Jericho in a shoot interview with Highspots. "This might sound rude, and I'm sure it's going to provoke a reaction, but [Chris] didn't exist for me," Vampiro said. "It's not that I had a bad thing to say, I just couldn't give a f***."

Jealousy, particularly on the music end of things seems to be the cause of Vampiro's past problems with Jericho, as detailed in an interview the Mexican legend conducted with Chris Van Vliet (h/t Fightful). "F*** Chris Jericho," Vampiro said. "I think he's an awesome role model for so many things. But me, as a person, who knows Chris, I think he's a poser in a lot of things. I don't believe in him as a musician or as a rock 'n' roll guy. He was the cool kid in school that I didn't want to be a part of, and that bothers him." 

Music-related jabs aside, the former "Lucha Underground" star has also gone on record to say he has no issues with Jericho in the present day. He even apologized in a follow-up interview with Van Vliet, crediting Jericho for "using his stardom to open other doors," and providing a template for younger wrestlers to follow.

For someone with no shoot-fighting background, Chris Jericho has certainly held his own in physical backstage altercations. Jericho and Lesnar worked in the same company for several years but it took until "SummerSlam" in 2016 for the two main eventers to end up on each other's bad side. The issue between the two began when Lesnar returned to the locker room following his controversial main event match with Randy Orton, which saw Lesnar bust "The Viper" open with a "hard way" elbow. Unaware that this was actually the planned finish to the match, Jericho confronted "The Beast Incarnate."

"I thought the finish of that match was very brutal and very violent," Jericho said on an episode of "You're Welcome! With Chael Sonnen." "I didn't know if Randy was okay and I was checking on Randy, my friend. [Randy and I have] always been pretty close. You know, I said something and [Lesnar] said something and the next thing you know we're nose to nose yelling at each other." Jericho went on to admit in the Sonnen interview and others that Lesnar would smoke him if the two actually came to blows. Meanwhile, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer reported that backstage producer Michael Hayes escalated the situation. When Jericho approached Hayes asking about the legitimacy of the finish, Hayes gave a non-answer, setting Jericho off just in time for Lesnar's arrival backstage.