Chris Jericho Lists Some Of The Matches That Stand Out Most From His Career

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of his pro wrestling debut, Chris Jericho has written a book chronicling his entire career up to this point. The Complete List of Jericho: 30 Years of Smashes, Matches, & Hits is available on pre-order and as the name suggests, it lists out every single one of his 2,725 matches he's had in his career.

Most wrestlers don't even get to 10 years in the business, let alone 30, and Jericho explained why that number is so significant to him on Busted Open.

"When you're talking about the career of Chris Jericho, I don't think you're ever going to see it again. I'm putting out a book. The presale starts [October 7] ?It might not be out for a couple of months because apparently, The Rona [COVID-19], has stopped publishing as you know ? I don't know why ? but I've kept a list of every single match I've ever had since [my debut on] October 2, 1990," stated Jericho. "And I still have the piece of paper where I wrote number one: October 2, 1990, against Lance Storm at Ponoka [Alberta, Canada] Moose Hall, what the finish was, what's the star rating, and how much money I made. In every single match that I ever had, I wrote that down.

"So, you're talking about a 30-year span of when the business first started. Tommy [Dreamer] can attest this – you still weren't allowed to go over spots before the match. You still weren't allowed to talk to your opponents outside of the arena or in the arena. If you were seen talking to a bad guy and you're a good guy, you would get fired, or fined, or whatever, all the way up to now and today. So, it really is cool to kind of see this history that I have come in from one generation to the next, and I've been able to document it every step of the way. So, I don't think you're ever going to see that again and, in that respect, it is a very cool night for me after all these years."

During his last stint in WWE, Jericho made "The List", one of the defining gimmicks of his legendary career. But no one knew that Jericho had an actual list of every single one of his matches from the very beginning, and he explained why he recorded details on each of his matches.

"I'll tell you why I started doing it, because my first day of The Hart Brothers' Pro Wrestling Camp, Keith Hart was there. It was the only day we saw him after he collected our money and split, but he said, 'Do you have any questions?' He kind of explained what was going to happen for the next two to three months in the school, and I asked him, 'How many matches have you had?' And he was really annoyed," recalled Jericho.

"'Nobody keeps track of that stuff. Why would you even ask that?' And I thought to myself, 'That's really weird', because if I wanted to know how many games Wayne Gretzky has played in, I can go over to the library ? remember those – and find a record book and look up Wayne Gretzky – played 1,516 games and all these stats. And I said, 'You know what? I'm going to keep a list of every match that I ever had by hook or by crook.' Whether I have one or whether I have 2,725, which is what I have after [Dynamite], I'll keep a list of it. And I did, and that's the reason why."

Jericho's book also contains Top 10 lists of his favorite matches, opponents, arenas, and so forth. He gave a little sneak peak of one of those lists when he was asked what his favorite match ever was.

"It's really hard to say your favorite. What's your absolute, gun-to-the-head favorite? And before, I used to say what's your favorite match ? the match I had with Shawn Michaels for the WWE World Title Ladder Match in Portland, Oregon, I believe in 2008 of October. That's one of them because it's the match that not only was it a great match, a perfect match, it was the culmination of a seven-month-long story that was originally just supposed to be a one and done," revealed Jericho. "It was supposed to a one-month story, and Shawn and I were like, 'Why are we rushing this? Neither one of us are doing anything', and we created this whole amazing, probably textbook of how-to-put-together an amazing angle. And if I still worked in WWE, I would have suggested they do a special on it for the Network because it really was a textbook how do you put together a great storyline."

Jericho also cited another match outside of WWE as one of his favorites, and that match was also the inspiration behind Tony Khan launching AEW.

"Kenny Omega, The Tokyo Dome, January 4, 2018 ? that was the match. A) That was my first match away from WWE in almost 20 years. B) It showed what a draw Chris Jericho was because that match did an extra 15,000 tickets, and sales, and bought an extra 30 percent in New Japan World's subscriptions and C) It showed Tony Khan that there was a segment of the fanbase who were looking for something different from WWE, and it was basically where the spark of AEW began. So, that was a big one," stated Jericho.

"And I'll do another one with Jon Moxley, where I dropped the title to him, February 29th of this year. A mere 10 days before the lockdown. I thought that was a great story with a great payoff and a great finish. But there are so many other ones that I can mention. But if you want to go — Ultimo Dragon from 1995 at the Sumo Arena. That's the match that got me hired in ECW and WCW. I have to mention that, as well. So, there are quite a few side posts along this Chris Jericho highway for sure."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Busted Open with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Mehdy Labriny contributed to this article.