Chris Jericho has left WWE. He could be bigger than ever.

ODESSA Chris Jericho bounces barefoot in the converted gym in his garage, Ozzy blowing up overhead and a trainer in pads barking orders on his face.

Stroke! Kick! Stroke! To burst! There are thirty seconds left! Beat this clock!

Jerichos was sweating. His jaw is locked in a grimace; his long graying mane in a ball. Finished Y2J, the Lionheart, the ayatollah of Rock ‘n’ Rolla, the man of 1 004 catches, even his last character of wrestling, The Champion. Finished Chris Jericho the author, the actor, the rock star, the podcaster, the chameleon storyteller of Best week ever and Dancing with the stars.

Here in his house on Keystone Lake, it’s just Christopher Irvine, father of three, 49, sweating through his Bret Hart tank top, barefoot stained with kickboxing rose.

A year ago, Jericho, a Tampa Bay resident for more than two decades, signed on as renowned star of All Elite Wrestling, a successful venture funded by the Jacksonville Jaguar deep-pocket owners. This puts him squarely in competition with WWE, his casual employer since 1999.

And that means that when WWE hosts its iconic annual event this weekend at WrestleMania, Jericho is the first undisputed WWE champion, a WrestleMania veteran 13 times and, by most accounts, one of the best wrestlers versatile professionals will never be close. .

Judas! the coach engages.

Jericho plants his left foot and turns back in the Champion’s last finisher, the Judas effect. He hits a blind right elbow in the trainer’s cushion with a loud noise that splits through the Ozzy. Unlike its former paver, the walls of Jericho, it seems to be able to do real damage.

I wanted something that had never been done before, that I had never seen before, he said at the end of the rounds. Not just an entire movement, but a whole new story that I can tell.

He displays a cunning Hollywood smile.

No one has ever been expelled from the Judas, he says. Nobody will ever do it. And if they do, it will be a big problem.

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It is not WWE. Not entirely. Jericho has too much history with Vince McMahon for it to become personal. And he’s too smart to drag AEW into it.

But it’s not either do not about WWE. It’s a real story here, and if there’s one thing Jericho can feel, it’s a story. He’s too smart to leave one as juicy as a flaw with his old company, even though he knows WWE is not likely to participate.

They’ll probably never mention me again, he says. I don’t hold it against them. Why would they promote me in one way or another, when I am the leader of this opposing army, in their opinion, who is stealing money from their pockets?

Is Jericho just playing a heel, like he did so many times before? Maybe, maybe not. But it is notable that he continues to do so so deeply in his wrestling career.

He is a natural born marketer. Hell sells something until his death, says veteran wrestling announcer Jim Ross, who recruited Jericho to WWE, and now calls his matches with AEW. He is a student of this whole process. He is not an idiot. It is his own business.

Sometimes literally.

When Jericho and his family moved from another house in Odessa last year, he organized a garage sale to get rid of old trash, furniture and fishing rods with signed books and life-size cutouts. And in the great tradition of professional wrestling, he publicized it with a promotional video.

The next thing I know, he says, is that people are coming out in droves to buy my underwear.

Jéricho has a knack for this kind of thing, to throw hooks which seem at first sight ridiculous, but as often as not paid. Like doubling Y2J at the height of Y2K hysteria, or revealing a gadget where he dramatically scribbles the names of enemies on a notepad in the ring, shouting You just made the list! how the fans went crazy.

He has a little Ric Flair in him, says Ross. Flamboyant. Always do something to get someone’s attention.

In WWE, Jericho was a reliable artist who generally had McMahons ear. He sometimes walked past the writers of the company and went straight to the boss, believing that my ideas were better than most, and nine times out of 10, I think I’m right.

Did that make him a difficult employee? For the briefest of moments, the question gives him a break.

Am I difficult to work with? Maybe someone who used to work with men yes, and people who just want to get along, yes, “he says.” Are you looking for someone who will do their best to do the job well, to put on the best possible program and best possible scenario at the risk of harming people’s feelings? So yes, I am difficult to manage.

However: I won Vinces’ trust. And it takes a long time to get his true trust. Confidence to earn money. … He never told me, but indirectly, I think he regrets having lost me, because I was one of his generals. I’m not always right, but f – k if I don’t close 80 percent of the time.

*****

Son of NHL player Ted Irvine, Jericho grew up in Winnipeg, part of a long and distinguished line of great wrestling players from the Canadian Prairies. As a child, he says, all I wanted was to be in a rock’n’roll group and be a wrestler, and here I am 30 years later, doing both at the highest level.

Her bravado, of course. It is also difficult to argue.

As a wrestler, Jericho was a champion in Japan, Mexico and various American circuits before 1999, when he made his WWE debut by interrupting a Rock monologue. He was slightly undersized, but a great promo artist and storyteller in the ring. He could play heel or babyface with the same ease and make his opponents look like champions in the process. And he has reinvented his style so often that fans have started calling him professional wrestlers David Bowie.

Speaking of music, there’s Fozzy. What started in 1999 as Jerichos goofy metal cover band has become, over the years, a legitimate success. In 2017, they registered their first Top 10 on Billboards Main Rock graphic in Judas, which Jericho still uses for his ring music. Two subsequent singles also made it into the top 10, and the group opened for Iron Maiden and Kiss, among other heroes. When Guns N Roses plays in Tampa in August, says Jericho, I’m going to invite Slash and Duff for a barbecue the night before.

And theres more. His talent for filming anecdotes has led to several successful memories. His comic timing and the pop culture sponge of a spirit led him to performances with the comedy troupe Groundlings from L.A. and to roles in films like Magruber and Jay and silent Bob restart. He pitched with Cheryl Burke on Dancing with the stars. It’s the namesake of Chris Jerichos Rock ‘n’ Wrestling Rager at Sea, a cruise line that made a profit in 2019.

And then there’s her podcast, Talk is Jericho. Launched in 2013, the show featured dozens of wrestlers and industry players in-depth in the field, as well as film, music and political stars (Donald Trump Jr. was a guest guest last fall ). Most episodes get around 100,000 downloads; an episode starring AEW rival Jon Moxley grossed $ 1.5 million.

It’s a diverse resume that few wrestlers can match outside of the ring. This also allowed him to keep merchandise in the ring.

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All Elite Wrestling was founded by several wrestlers, including Cody (son of Dusty) Rhodes; and Tony Khan, son of the billionaire owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Shad Khan. Youngest Khan was a Jericho fan since the 90s. And with the wrestler who is no longer under WWE contract, they offered him more money than I have ever earned in my career, says Jericho .

Jericho has no stake in the business (believe me, I asked), but his star power has greased the wheels of the AEW television contract with TNT. He walked in as the heel face of the company, sneering at a title belt. Viewers listened and listened later Talk is Jericho for a behind the scenes scoop. As usual, Jericho kept saying and doing things to keep them coming back.

Here is an example. After winning the AEW Championship last fall, Jericho ceremoniously burst into a sad backstage buffet. He lambasted the cheap spread of olives and salami before spotting a bottle of champagne or, as he called it in a loud purring, a little sparkling.

It was half a second ad lib, an old quote from Stupid and even more stupid. That’s it. But social media ran with it, remixing the clip into songs and memes, taking the phrase a little “sparkling viral”.

The bulb of Jerichos has gone out. Within weeks, he had partnered with a Washington state vineyard over some sparkling sparkling wine. They produced 30,000 bottles, 10,000 of which to break even. They sold 25,000.

Behind the scenes of AEW, however, Jericho fulfills a role that is more difficult to define. He uses words like director, controller in a good way, tugging on the ropes. Ross calls him a producer, a trainer, a road agent, even a father figure.

Like many WWE alternatives, AEW is populated by artists from alternative circuits. Some don’t look or behave like WWE SuperStars, the acrobatic and nervous Jungle Boy; the Orange Cassidy ironic puzzle; skateboarder Darby Allin; even transgender female champion Nyla Rose. Coming from WWE, Jericho didn’t initially understand their appeal either.

But part of his job was to build them, helping AEW sow a crop of future stars, calling them wrestlers. Which, in this case, is yet another thing that Jericho has always done well. So he pushed Allen to lean on the skateboard gadget, spent 10 fierce minutes in the ring with Jungle Boy, asked Cassidy for tapes so he could study his skills and maybe book a game. He had Rose on Talk is Jericho, where the host admitted that he knew little about transgender issues in his trans woman life.

It wasn’t a one-man show, which Chris Im would say too, says Ross. But to say that we would be as advanced as we are currently, by obtaining an extension of TNT, by leaving a very successful pay-per-view, I would say that we would not be as far without Chris Jericho. He added instant credibility.

*****

Even before the coronavirus forced WWE to move WrestleMania out of Tampa and to its training center in Orlando, Jericho didn’t want it. Apart from an autograph (now canceled) signed at a non-WWE convention, he would have gone to bed with his family.

Instead, he continued to do things with Chris Jericho in AEW.

When the coronavirus forced AEW to film shows in March without audiences, Jericho was in an empty ring and spoke enthusiastically to a drone. (Deadspin, the next day, called him the biggest TV show this year, and possibly the last decade.) When social isolation became a cultural norm, Jericho broadcast a session of his home office live on Facebook. Nearly 160,000 fans listened.

While Jericho tends to minimize the AEW angle to WWE, he says his new employer allows more creative freedom than his old one.

After 30 years, I really know what I’m doing, he says. In WWE, I had that freedom, but there is a process to follow. There are a lot of endorsements and different heads of state to go through before the idea is approved.

He says he had good discussions with McMahon and that McMahon even offered to counter his agreement with AEW (although by that time Jericho had already signed). But he also knows that as long as he stays with AEW, some doors will remain closed behind him.

And for now, he agrees with that.

If I continue to work for the Khan family for the rest of my life, I will never enter the WWE Hall of Fame, he says. Do I mind? No. I mean, the Sex Pistols didn’t show up for theirs. I always liked it.

I am a Hall of Fame in the minds of people who want me to be in the Hall of Fame, he adds. Im a hall of famer in my mind. It’s all that matters.