"Lionheart" marches forward

This Sunday night, at Survivor Series, Chris Jericho faces his toughest challenge, since winning the World Heavyweight Title. He is set to wrestle the returning John Cena. Many Jerichoholics worry that their hero may soon taste defeat. It's not that Cena is a better wrestler, because he's not. The problem here is that the WWE has been pushing this guy down everyone's throats for years now, and it would appear that Jericho is simply keeping the belt warm for him.

Since the beginning of his career, wrestling in independent promotions throughout Canada, and as he journeyed to Mexico, Japan and even Germany, Jericho has established himself as one of the best in the sport. He has held championships all over the world. He first made a name for himself, in the US, wrestling for ECW. He was quite successful, winning the ECW World TV Title during his time there, in 1996.

Later that year, he went to WCW. Despite terrible booking, that made him the worst kind of babyface possible, his natural charisma and exceptional talents were able to shine through. He established himself by winning the WCW World Cruiserweight Title, multiple times, as well as winning the WCW World TV Title, multiple times. Along with Benoit, Guerrero, Saturn, Raven and others, he was one of the work horses of WCW. While the stale main event scene bored fans to tears, the undercard kept them excited and gave them their money's worth. Still, he hit the glass ceiling. He was never given the opportunity to make it in the main event, despite possessing a great amount of talent. Many were hoping that he would return to ECW, yet he surprised us all by debuting in the WWF.

Once in WWF, Chris Jericho was given the chance to make it big. He quickly established himself by winning the WWF Intercontinental Title, having great matches with Chris Benoit, Eddy Guerrero and Kurt Angle, and also the WWF European Title. In early 2000, he even defeated HHH for the WWF Title, though the decision was reversed. Either way, the fan reaction was insane and anyone with two working brain cells could see that Chris Jericho was a license to print money. He had everything that Shawn Michaels had, but more of it. More talented and more charismatic, it seemed logical that he would be a main event player in no time.

By mid-2001, it appeared that the time was right for Jericho to ascend to the top, but he did not. WWF held back, for whatever reason. Finally, in October, he received a shot at, and won, the WCW World Heavyweight Title. By defeating The Rock, he had finally won "the big one". However, they killed any momentum that he had built up by having him job the belt back to The Rock, in November. On 9 December 2001, he defeated The Rock to regain the WCW World Title. Within twenty minutes, he defeated Steve Austin, as well, to win the WWF Title, thus becoming the first ever Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion. He went on to defeat RVD, The Rock, Austin, Big Show, Kurt Angle and Taz in title defenses, before being jobbed out to HHH at Wrestlemania 18. Not long after, he was wrestling the likes of Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair, as well as winning several more Intercontinental and Tag Team titles. All of this before Cena had even debuted in WWE.

Since his return, Chris Jericho has won the Intercontinental Title for the 8th time, he's dominated a feud with Shawn Michaels and he has won the World Heavyweight Championship, twice. He has all the momentum in the world, as the top heel in the company and a respected veteran. Yet, it is guaranteed that WWE will drop the ball and put the belt back on Cena. It wouldn't make any sense, but that is what they are going to do. If Jericho could defeat this particular challenger and retain the title, then there will be no more doubt that his place as a bonafide main eventer has been cemented, once and for all. Unfortunately, this title reign is as good as dead.

Just a few of Chris Jericho's accomplishments:

NWA World Middleweight Championship (1 time)
ECW World Television Championship (1 time)
PWI Most Hated Wrestler of the Year (2002)
PWI ranked him #4 of the 500 best singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2002
WCW Cruiserweight Championship (4 times)
WCW World Television Championship (1 time)
WCW World Heavyweight Championship (2 times) (Last)
WWF European Championship (1 time)
WWF Hardcore Championship (1 time)
WWF/E Intercontinental Championship (8 times) (Most Reigns)
WWF Undisputed Championship (1 time) (First)
WWF/E World Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Chris Benoit (1), The Rock (1), and Christian (1)
World Heavyweight Championship (2 times, current)
Ninth WWF Triple Crown Champion
Third WWF Grand Slam Champion
WAR International Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
WAR International Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Gedo (First)