(3/12) Best Matches Series: The Best Matches of Chris Jericho (Season 5 Episode 3)

joshandstupodcast
Jul 22, 2020
2 min read

Welcome to Season 5 of my Best Matches series: where I look at the best matches of a certain wrestler. This season I look at one of the best wrestling reinventors of all time (my opinion, of course, haha) and distant family member Chris Jericho (no proof of that, just that his real-life surname is Irvine so you never know haha).

I'll look at his time in WCW, his battles in the 2000s with the likes of Triple and The Rock, his late WWE career, his time at New Japan etc. If you want to look at my previous series then click on the link below.

(These posts will be once a week and not every day as in the previous series. So every Monday at 1 pm (UK Time) these reviews will be up)

Check out the last four seasons:

Kenny Omega (Season 1)

https://joshandstupodcast.wixsite.com/jswrestlingpod/post/all-posts-from-season-one-of-best-matches-series-kenny-omega-in-njpw

Becky Lynch (Season 2)

https://joshandstupodcast.wixsite.com/jswrestlingpod/post/all-posts-from-season-two-of-best-matches-series-the-best-of-becky-lynch-s-in-nxt-wwe

Stone Cold Steve Austin (Season 3)

https://joshandstupodcast.wixsite.com/jswrestlingpod/post/all-post-from-season-three-of-best-matches-series-best-matches-of-stone-cold-steve-austin

Eddie Guerrero (Season 4)

https://joshandstupodcast.wixsite.com/jswrestlingpod/post/all-posts-from-season-four-of-best-matches-series-eddie-guerrero

Next, we look at Chris Jericho's time in WCW when he defended his WCW Cruiserweight Championship against Dean Malenko at WCW Uncensored in 1998.

Season 5 Episode Three

WCW Cruiserweight Championship Match Chris Jericho vs. Dean Malenko WCW Uncensored 1998 • March 15, 1998

Wow, an amazing well put together technical match here, between two of the best. This was the famous match that was set up by 1004 hold's promo on Nitro (which was great to see haha). It had quick changes at the beginning which looked great and Jericho being a great heel was constantly blaming the ref for not being able to put Malenko away.

But my god Dean Malenko (as I say it a lot haha) but I forgot how technically gifted he was and how good he was in the ring as he was brilliant in this match. The crowd were totally into this and loved when Malenko made his comeback and some of the moves these two did were amazing and you didn’t really know who was going to win.

But the Liontamer (the Wall of Jericho haha) locked in by Jericho on Malenko he tapped and Chris gets the win and retains. I understand why people rated this match and their rivalry as they played off each other very well, with the loudmouth Jericho against cold head Malenko it was a perfect match

But this was Jericho's best run in his career at this time and it shows he had something about him (sadly no one in WCW thought so). it's funny that two years later they would be both in WWF. A really great match up here and if you want to see Jericho at his high in WCW this match will show you everything you need to know, definitely check this out.

Verdict: 8 out of 10

Watch The Full Match on WWE Network (Go to 36 minutes into the video)

https://watch.wwe.com/episode/Uncensored-1998-10790

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