Chris Jericho has been with All Elite Wrestling since 2019, but he’s competed on the Grandest Stage of Them All more than a few times throughout his career.
At WrestleMania 2000 Kurt Angle defended the Intercontinental Championship and the European Championship against Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho in a triple threat match with a unique stipulation. It was decided that whoever scored the first pin would become Intercontinental Champion, and whoever scored the second pin would win the European Championship.
Chris Jericho recently discussed the match during an appearance on the Kurt Angle Show, and he noted that he didn’t think it made sense that the Intercontinental Championship was decided first.
“It was a three-way match and whoever won the first fall won the first belt, whoever won the second fall won the second belt. Kurt was in the unenviable position of losing both his titles without being pinned. I pinned Chris for one, he pinned me for the other. He won the Intercontinental and I won the European. Chris won first and I won second. It didn’t make sense. Why would you have the Intercontinental Championship decided first, which was a famous legendary belt, and the European title second, which is not as high up.
I remember going to Pat (Patterson) and saying, ‘We should change the order of who wins first or who wins the titles. If you want me to win last, put the Intercontinental Title on me and the European on Chris. If you want it to stay the same, have me win the European first.’ I wasn’t trying to politic for the Intercontinental Championship, although it would come across that way. I was like, ‘I can’t talk to Vince about this because he’s going to think I’m trying to politic for the Intercontinental Championship.’ I went to talk to Pat because he’s smart about what’s going on. ‘Ah, it doesn’t matter. It’s what Vince wants to do, it’s not worth fighting for.’ None of us had any power at the time anyway, so I just did it. I remember thinking, ‘it makes no f**king sense!’”
Jericho went on to say that he thought he always had great matches with Angle and Benoit, but he didn’t feel that the triple threat at WrestleMania 2000 worked.
H/T Fightful
