#FiftyMatches: Y2J And The Glass Ceiling

Chris Jericho vs. Triple H

Last Man Standing Match

Fully Loaded 2000
July 23, 2000

"...the end may be near for Chris Jericho." -Jim Ross.

There are few things that frustrate me in professional wrestling as much as the career of Chris Jericho.


I'm a fan. I've been a fan of Chris Jericho since his days in World Championship Wrestling. Even back then, it was frustrating. Jericho's career clearly stalled out, leaving fans wanting more. Their prayers were answered when news came across that Jericho had signed on with the World Wrestling Federation. He arrived in a big way in late 1999, and it seemed like everything was in place for him to become a major star.

Unfortunately, from almost the very first moments of Chris Jericho's debut on Monday Night Raw, there were problems. At the time, most fans were oblivious to the issues Jericho was encountering backstage. In the book he authored on his days in the WWF/WWE (Undisputed: How To Become The World Champion In 1,372 Easy Steps), Jericho talks about his struggles adapting to the company's in-ring style and clashing with Vince McMahon and his fellow performers. It meant fans would have to wait before they would see the very best of what Chris Jericho had to offer.

Then came an episode of Raw in April 2000. After weeks of prodding WWF Champion Triple H with insults directed at his then on-screen wife, Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley, everything fell into place for Chris Jericho.

The video proves that on one night, Chris Jericho outsmarted and outmaneuvered Triple H in almost every way to become WWF Champion. It should be one of the defining moments in Jericho's professional wrestling career. There's just one problem.

It never happened.

Months after the "phantom" title win, Chris Jericho and Triple H finally met to settle the score in a Last Man Standing match at Fully Loaded 2000. This was an interesting pay per view card. Established stars had carried the WWF as far as they could by the summer of 2000, and clearly the search was on for the company's next main event performer.

Fully Loaded 2000 was promoted as a triple main event, featuring three rising stars (Jericho, Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit) taking on three established ones (Triple H, The Undertaker and The Rock). Speculation was rampant during the weeks leading up to this event. Would the WWF make three new stars in one night? If anyone was in line for such a push, surely it would be the man who had "won" the WWF Championship just months earlier, right?

Despite a valiant and courageous effort, Chris Jericho lost by the narrowest of margins. And that was that. After a brief altercation with Triple H the next night on Raw, Chris Jericho was sidetracked into matches with X-Pac, Kane and Chris Benoit.

Jericho's fans were not the only ones left frustrated by Fully Loaded 2000. All three established stars were victorious. The night may have been best summed up with a punchline I recall reading in a review shortly after the event: "Three Main Events. Zero Elevation."

If you're reading this, you know enough about professional wrestling to know that Triple H does not have the most sterling reputation when it comes to backstage politics. From a fan's point of view, performers such as Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, The Rock and others appear to spend much of this era in the WWF giving and giving, while Triple H is taking and taking.

Most of those performers eventually got their on-screen revenge, but this match at Fully Loaded 2000 is as close as Chris Jericho ever got. Today, his many fans are still waiting. They've waited through the main event of WrestleMania X-8, through a grudge match inside Hell In A Cell, through the first Elimination Chamber, and into a tag team feud involving Shawn Michaels and Big Show. Nothing.

So, this is the defining image of Chris Jericho for me, putting in a superb effort on a big stage, but not getting in return the one thing he needs to truly cement himself as the main event performer he should have been for the WWF/WWE. By the end of the summer of 2000, the man who scored that great upset title win over Triple H was gone forever.

Despite many notable wins over the years over great competitors such as The Rock, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho's career is forever stained by the one big win he never got - a win over Triple H.

It never happened.