Chris Jericho’s 31-year wrestling career does not appear to be coming to an end anytime soon. He was asked recently about how much longer he plans to wrestle in an interview with Newsweek. Jericho simply said he plans on wrestling until he doesn’t want to anymore.
“I think part of the reason I’ve had such longevity is that I go with the flow and I follow my heart,” Jericho said. “Did I ever expect to be 31 years on the job? I can’t say that I did, but I can’t say that I didn’t.”
“When people ask ‘how long are you going to do this,’ I say ‘I don’t know. When I feel like I don’t want to do it anymore.’ I don’t feel that way right now.”
Jericho made his professional debut at 19 years of age in 1990. Now 51 years old, his career has spanned more than 3 decades. In that time he’s wrestled in CMLL, FMW, Smoky Mountain Wrestling, WAR, ECW, WCW, WWE, NJPW, and now AEW.
“There’s really no reason to stop for me because it’s fun for me to work with this whole new generation of stars that are growing into their own and helping them,” Jericho continued. “I think when you kind of live in the now it makes things a lot better, a lot more important and a lot more special in what you are doing. I think we’ve done a great job with that and we’ve really only just begun in a lot of ways.”
“If I didn’t enjoy it and I didn’t have fun with it, I wouldn’t f**king do it,” Jericho said.
In WWE, Jericho became the first Undisputed World Champion in 2001. He’s also won the World Heavyweight Championship 5x. He holds the record for the most runs with the Intercontinental Championship with 9. Jericho has also won tag team gold in WWE 7x. In WCW, Jericho was a 4x cruiserweight champion and 1x TV champion. In AEW, he was the inaugural world champion.
Jericho has won the Wrestling Observer Wrestler of the Year award 3x. He won back-to-back in 08-09 and then again in 2019.