Former WCW manager Sonny Onoo has detailed how Chris Jericho helped get the cruiserweight division noticed.
When it comes to the Monday Night Wars, many fans remember WCW’s NWO members as well as the likes of Sting and Goldberg going head-to-head with WWE’s best such as Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock. One thing that helped WCW stand out, however, was its cruiserweight division.
Chris Jericho Helped WCW Cruiserweights
Onoo appeared on the Perched on the Top Rope podcast and he revealed that Chris Jericho deserves credit for helping the WCW cruiserweights get some storyline direction.
“Storylines for cruiserweights didn’t really start until Chris Jericho started demanding more story background. So, if there was an Ultimo Dragon vs. Eddie Guerrero [match], you didn’t need a background, right? I mean, at least I didn’t. I think many of the fans will tell you they didn’t because they know how great these guys are going to perform. So the match was worth tuning in. You didn’t want to miss that. If you watch their show, if you want to go back and watch Nitro [cruiserweight matches] bridging into the second hour, where we go head to head against when WWE was putting on their show. So that, you know, when you’ve got stuff going on, you don’t want to miss that. You know, they didn’t want them to tune into their stuff. So they used these guys strategically, you know? A lot of the time, in the second hour or to open the show with a bang.”
Jericho was known to fight for a better spot when he was with WCW. He didn’t really end up getting his wish, so he signed with WWE. Jericho would end up being a multiple-time world champion in WWE. He is currently in AEW and is a former world champion with the promotion.
H/T to Fightful for the transcribed quotes
