Barry Windham vs Chris Jericho

[Grimmas]

1 minute ago, Loss said:

I would argue that the greatest wrestler is the one who had the greatest artistic career, but I'm probably opening a can of worms by saying so. 

That's certainly a debate that can happen, maybe in another thread or format

[Matt D]

33 minutes ago, Loss said:

No, and no one is talking about that. He's labeled an underachiever because the 1980s didn't culminate in him becoming a main eventer and world champion.

His 1989 WWF run not accounting to anything (except for a couple of fun PTW matches that no one rated until 15 years later), too.

[Grimmas]

12 minutes ago, Cien Caras said:

The thing with Jericho is he’s just...shit. Nothing natural, everything is so forced especially his “charisma” and simply not good enough to be the kind of wrestler he thinks he is. Actually in many ways the complete opposite of Barry Windham

seconded.

[funkdoc]

i stand by ‘98 Jericho as the best year either of these guys ever had, but obviously a lot of that case rests on stuff outside the ring. aside from that you can count me as another one left wanting by him

[Kadaveri]

I think something Jericho has to be given credit for is his ability to get almost any act over. The one exception to this is he couldn't make being buried by Triple H work, but other than that is there any significant period of Jericho's career post-1998 where he wasn't getting good reactions from crowds? And this is across multiple promotions now he's had NJPW and AEW runs as well. That all has to count for something. Barry Windham just seemed like a totally dead act for most of the 90s.

That being said, I'm not sure who I'd rank higher at this point.

[MoS]

Jericho's post-2016 non-WWE run is absolutely a plus for him and was great until the Orange Cassidy matches, where he significantly slowed and looked older than he ever had. His NJPW run was great, his match with Omega was a classic while his Naito and Tanahashi matches were very good to great. He needed to be the AEW world champion if they wanted to have a shot at actually surviving 2019, and to his credit, he was a great champion. You might not like his promos and his matches were not as good as his NJPW matches, but he was solidly putting wrestlers over, getting complete unknowns to look good in the ring and look like stars. Without him, Scorpio Sky, Jungle Boy, Orange Cassidy, Darby Allin, and Sammy Guevera would have never had a chance to show their talent and to become the next generation of promising AEW stars. That is a huge credit to Jericho, and his AEW world title run was the best US heel world champ run in decades, maybe since Flair himself. He proved himself as a major drawing card who, through his storylines and in-ring work, has managed to be a key player in establishing a major alternative in US wrestling for the first time in 20 years. His last year in AEW has been terrible and keeps getting worse with each passing week, and I desperately hope MJF ends his career and sends him into retirement soon, but what he has done since the last GWE is objectively impressive. 

As far as a comparison with Windham goes, that's an interesting topic. It's funny because if one were to simply watch a string of Windham matches and a string of Jericho matches, Barry would completely blow him out of the water. In a poll that asks me to pick who is better, the answer is Windham every time without a second's worth of thought. But while actually constructing a GWE list, I place a lot of importance on historical context and larger macro-achievements over an extended period of time. So, depending on what my mood is or how my list is looking in 2026, I might very well say "Windham is much better" while submitting a ballot which has Jericho but not Windham on it. It sounds contradictory, but in my mind it really is not. 

[strobogo]

Chris Jericho has not been involved in a good singles match since 2010 or 2012. All the NJ matches sucked. The first match with Kenny was passable on an unusually weak WK. Every match he's had in AEW has sucked. If there was a tag or multi man match that was any good, he has undoubtable been the worst part of it. Jericho has so many years of his career that are an absolute blur of cringey promos and completely unmemorable matches. He's basically an older, shorter, pudgier Dolph Ziggler for most of the past 20 or so years. 

[Boss Rock]

I still go Barry, but I think Jericho's NJPW run was largely good and proof he could adapt with age. I thought his matches with Cody, Mox, and OC (the first one anyway) were good but he's obviously way over the hill now.