Chris Jericho of Aew Star became a famous name during the WCW era, and a few years later its star power increased in WWE. However, he admits that his short time spent at ECW made him realize in the world of wrestling.
Jericho remembers that in the 90s, the place ECW went for wrestlers if they weren’t able to join WWE or ECW, and that was the place ECW would go to for wrestlers and tried to step into promotions for a long time, but ECW Booker Paul Heyman called despite things like Mick Foley and Perry Saturn. Heyman eventually called and asked him to join the ECW.
“Anyway, I think it was literally a year after I started calling Paul E – around February 1996. [saying] ‘Chris Jericho, Paul Heyman [here]. I’ve been trying to grasp you all year round. ” Jericho said in his recent appearance at Horror, Rock & Wrestling Fest 2025. And finally, I think he was ready to take me. It’s funny because a lot of people think I’m like the ECW original or spend a lot of time there, but I actually wrestled with 18 games (9 weekends, 2 weekends), so I played a total of 18 games in four or five months. But that was enough to put me on the map. Again, other than smoky mountain wrestling with Jim Cornett, it was the first time I’ve really done actual exposure wrestling in the US. It was like where everything really started taking off after that. ”
Jericho’s run at ECW in 1996 eventually got him a job at WCW, joining him a year later, then in 1999 at WWE.
