Chris Jericho is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, in part due to his ability to reinvent himself and make any gimmick work immediately.
Whether he was The Millennium Man, Le Champion or even just a well-spoken, suited heel, he had always had the attention of the crowd and made his character work.
The former WWE and AEW Champion has had hit after hit and always seemingly lands whatever he is given.
Apart from once.
They can’t all be hits, as Chris Jericho showed when he attempted to become the fierce rival of the legendary Jushin “Thunder” Liger. His time as Super Liger in New Japan Pro Wrestling was an almighty failure and is one of the few black marks on his illustrious career in professional wrestling.
NJPW Brought Chris Jericho In To Be Super Liger In 1997
Chris Jericho made his debut for New Japan Pro Wrestling in 1997, although it was not in the way his fans would have expected.
The then-WCW star hadn’t wrestled for the company before, but he still had experience wrestling in Japan. He debuted in Japan in 1991 with FMW before having a two-year run with the promotion Wrestling and Romance, or WAR, as it was less embarrassingly known.
In those companies, he wrestled under the names Lionheart or Lion Do. A match with Ultimo Dragon in WAR attracted the interest of Paul Heyman and earned him a contract with ECW, which later allowed him to join WCW and WWE.
He left Japan for the US in 1996 and only returned after making the jump to WCW. He wasn’t doing much in the company up to that point, at least not enough to be considered an asset Eric Bischoff couldn’t afford to lose.
Because of that, they let Chris Jericho go on a tour with New Japan Pro Wrestling. The Canadian spent nine months of the year in total with NJPW, from his debut on January 4th at the Tokyo Dome to his final match at the Yokohama Arena in September 1997.
Despite his growing name value in the United States, NJPW bookers didn’t want “Chris Jericho” on their roster. Instead, they had ideas for a new gimmick for him that would put up against one of the greatest junior heavyweights in the history of the promotion in Jushin Liger.
Jushin Liger is a legend in Japan for his innovative work as a high-flying junior heavyweight before transitioning to a more technical wrestler as he grew older. His gimmick was based on an anime character of the same name and is one of the few anime-based gimmicks that succeeded in NJPW.
In keeping with Japanese wrestling tradition, the plan was for Jericho to portray an evil version of Jushin Liger. Just like Tiger Mask had Black Tiger, Jushin Liger would have Super Liger to contest with.
Chris Jericho would ostensibly be a clone of the Japanese star and build towards a huge clash that would likely have seen him unmasked by his rival.
The Super Liger character looked almost identical to Jushin Liger’s iconic look. He wore the same style of mask as the Japanese star and a similar full-length suit to match. However, Super Liger’s attire was all-white, as a sort of ghostly version of his nemesis.
It wasn’t a horrible look. It just looked like Jushin Liger had left his usual red costume out in the sun, and it had lost all colour.
In addition, the suit was incredibly tight, which limited Jericho’s movement, and the mask was hard to see out of. It was Jericho’s first time wrestling in a mask and his debut as Super Liger did not go well.
Super Liger Wrestled One Match In New Japan Before The Gimmick Was Dropped
Chris Jericho’s performance as Super Liger was a number of firsts for the WCW star. It was his first time wrestling in the following:
- First time wrestling in a full-length bodysuit
- First time wrestling in a mask
- First time wrestling for New Japan Pro Wrestling
- First time wrestling in the Tokyo Dome
As such, Jericho’s nerves were high. He had to alter the mask the night before, cutting out the chin so he could actually breathe and he wore it to bed so he could get used to wearing it. He had to cover his face before and after the match too, and he went to the after-party for the show still in his Super Liger persona.
Super Liger’s debut was against Koji Kanemoto, who Jericho notes in his first book was not happy about putting over the newcomer. So, with an unhappy opponent, a costume that limited movement and a mask that gave him no periphery vision, it was the perfect combination for a terrible first match in New Japan Pro Wrestling.
And that is exactly what happened. I’ll let Chris Jericho’s own words in his book “A Lion’s Tale” explain just how poorly Super Liger’s first match went.
“With the crowd going mild for the match, I tried to get something going. I knocked Kanemoto out of the ring and got ready to do my trademark crowd-pleasing move of jumping straight to the top rope and drop-kicking my opponent off the apron. But when I went for my big leap, my legs felt like they were painted with concrete.”
“I didn’t even come close to getting my footing and slipped right off the ropes onto my ass inside the ring. The Dome crowds were notorious for being quiet and it was hard to hear any noise anyway as it dispersed in such an expansive building. But I sure as hell heard the sound of thousands of people laughing at me when I fell. Giggling crowds are the kiss of death in Japan; the Asian equivalent of ‘You fucked up!’”
Immediately after the match, a New Japan official took the costume from him for safekeeping. It was never returned, except for the mask which he wore to the after-party. Word of his dreadful performance spread far and wide and the company quickly decided to abandon the Super Liger character without explanation.
Luckily, they kept Chris Jericho and debuted him under his real name later that month, teaming with Kanemoto in a match against El Samurai and Jushin Liger. Jericho lost his sole singles match against Jushin Liger later but did enter the Best of the Super Juniors tournament that year, picking up wins over Tajiri, El Samurai, Scorpio Jr and Hanzo Nakajima.
That one match at the Tokyo Dome is the only time Super Liger ever saw the light of day, when 62,500 fans burst into laughter at the poor performance of Chris Jericho.
However, we could have seen him make a return in 2024 in an unlikely setting.
Jericho Could Have Brought Back The Character For A Match With Jushin Liger On The Jericho Cruise
It was reported by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Chris Jericho attempted to get Jushin Liger out of retirement earlier this year.
The Japanese legend and WWE Hall of Famer hung up his boots in 2020 at Wrestle Kingdom 14. He is one of the few wrestlers who have stuck to this promise and works both behind the scenes and on commentary for New Japan Pro Wrestling on a regular basis.
That didn’t stop Chris Jericho. He reportedly asked Jushin Liger to come out of retirement for one last match on the Jericho Cruise in 2025. The AEW star has been running Rock ‘N’ Wrestling Rager at Sea since 2018 and has featured numerous current stars and legends in various matches over the years.
Given both men’s age (they are both in their 50s), it is likely the match with Jushin Liger would be a tag match. Most of Jericho’s matches on the cruises have been tag team matches, and they have seen him taking on the gimmick of his partner.
This included Jericho dressing up as Orange Cassidy in 2021 to take on Team Taz, while he took on the gimmick of Jerichohausen when he partnered Danhausen in 2022.
Given this, it seems likely that 2025 would have seen Chris Jericho taking on the persona of Super Liger one last time, albeit with an altered costume that gave him more visibility and mobility. Whether he would have teamed with or against Jushin Liger is unknown and we can only speculate who else would have been in the match.
Sadly for the fans, Jushin Liger refused to come back. He reportedly said that he was “too old” to return to the ring and was happy with the way his career ended at the Tokyo Dome.
No Jushin Liger means there is no need for Super Liger and should mark the end of there being any chance for Chris Jericho to bring back the character at any point.
