WWE Survivor Series 2016: Chris Jericho might be the greatest wrestler of our era

On Sunday night during Survivor Series, Chris Jericho is going to be a major part of RAW’s efforts to beat SmackDown and proclaim themselves the greater brand in the WWE. It doesn’t much matter, though, because RAW already has the man who is perhaps the greatest wrestler of our generation: the self-proclaimed Greatest Of All Time, the Ayatollah Of Rock’n’Rolla, Chris Jericho.

Jericho was the first WWE Undisputed Champion. He’s held the World Heavyweight Championship three times in WWE and twice in WCW. He’s been the Intercontinental Champion a record nine times, a Tag Team Champion with five different partners, and thanks to also having held the European and Hardcore Championships during his WWE tenure, he’s one of the few Grand Slam champions. He was the 2008 Superstar of the Year thanks in large part to a legendary feud with the great Shawn Michaels, and quite frankly, Jericho has deserved numerous other awards and championships along the way.

But this isn’t about awards or accolades. This is about Chris Jericho being a transcendent wrestler and performer, one who has proven capable of constantly evolving and adapting and thriving in any era, with any story, and with any partners involved. Hell, Jericho is charismatic and so good at what he does that right now he has a list and a clipboard more over with fans than half the RAW roster is. Not just a list; the list. And you and I just made it.

Jericho’s current run as one of the best heels in wrestling — not just in WWE but anywhere in the world — has been a wonderful reminder of just how good he can be, and not just when he has a microphone in his hand. His work in the ring still holds up, and while Jericho may not be the high-flying, fast working cruiserweight who dropped jaws in WCW any more, he knows how to use the skillsets of himself and his opponent plus a healthy dose of psychology to regularly put in the match of the night.

Have there been better wrestlers in the ring than Chris Jericho? Yes, absolutely. Even in terms of being a complete package in and out in the ring like Jericho is. Shawn Michaels, The Rock, Steve Austin, and Triple H all spring to mind, among others. There probably are better wrestlers now, even — AJ Styles and Seth Rollins could easily argue that they’re better, as could Jericho’s latest best friend, Kevin Owens. But few have ever had the longevity that Chris Jericho has had, the ability to so constantly perform at a high level, to so persistently raise the bar and, well, to break the walls down.

Pick an era in the last 20 years of wrestling, and Jericho has had a profound impact on it. The Monday Night Wars, the Attitude Era, the Invasion, the Ruthless Aggression Era, the lull in quality and interest from around 2009 to 2013, and the modern days of the WWE — Jericho has been present and immensely influential in each time frame, and whenever his countdown comes up on the Titantron for the first time after a long absence, fans always know they’re in for a treat.

That’s the key to Jericho’s success and status — no matter what he does, it just works. Whether it’s introducing AJ Styles to the WWE by forming an impromptu tag team with him for just long enough to have “Y2AJ” shirts made before turning on him and literally burning those shirts, or his legendary, all-time great feud with Michaels in 2008, or all the times he’s battled the likes of Rock, or Edge, or Triple H, Jericho knows how to elevate the rivalry into something that has to be watched.

No matter his alignment, Jericho has always known the right buttons to push, the right tones to hit in his promos and timing to work in his matches to create the biggest impact. His recent work over the past year has been a constant reminder of that, enjoying a white-hot feud with Styles before helping launch Dean Ambrose and Kevin Owens into trajectories that ended with Ambrose as the World Heavyweight Champion — before dropping it to Styles, interestingly — and Owens as the Universal Champion. No wrestler has been more influential on the industry in 2016, and looking back on everything Jericho has done, on every major moment in wrestling in the last 20 years that he’s been a part of, you could easily argue that none has been more influential all throughout his career.

Chris Jericho calls himself the greatest of all time at what he does, and while that’s a tough claim for anyone to back up, it’s hard to think of anyone better in the last 20 years. He’s one of the best there’s ever been in every facet of a wrestler’s game, and when he takes the ring for the last and biggest of the three Survivor Series elimination matches between RAW and SmackDown on Sunday, you won’t want to take your eyes off the ring for a moment, because you never know what you could miss when Chris Jericho gets going.