AEW’s own Chris Jericho talks about his big weight loss and the medical condition which forced him to lose weight.
Jericho is 51 years old so it is expected he wouldn’t be in the best shape of his life. To make it even more difficult is the lifestyle of pro wrestlers which means a lot of time on the road and not always the best food choices.
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However, at the start of the year, Jericho came back to AEW and has the body of someone 10 years younger. Jericho talked about a diagnosis of pulmonary embolism or a blood clot or a series of clots in the lungs that led to his weight loss on his podcast, Talk is Jericho.
“I was really having problems walking,” Jericho said. “I was supposed to go do kind of a sideline reporting thing at one of the football games, one of the soccer games here in town … I basically had to cancel … About an hour later, I get a call … ‘You have blood clots, we can tell by the blood that we drew. You have to go directly to the hospital.’”
I was just thinking, ‘Give me some pills and I’m on my way.’ “They tell me very soon after, ‘Yes, you’ve had a pulmonary embolism’. What does that mean? It means that your lungs are filled with blood clots and you are now staying in the hospital … They went and did an ultrasound and found that there was evidence of a clot that had been in my throat. Now, if a clot gets in your throat, that’s getting into stroke territory.” H/T To Wrestling Inc. For Transcription
We Could Have Lost The G.O.A.T.
This medical scare led to Jericho being missing from AEW for a long time. He didn’t wrestle from Nov. 13 all the way to Jan. 26 when he came back with abs and much lighter weight which was the most noticeable by April.
It isn’t unusual to see a wrestler’s weight go up while wrestling a lot and being on the road and then drop after they have had time off. However, Jericho gained more weight than a normal wrestler would, especially since he had always kept his weight under control throughout his long career.
Jericho talked about how working in NJPW led to the decision to gain weight and wanting to look as big as possible while working there.
“I went in there and I was 241 lbs.,” Jericho said. “Looking back, was I too big? Absolutely. Overweight? I guess. Ever out of shape cardio-wise? No. I never was blowing up or anything like that, but I gained some weight after I worked with Kenny Omega at the Tokyo Dome. I was going through a Bruiser Brody phase and I thought, ‘Well, I’m not tall like Brody, but I can be bigger than all these Japanese guys.’ Just because the way things are now, I’m one of the taller guys. Everyone’s a little bit smaller and Japanese appreciate the bulkier physiques, so let me get a little bit bigger and beat the crap out of everybody,’ which is what I did. I worked out to the point where I had three Tokyo Dome main events. I just never lost the weight. Then the pandemic comes and you just don’t even realize it.”
Jericho Got A Little Chunky For His Fans In Japan
Jericho’s Painmaker phase in Japan was big and brutal. He definitely accomplished his goal of being bigger and beating the crap out of other wrestlers. The added size didn’t hurt his wrestling ability as he had some of the best matches of his career after gaining weight. He also wrestled and was able to keep up with some of the top wrestlers in the world like Tetsuya Naito, Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, MJF and Jon Moxley.
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After Jericho was told he had a pulmonary embolism and was treating the medical condition which included taking blood thinners he was told to lose visceral fat. Visceral fat is the fat surrounding his organs that is lost by losing weight.
While having dinner with his wife, Jericho met someone who was opening a medical weight loss clinic. He decided to visit him and see what the clinic had to offer.
“So I went to the medical weight loss clinic and followed the diet. The place is called Options. I wanted to lose 10 lbs.; I lost 11 lbs. in the first week and I thought, ‘Well, let me stick with it and see how it goes.’ I currently weigh 209 lbs., so I lost 32 lbs. since January and that was by about April that I was down to that. That’s when the big weight loss happened when everyone was like, ‘Oh my god, Jericho’s in great shape.’ I never posted pictures and said, ‘I lost 10 lbs.’ I just didn’t do anything. I just was suddenly, ‘Wala, here it is!’ And once again, I wasn’t able to wrestle because I was on the blood thinners.”
Jericho just keeps surviving and adding more years to his career. A lot of wrestlers would just push through not being able to walk like he said he had difficulty doing. They also would not have seen a doctor and he could have had a stroke or a heart attack and we could have lost a living legend. He is able to transform himself every few years and losing 32 pounds is just another example of that.
Were you shocked by Chris Jericho’s weight loss? How much longer do you think he has until he decides to retire? Would you like to see him hold the AEW World Championship again? Would you rather see him take it off CM Punk when he returns or the Interim Champion Moxley? Leave a comment as to why Jericho should be on the pro wrestling Mount Rushmore or why not below.
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Sources: Wrestling Inc., Talk is Jericho, Wrestling Inc.
