Chris Jericho Talks Paco Alonso’s Impact On His Career

Paco Alonso passed away earlier this week at the age of 67. As the President of CMLL, Alonso gave Chris Jericho his first big break in the wrestling business as Corazon de Leon. Jericho posted an emotional tribute to Alonso recently on Instagram and then dedicated his most recent episode of Talk is Jericho to his former employer.

Jericho worked for Paco Alonso for 2 years from 1993 to 1995 in CMLL.

“I’ll say this about Paco,” Jericho said. “He’s one of my 3 favorite bosses I’ve ever had in my career. One is Paco, two is Genichiro Tenryu from WAR and three is Vince McMahon.”

On the episode, Jericho recounts his history with Alonso, including the first time they met in his office at Arena Mexico. Jericho also noted how it was Alonso who gave him the name Corazon de Leon. Also during the episode, Jericho noted that he asked Alonso if he wanted him to wear a mask but Alonso said it would be better for the female fans if they don’t cover his face.

“He was my employer for 2 years and he never screwed me on a payoff, he never screwed me on a booking, he never screwed me on an angle.”

When working for Alonso in CMLL, Jericho was involved in an incident at an airport along with the legendary Haku. Jericho said he was rushing to make a plane and the security agent began giving him a hard time.

“I started getting mad. I was like ‘I gotta go, I gotta go,” Jericho said. “The (airport security agent) started to get a little cheeky with me so I got in his face.”

Jericho then said another guard grabbed at him so he shoved them and they fell over. This led to a bit of a commotion.

“Everybody’s kind of surrounding me and yelling and screaming and I hear this from behind me ‘Hey, what’s the problem? Hey, you leave my friend alone’ and it was King Haku,” Jericho continued.

Haku then ended up throwing around some security guards and both Jericho and Haku had to go to “airport jail.” It was then insinuated to Jericho and Haku that they should provide a bribe to the security agents and the two pooled together about $300 to give to the agents and were then freed.

Jericho then said this of Alonso’s reaction to the story:

“When I got back to the office a couple of days later Paco goes ‘ah, if it isn’t the King of the Airport! How was the airport? Good security in the Mexico City airport?”

Jericho said that Paco would just let him know that he knew what happened at the airport but never fully confronted him about it.

Ultimately, Jericho decided to leave Mexico in 1995 when a change in the exchange rate reduced his wages.