Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio, WWE Extreme Rules 2009: No Holds Barred for the Intercontinental Championship
Chris Jericho and Rey Mysterio have faced off countless times, but their match at WWE’s Extreme Rules 2009 really captivated the crowd. The rivalry was built around Jericho wanting to take away not only Rey’s Intercontinental Championship, but also his mask. Rey’s mask is his code of honor, and he requested the match be turned to a No Holds Barred match.
The Entrances
Chris Jericho’s music plays, but he shouts to cut the music. The video cuts to “Y2J” at the merchandise stand in the back. He cuts a promo at the merchandise stand, calling Rey liar for staying behind a mask. He keeps his monologue rolling as steps through the crowd, shouting the occasional “Don’t touch me!” at fans trying to get too close.
“Instead of being honest and truthful to all of his parasitic fans, he encourages all of you to spend your hard-earned money… to encourage his deception.” Chris keeps his monologue rolling as steps through the crowd, shouting the occasional “Don’t touch me!” at fans trying to get too close. He tells the fans his perspective of buying a mask and assaulting Rey just two weeks prior on the May 29th edition of Smackdown.
He gets in the ring while making one last promise to rip Rey’s mask off before he beats him tonight. It would make a record-breaking nine Intercontinental Championship reigns for Chris Jericho if he could pull it off.
Rey’s music hits. A strike of pyro hits, and Mysterio steps out. He proudly waves his title belt around before making the walk down the ring. In classic Rey Mysterio fashion, he pulls a hood he’s wearing over his mask off and hands it to a boy in the front row before entering the squared circle.
The Match
The bell rings, and the match starts with full steam. Rey tackles Jericho to hit a short ground-and-pound offense before kicking Jericho to the outside. He follows, kicks him in the face, and smacks his head into the top of the announce table. It’s enough force to knock the top off. Jericho claws away, desperate to regain some composure.
He doesn’t get a chance: Rey crashes he top section of the table into Jericho, using the broken-off piece like a weapon. He follows up with a low dropkick, and then he pushes the rising Jericho face-first into the barricade.
Chris turns it around for a moment. He steps towards the exposed announce table. When Rey tries attacking, Jericho hits his head off the top of the table, and then whips him into the barricade. He tries to whip Rey into the steps, but the Intercontinental Champion flips over them, turns around, and kicks the steps into Chris, who holds his knee in agony. Rey gets in a kick to the back of Jericho’s leg, then sends him into a different set of steel steps.
Rey whips Jericho into another barricade, and this time gets up on the apron and hits a jumping hurricanrana to the mats outside. Rey pushes Chris in the ring, then climbs the apron and hits a springboard leg drop bulldog to a rising Jericho.
The challenge snaps into control. He kicks a running Mysterio, then hoists him up in a suplex lift. By tossing Rey gut-first into the ropes, Jericho buys himself a quick moment to recover in the corner. The fans’ chants for Rey and against “The Man of 1,004 Holds” were getting to Chris, so he keeps the assault up. He slingshots Rey’s neck into the bottom rope, then yells at the crowd.
Mysterio kicks out of a pin, so Chris tosses him into the corner and chokes him with his boot. Chris whips him into the opposite corner, but Rey hops up on the middle ropes. He attempts dodging Jericho, but Chris catches him and throws him to the outside.
Rey lands on the apron. Jericho goes to strike, but Rey ducks through the middle ropes with a shoulder tackle. He jumps on the top ropes with a spin, but Jericho knocks him off balance. Myserio falls on the apron, and Chris gets a breather in, then tries for springboard triangle dropkick, but Rey catches him with a kick of his own!
Chris rolls to the outside, but quickly tries putting himself back on the apron. This opens up Rey to run in and hit a modified 619, forcing Jericho to drop to the outside. He lands on his feet, dazed, and turns around to face Rey diving from the top rope.
As soon as he’s capable, Rey brings Chris in the ring, hits springboard leg drop, and tries getting the pin. He can’t do it, so he goes to whip Jericho off the ropes. Chris reverses it and launches Mysterio towards the ropes. It backfires for Chris, as Rey hits a spinning rana whip, launching Jericho back into the 619 spot. Rey runs for the kick, but Jericho gets out of the ropes and crashes his shoulder into the charging Intercontinental Champ.
The two are down for a moment. Chris is the first to rise. He lifts Rey up over his head, but Rey drops down and kicks Chris in the back of the bad leg. He does it two more times, and punches Chris into the corner. He whips Chris into the corner. Chris counters again and sends Rey into it instead. He runs, but Rey shoves his boot in Jericho’s face. He hits a wheelbarrow pin, but Jericho flips the pin. Rey kicks out.
Chris kicks Rey in the gut, then hits a sunset flip pin. Mysterio rolls back enough to get on his feet and bounce off the ropes. He tries a dropkick, but Chris catches him. He tries hitting the Walls of Jericho, but Rey rolls him into a pin. Chris kicks out, only to get kicked in the face and pinned again. He gets out of the pin once more.
Jericho snaps back into action, catching Mysterio off guard with a clothesline. He hits a few slow, measured punches on the downed Rey after the masked wrestler kicked out of a pin. He pulls Rey up, then pushes him hard, shoving him out of the ring underneath the bottom rope!
After a bit of bullying on the outside, including a forward-falling suplex onto the broken announce table piece from earlier, Chris pins Rey in the ring. It doesn’t work, so he puts in a submission. Jericho’s attention shifts to the mask, and he starts to tear it away from Rey.
Jericho stands above Rey to gain leverage. It creates enough of a gap for Mysterio to kick Chris in the face. Rey readjusts his mask while he crawls towards the corner.
Chris runs as fast as he can, but Rey dodges him. Jericho crashes into the metal turnbuckle post and ends up outside. Before he can recover, Mysterio dives out over the middle rope after him. The two pull themselves up, then Rey rolls Chris in the ring and hits a springboard senton. Rey bounces off the ropes with a headscissors, then a hurricanrana whip. He pins.
Kickout at 2 from Jericho. Chris tries countering an Irish Whip, but finds himself tripped into the ropes. Rey attempts a 619, but Chris picks him up, spins him around, and lands a vicious Argentine backbreaker.
Chris pulls Rey to his feet by his mask. The Champ tries gaining some momentum, but Chris counters a hurricanrana attempt with a powerbomb. Jericho goes for the Lionsault, but Rey rolls out of the way. Jericho rolls to sit against the ropes, and Mysterio runs to hit a modified 619.
Rey leaps off the ropes to finish his opponent with a splash, but Chris jumps up and catches Rey. Mysterio falls into the knees of Jericho, landing in his Codebreaker double-knee facebuster.
Chris Jericho pins. One. Two. Kickout.
Jericho doesn’t know what else to do, so he resorts to grabbing a chair from outside. Just when he goes to swing, Rey hops up with a dropkick, pushing the chair into the face of Jericho.
Rey grabs the chair, and hits a seated senton on Jericho, putting the chair beneath his legs before dropping on Chris. Jericho kicks out, so Rey sets the chair up and positions it in the corner. Jericho runs at him, only to get tripped and land face-first on the chair. He stumbles away, and Rey flips the chair around and pushes it. He runs and launches himself off of the chair, flying through the air for a hurricanrana.Chris Jericho catches his small foe and puts him in the Walls of Jericho.
Rey has to reach out at the chair near him. It’s still set up, so he has to force it closed. He does it, then cracks the chair across Jericho’s forehead. Chris releases the submission, and he falls right into the second rope. One more 619 attempt. When Mysterio goes for the kick, he makes a quick grab. Rey stands in the ring, unmasked, and Chris rolls him one.
One. Two. Three.
Chris Jericho won the battle, but the two’s war would continue to wage on, ending with an official Title vs. Mask match at WWE’s The Bash just two months later. This match still serves as a memorable one to revisit in their feud, whether it’s for the great promo Jericho delivers at the start or the high-paced action all throughout.
