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Archive for January, 2012

Break the walls down … and blow out the Logitech speakers … but in his second appearance back in a WWE ring, Jericho still hasn’t uttered a word.

And I suspect this is going to be brilliant on his part.

Last week, Jericho seemed to channel the over-jubilant superstar. His “lean back into a group of fans” shot in week one was an almost perfect re-framing of C.M. Punk’s first title win, where he literally walked out of the PPV with the WWE title, despite not being under contract (in storyline).

This week, Jericho targeted the “emotional return” take that happens when folks long thought retired – folks like Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and more – usually channel when they come back. He became weepy and too overcome to utter a single word.

On the surface, the segment might appear identical to most folks; but the subtle differences are what made the segment sweet.

Going into last night, I figured Jericho would make last week’s gimmick a one-week aberration and finally get down to business, or I figured he’d go the other way… extend it and turn it into a multi-week gig that will pay off when someone in back, the person he’ll probably feud with at WrestleMania, perhaps, like CM Punk, finally gets fed up and comes out to get him to stop.

Jericho’s return is almost a send-up of his own original WWE debut, when he made the words, “Would you please shut the hell up?” WWE gold. This time around, he’s shut himself up, and I hope it goes on a few more weeks before the payoff.

In fact, a way to make this gimmick legendary would be to have Jericho continue to appear, not speak, not wrestle, and leave, all the way through the Royal Rumble PPV. Having him disrupt and change the result of a main event match at Royal Rumble would be the perfect way to cap the gimmick, and the perfect motivation to have someone finally interrupt him and confront him at the Raw following the Royal Rumble.

And also the perfect way to make sure he turns the crowd against him so Jericho can establish his heel cred clearly, which is how his character has always worked best.

Brodus Clay’s redebut in WWE on last night’s RAW was … how can I put this delicately? A complete and utter failure.

Clay is a large and imposing wrestler who could legitimately stand toe-to-toe with Big Show and Mark Henry, once he is established. But the Planet Funk gimmick he was given seemed like a really bad ripoff of The Godfather’s old gimmick, only it feels even more dated now.

Booking Clay as a comedy act is not an uncommon way for WWE to debut a superstar. And we all know that the right talent can overcome bad gimmicks. Steve Austin overcame The Ringmaster. John Cena took what could have been a goofy Rap Star gimmick and used it to get over as a monster heel… back in the good ol’ days.

I’m not going to suggest Brodus Clay can’t turn this into something and spin this into gold. But to do that, he needs to break out of it into … something else … sooner than later.

Preferably, next week.