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Posts Tagged ‘Chris Jericho’

WWE star Chris Jericho deserves more than the minor spotlight he’s receiving on Monday Night Raw so far. His cross-brand fued with MVP was hot, but Jericho is someone who deserves a bit more of a shot at a title that’s not of the USA/International variety.

As a veteran, Jericho exemplifies good mic skills combined with an electrifying personality and decent, if not exactly spectacular, matt skills. Sure, he’s no John Cena, but the best thing the company could do right now is rest Cena from the main event spotlight and rebuild his character in a way that might reduce the booing. Sort of like the effect of keepnig the blinds closed during the nasty winter months so that when you open them again in the spring, you appreciate the sunshine and the look of the outside a bit more than you did before.

Meanwhile, with Triple H the current champion, he needs some fresh faces to challenge him and Triple H-Jericho is a fued that hasn’t been overplayed much; in fact, the two have rarely been opponents. Here’s hoping someone with some sense finally gives Jericho an extended push instead of having him get slapped around as part of other wrestlers’ fueds in The Highlight Reel.

WWE’s Chris Jericho proved on last Monday’s RAW broadcast from England that he has the potential to pull off one of the quickest heel turns of all time. All he had to do was walk out on stage to Ric Flair’s entrance music and begin to cut a promo against Shawn Michaels.

Although Michaels is working a program against SmackDown’s Dave Batista at Backlash, the groundwork is already being laid for a Jericho-HBK feud that could help headline Raw-branded events throughout the summer. Both men are ring veterans who know how to work a match, work the ring psychology to get the crowd on its feet, and both cut excellent promos.

If this is going somewhere, I’m ready for it. And Jericho can just be glad that Michaels wasn’t wearing golf shoes when he performed that Super Kick to Jericho’s jaw.

Chris Jericho is one of my favorite “mic men” in the WWE. He can cut devastating promos, but is seldom well-utilized by the WWE. After a hiatus of a couple years, when it was announced that Chris would be returning to the WWE, I was hoping the absence would mean that he’d returned to become a more integral member of the Raw roster, but after an all-too-swift and minor program against WWE Champ Randy Orton, Jericho was quickly shuffled off to the second-tier of Raw superstars and, last week on Raw, was reduced to jobbing to the Big Show to advance a storyline he wasn’t even involved in, the Big Show-Mayweather clash at WrestleMania.

Seems like Y2J’s absence hasn’t resulted in better booking, despite the hype surrounding his return; at this point, Jericho would be far better off on SmackDown where he could almost immediately become a big enough draw to be the top challenger to Edge’s title, rather than continue to be lost in the shuffle on Raw, which has too many top names to accommodate them all. Sure, I didn’t expect WWE to dedicate a wall of engraved plaques to Jericho’s honor upon his return, but I was hoping he’d receive better treatment than he has thus far.

Despite a lot of story elements necessary to build hype for the last PPV event before Wrestlemania, namely No Way Out, if anyone had a checking account, this was not a week to bank on Raw ratings as the show offered up few matches that lasted longer than three minutes.

A lot of squashes and in-ring segments filled much of the broadcast, and while the Hornswaggle-McMahon ass-kissing/biting segment was entertaining in a juvenile way typical of the Fed, much of the night was wasted time that did nothing to promote the in-ring abilities of most of the performers.

A notable exception was the six-man tag match that served as the show’s denouement, involving Jeff Hardy, Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels against Snitsky, JBL and Umaga. That match went 16 minutes, highlighted everyone, and was genuinely entertaining.

The rest of the show? Well, let’s just say it left a lot of its game on the bench this week.

Chris Jericho’s return to the WWE was supposed to be huge, but after a very brief run against champ Randy Orton, he has now been inserted into a feud with JBL. Now, I enjoy JBL; both in his normal life outside of wrestling as a Fox Business/Fox News contributor, and his in-ring character over on SmackDown.

However, while it’s a huge move to use a feud with Jericho to bring JBL back as an active wrestler and onto the Raw roster, it’s definitely a step way down for Jericho, whose mission was supposed to be as the Raw savior, delivering us from the Randy Orton era. While the move is a necessary sidestep, perhaps, to avoid overplaying the Jericho-Orton feud too soon, what may be brewing here is the unexpected, and that’s the dramatic popularity of the Jeff Hardy-Randy Orton feud. Hardy, a former TNA champ as well as a multiple-time tag champ in WWE, had been a terrific performer in his feud with Orton and is earning a lot of respect and momentum in his drive toward his Royal Rumble title match.

Whether it’s in the ring or doing charitable work for victims of cerebral palsy, Hardy’s a sentimental favorite to get a surprise win and ride that wave into the WrestleMania main event for a rematch against Orton. That could leave Jericho hanging in mid-card limbo again, as has often been the case in his pro wrestling career.

WWE Monday Night Raw turned 15 years old this past week, and it doesn’t take Doink the Clown dressed in a pair of golf shoes to point out what a watershed moment that marks. The 15th anniversary show had plenty of guest appearances for nostalgia’s sake, including Marty Jennetty, Mick Foley, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and a 15-man battle royale involving a lot of lesser-name jobbers from the past decade and a half.

Of course, personally, I had a lot of favorite moments that I appreciated. It was fun seeing Chris Jericho confront Eric Bischoff so soon into Jericho’s return after a two year absence; Bischoff, in the storyline, fired Jericho when Y2J left WWE to pursue his music career. Having Jericho come back and get his revenge was a satisfying storyline moment for longtime fans.

I also enjoyed the Evolution reunion, especially the flashback when Evolution betrayed Orton. Back then, Orton was the babyface and Evolution were the heels; now those roles have changed and it was surprising how well the betrayal moments still worked.

The only two notable superstars missing on the night were Bret “the Hitman” Hart and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Too bad.

Well, sounds like you can put a tablecloth over the WWE as we know it. With so many wrestlers falling by the wayside, it’s inevitable that there will be a lot of new talents brought in.

Here’s a decent recipe for better success: stop hiring superhuman-sized body-builders and start focusing on things like talent, personality, charisma, and the ability to entertain in the wring.

Folks like Mick Foley weren’t fan favorites because he was the largest, most cut body builder around; he was was a fan favorite for his humor, his personality, his passion and his talent. The wrestling skills were passable in the ring, but it was his sense of entertainment that made a Mick Foley match a “wow” match.

One of the best moments in Raw history had nothing to do with big biceps and Hogan-style 26-inch pythons. It was Foley interacting with The Rock in the “This is your life” segment.

Or when Chris Jericho debuted on Raw by out-talking The Rock with his mic skills.

Let’s forget about who as the sharpest, most defined abs and get back to putting the entertainment in sports entertainment.